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This car was sourced from the states and came over earlier this year having had no welding or replacement panels! Its build date was Oct 66 and it was despatched on the 6th Dec to Seattle in it's original colour of OEW with black roof, here it stayed having three owners over the next 47 years and spending much of its time in the hot climates of California around the Long Beach area. It finally found it's way back to the UK and I remember going down to Southampton with Brian Harding to pick it up feeling somewhat apprehensive as I had only seen photos of the car but after a quick look over by myself and Brian I could breathe a sigh of relief, all was good!
After pumping up two of the tyres and putting some fuel in, the car started and then drove back 40 miles along the south coast without any problems. Once back Brian wasted no time and had the car stripped within 3 days and it was then off for a bare metal re-spray down at Kent Classic Cars (CCK), all the running gear was in excellent order and the original sub frames have been sent off for powder coating along with other bit and pieces.The body shell has come back in its monotone Island Blue but will need to go back when its up and running to have a few areas re-addressed. Brian has put both sub frames back in today with all new nuts and bolts and you will probably notice the car is now running on dry suspension.

Nice one!

Built the same month as my Cooper S - I'm assuming a shipment of them came over at the same time, so the VIN is probably very close to mine.

Looking forward to seeing this one come together again, so far great work.

Lovely, and some nice other cars in there too...do I see an Amazon, an Elite(?) and a CSL?

So how much do CCK charge for a paint job then, or is that an awkward question?

Always fancied an Italian Job replica, how close are you gonna make it?

I'm going too make the exterior look as accurate as possible to the original film versions but have decided to retain a complete interior and also have recliners, thanks for your interest.

Well today I collected my finished car from Brian, what can I say, the pictures say it all!.....Brian's put his heart and soul into this project and it shows in all the small detail right down to hiding the wiring for the spot lights in the actual lamp bar, the sump guard is held on with captive nuts to allow for easy fitting, the cibie lamp grills have custom fixings for the headlamp surrounds.....all in all a fabulous job which I'm very pleased with!
The engine is the original block and crank but I've replaced the 333 box (which I've kept aside) for the later 4 synchro , the cylinder head is an MED fast road with an RS cam plus high lift rockers and stub stack air filters, all I've got to do now is run it in for the next 800 miles, hope to do this next week before Beaulieu, the car should be on the MK1 forum stand so please come and have a look, as I said previously the car has got to go back to Kent Classics (CCK) as there are a few issues with the paint but other than that I'm really pleased with what Brian has achieved.

Great, you can't beat an Italian Job replica.

One last photo of the engine bay!

Looks great Pete, shame I couldn't get to see it.

Lovely!

Thats going to look awesome on the stand at Beaulieu!

Cant wait to see it.

Tim

Fantastic, that looks great!

Good call on the later gearbox, I'll be shelving my 3-syncro transmission as well, the 4-sync makes a much better driver IMO.

Thanks Pete for the comments of my work it has been a pleasure to deal with you cheers Brian.