Riley Elf  998 Mk II. 1964

The story of the total rebuild to...

nautica Elf 998 Mk II. 1969

For about £15, I bought from the insurance company, my brother's crashed, and rolled, 1964 Riley Elf Mk II - The posh 'Mini' with the real leather arm chairs, walnut interior and a boot (trunk). There were two similar cars badge engineered by BMC - now Rover/BMW. The other was the very similar Wolseley Hornet.

This rebuild may not suit the purists.But then the Mini never has been, a purists car. Even the  first Mini ever produced had to be unconverted, by removing its sunroof,  to go to the museum.It started out  looking like this. My brother Derek, crashed and rolled his Elf whilst demolishing a long section of dry stonewall in Cumbria.

But I had to tow my trailer from Kent to Ulverston (in the Lake District) to collect it, then from Kent again to Lancashire to get a new shell. Towing an empty shell on a trailer, is like doing 330 miles with somebody in the back seat banging a big bass drum, all the time.

I contacted Vitafoam Developments, in Lancashire, (who Paddy Hopkirk and Alec Poole drove for) who agreed to sell me a new MINI bodyshell.

When I went to collect it, he had 6 brand new shells stacked with their fronts halfway up a wall, for £110 each. But, he said, if I wanted, he would sell me an Elf shell for half the price, as he had had to take it as part of a job lot.

I hadn't said it was an Elf that I was rebuilding, as I never expected to get an Elf body. So I duly paid £55, loaded it on my trailer, and went happily on my way.

Working with a new empty shell meant I was able to get the paintwork  really good. 

Starting from scratch means you can get the interior, engine bay, boot,  wheel arches etc to a very high standard.

First I stripped it back to bare metal. Then I did a couple of modifications to it, like fireproofing the boot and engine bay, among many things. I painted it, using all the proper undercoats, and using ICI Auto-colour Cellulose, in pure white with Autumn Gold panels. Pure White looks good on a car because it is surprisingly unusual. All white cars have other colours mixed with them. There are even differences normally between same make/same colour. But Pure White is very special.

There were many coats of paint applied. From primers, undercoats, and  topcoats to clear, gloss finish, some applied a number of times. All told, about 25 coats, every one flatted down by hand, going up in grits to 2,000 papers, and T-Cut. The car was finished off with a number of coats of high quality wax polish. Buffed to a deep shine. (Continued...