Hi Neil,
Like you, I was wondering whether or not to paint my 850 in the original colour (Saxon Green) or go for something else. It's a matching numbers car and I decided early on in the resto that I wanted something that was close to original but not a show car. For example, with the seats I went with cloth instead of vinyl. I've kept the original wheels and hubcaps but I can't get a real good grill for it so I'm going to fit an Austin Cooper one that I think matches the original one as close as possible. I'm putting black carpet in it instead of grey vinyl. I'm fitting a heater as well.
I've had the original motor and gearbox rebuilt but I'm running a spin on oil filter, plastic fan, a bigger carby and extractors. Alternator instead of gennie.
Hopefully Minnie is a bit more user friendly day to day with the changes from original.
So when it came down to colour, just about everyone I spoke to said the same thing - "paint it the colour you want it. Only one person has to like it - you". As I was not all that fond of saxon green (it looks a bit too greyish in my opinion), I made up a brighter, cleaner shade of green that still looks like a 1960's colour. Then I decided to paint the roof white - BMC Snowberry white which looks terrific with the green.
I don't plan on selling Minnie so I'm not all that concerned about the potential sale price. The kids can worry about that when I'm gone.
I've spent a lot of time over the last 2 years restoring her and I want the finished job to be something that when I walk in the shed to fire her up, I get a smile on my face.
If I was doing a true to period resto, then I would have most likely gone with saxon green and kept everything else stock standard.
On another note, I bare metalled my shell (inside and out) using paint strippers and those steel scourer things. I started sanding but found the strippers easier, especially in the engine bay and boot. I did get the subframes and rims sand blasted as these were too fiddly to do by hand and get into all the corners etc. Once the body was in bare metal, it didn't need any blasting - just a good rub with 120 grit (I think from memory may have been some 80 and 240 as well) then 2 pack etch.
Cheers, Rocky