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I thought I'd let you see my latest project which is nearing completion.



It's the pre-production Elf that was developed by tom Morris at BMC



These are the pictures taken at The Miniworks in Edinburgh back in September 2011





I first saw it at Mini45 in 2004 and did a deal with the seller. After a bit of research and with the help of Simon Drew (and many others), we started the restoration early in 2011 with plans to make it to the Goodwood Revival 2011. We didn't quite make it but the car was running and roadworthy by then. I'm hoping to take it to Brooklands in March.

Really nice car

Love the "Aston" type air intake, on the bonnet

Is that a copy, of a Radford paint job ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZiTe-a_VYc&mid=56 )

lovely car, bet you cant wait to get it on the road

JC T ONE wrote:I see its also partly desamed

The first Elfs and Hornets didn't have the front wing seam. The seams first appeared in April 1962.





Nice looking car by the way.

Lovely!!

surfblue63 wrote:

JC T ONE wrote:I see its also partly desamed

The first Elfs and Hornets didn't have the front wing seam. The seams first appeared in April 1962.

Ahh - didnt know that thanks for the "headsup"

Love it!

I remember being offered that some years ago - it must be the same car. It belonged to someone who'd worked at the Cowley plant and was pretty rusty and tired under the gold paint back then.

You've done a great job on a unique car

Simply awesome job. I remember seeing this for sale at MITP 45. I have a couple photos of it then that I can get posted up here if you would like.

Quite a change from what it was like back then.

nice car, I like it...

Hi Kevin, coming on nicely.
Let's see some 'before' pics, I may have a few from Silverstone when Dave was selling it.

Pete

I found some "before" pics as I was at MITP 45 too:






Glad to see it in such a good state today. Great job!

Stefan wrote:

its funny, ive been speaking to kevin and told him i remembered seeing it at a mini show for sale.

this photo is like a memory snap from my brain - its exactly like i remember is, you must have been stood in the exact spot i was when i took a photo of it.

a great little car and a fantastic restoration, its the star feature in this months scottish riley register magazine as well!

Guru, I think we met at the camping site in Banbury those days. When I remeber it right you arrived with Mark and we were camping next to you.
The next day Mark kindly let my Wolseley park at the MK 1 performance stand as one of only very few non Coopers or special cars there.

Fantastic looking car, but why the mk3 dash and courtesy light switches?

Nice car . Supercharged too...

The first Elfs and Hornets didn't have the front wing seam. The seams first appeared in April 1962

The change was much earlier than that, I know of Jan and Feb 62 cars with seams and a late 61. It's believed that only the first 20 or so cars where de-seamed, these were pre launch cars. Only 2 possibly 3 are known to survive.

Kev, Looking brilliant, can't wait to see MWL in the flesh, such an historically important car! Simon does such a good job! Wish he was closer to me.

Bill

Stefan wrote:Guru, I think we met at the camping site in Banbury those days. When I remeber it right you arrived with Mark and we were camping next to you.
The next day Mark kindly let my Wolseley park at the MK 1 performance stand as one of only very few non Coopers or special cars there.

stefan

thats a few years ago, we came down with south african sean and his mate wayne, and my american mate phil - it poured it down with rain all night and i ended up sleeping in the back of my car!

i think thats the last mini show my surf blue 1071 engined car went to, its only been on the road once (about 3 1/2) years ago since - its been under a cover since

Great restoration. I have some 'before' pictures from that same day in 2004 too...

Interesting that the deseamed seam is still visible as paint blisters in the first picture of Ant's post. How was the deseaming done? I read years ago that the factory experimented with seams folded inwards rather than externally and that was done on the early elfs and hornets, but it sounds unlikely.

Tim