No "totally back to original" restoration for this baby!

Because we will be doing over 4,000 miles "on the Job" in 2009 this was not going to be a true "back to original" restoration. My thoughts went to wanting a very useable car, in fact my wife Mary is planning on using it as a run around, with three of our five dogs being with her on most occasions in the back with a suitable dog guard and protection for the interior. With all this in mind it was decided to give the car a decent size engine so we could cruise on the autobahns and motorways at a respectable speed without stressing me or the engine. A 1380cc engine was the favoured choice, complete with a cross pin diff and final drive crown wheel at 2.9:1 (which I'm told should give us the motorway cruiser) in the fully rebuilt gearbox.

I wanted the car to be useable also from the point of view of comfort too, decent seats were a must, Cobra recliners were the choice. A later Mini type steering column, including steering lock and stalk switches on the column for dipping, wipers, indicators, horn and windscreen washers we thought would be a useful addition. A remote type gear linkage, to make gear change easier to reach. Owing to the time of year the Italian Job is held, usually late October early November windscreen washers are essential, so a large reservoir mounted in the rear seat storage bin was added too. Added to this were two speed wipers, again an addition from a later Mini.