Out of hibernation after 27 years

My new restoration project arrived in Wellington today and its a 1962 MkI Elf. I found it in Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand and it has faired very well for a 50+ year old Riley. There is only very light surface rust on the outer panels due to the paint having worn away over time (its red with a grey roof). Its in very original condition and seems to have all the unique MkI features still such as the leather and cloth upholstery, alloy wheel arch trims, boot stay, chrome window catches etc. The previous owner had a problem with the gearbox and put it in the garage where it has been for the past 27 years. I stripped out the old carpets and the floors are almost like new! Looking forward to getting it back on the road for the Summer (that is Jan / Feb time here in NZ!).

I'm trying to find out about the early cars and whether they were exported as complete cars or as CKD.

Will try and post some pics when I find out how.. I think I need some help here!

Julian.

Sounds like a really nice and unique original car that you have there. There's a section on here about posting pictures. Keen to see what she looks like.

You are so lucky to have found such an early Mk.I Elf.
One possible way of verifying if it was imported into N.Z.fully assembled would be the presence of a "Fisholow" construction plate located on
the offside inner mudguard (within the engine bay - it should be not far behind the n.s.headlight & about 2 feet lower down ) This plate fitted at the Fisher bodyworks outside Birmingham - where conventional Mk.I mini bodyshells were modified front & rear into Elfs (& Hornets) would carry the prefix 'R' (for Riley) followed by, in your case, a 3-digit number.Hornets carried a 'W' prefix.
David2010

Thanks for the replies..

Definitely got the Fisholow plate and the number is R237. The Riley plate starts R-A2S1 and the wiper motor has the date 2 62 so presuming it was assembled sometime after February 1962.

It is looking like some of my other (Mini) projects will have to wait as this car urgently needs to get repainted as the original paint is so thin Im worried it is going to start rusting now that it has been exposed to the world again! Having stripped out the old carpets and removed some of the original sound deadening the interior and boot floors are almost as perfect as the day this car left the factory - quite incredible..