Bristol 401 coming up for auction

[Geoff Kingston]

It is sad that this happens all too often and looking at the photographs on the auctioneers website I suspect the rear bumper has been damaged in the process of moving the car so its likely the chassis extensions under the boot to which the bumper is mounted may have given way. On one of my 401's they required localised repairs, but on the other one acquired mid way through that project it looked as though they had either been replaced or if not substantially rebuilt. The good thing is the car looks substantially complete and being one of the early body styles which you do not see very often now it may encourage someone to restore it rather than buy it for spares.

[Des]

If I remember correctly, the bumpers were rubber mounted, so that rear may well have been torn off during retrieval rather than dropped off due to rot. Here's a pic of the underside back when petrol was sub £/litre, wonder how it looks now. It's a rare car being a ridgebottom, if it's too far gone to put right economically, maybe it could be rebuilt as a convertible, its reg is only a digit away from one of the originals.

[William401]

I was in the area and called at the auction house for a quick look at the 401.
The body is in pretty good condition however the chassis has succumbed to being outside for many years. The rear of the main chassis is badly rusted and holed at the rear corners. Most of the outriggers are holed. Much of the interior seems to be missing and there is a small plate on the engine block in the usual place where it cracks. I've attached photos of the right hand rear corner of the main chassis and the left hand corner looking forward as well as a view of what I could see of the rear left hand end of the chassis where the bumper would mount. Unfortunately I was in clean clothes for a meeting and sans boiler suit so didn't crawl about much. I still got grubby tho.