Steve Holmes wrote:So the entire front end on the Morrari was actually off another car? So the bodywork is effectively from two different cars?
Not entirely - just the wings and grille and they could have been 'new old stock'. Remember that the 'highlight' wings were the result of a balls up at Morris where they overlooked/forgot the upcoming Californian lighting regs - this was a quick, cheap fix for export cars only so involved no important/structural panel changes. UK cars, on the same structure, stayed 'low lamp' for another year after export models were changed.
The differences are simply 3 panels - the wings (which swap over perfectly; fitting onto the same inner wing and abutting the same chrome 'hockey stick' trim around the grille) and the grille panel itself (that fits within the chrome trim). The new grille had the same number of slats but the headlamps were replaced by sidelights. The 'highlight' headlamps were actually a larger diameter too. You can switch a 'highlight' to a 'low light' (or vice-versa) quite easily - as long as its the right year. The Minor underwent a heavy facelift in 1956 when it became the Minor 1000 and actually got different wings (not so you'd notice it) and a new grille, which aren't interchangeable as on the older cars.
Was the underbonnet structure of the Morrari completely new anyway? By the looks of it, it probably lost the original chassis legs, bulkhead, inner wings etc anyway, so they could fit whatever nose onto it they wanted.
Mind you, tracking down the correct 1950/1 body shell would probably be harder than getting an original low light!
