while i was putting the fuel tank back into my car i noticed something that i thought was a little odd.

my car has the holes for rear seat belts. and at some stage they have actually been in the car. you can tell because of the circular section of paint missing around the two holes in the back of the seat.

my thoughts were that the 850 never had these holes as it didn't have rear seat belts?

my other thought is why would some one remove them unless they are trying to create a replica?

thought I'd do a bit more investigation and discovered thats under the "morris 850" badge at the back of the car theres another set of 4 holes for a different badge?

is this usual on an 850 or if my car is a replica, what was it?

_________________
1962 850,Frog

someone of greater knowledge will be able toanswer that, but for now, have a look at the numbers, and post em up, that will give us the exact model etc.

could also be that it is an 850 thats had rear seat belts fitted to it for one reason or another, maybe a PO liked rear passengers to have greater safety.

_________________
'73 clubby s "cryo" - sold
Operation Evil Sesame Street!

Neither of those modifications are good indicators of anything in particular. Minis didn't come with rear seat belts fitted standard till the 70's althought any number of minis were fitted with rear belts throughout their lives. It's a very easy modification to do so given a drill or a chassis punch. Also with a rear end bingle, a bootlid is often changed.

If it's not an 850, what would you suppose it is for a 62 body? If it has the sliding window door catches, the wide english licence plate bootlid and a magic wand gearstick hole from 1962 then it would be an 850 of some sort.

The other model which came out later on (997 then 998 Cooper) would have a remote hole in the usual place in front of the floor cross member.
For a 62, a front apron which has not got the cutouts in front of the wheels would also date the body as an early type.

_________________
SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.