Its all very confusing isn't it! After we last spoke about louvres in the engine cover I started to think and I have a vague recollection that there is a patch welded into one side of the cover, the shape is much like the shape of the vents in the lower body. I cant check or photograph it for you to see as the car is still out on loan. So, I guess that once it did have louvres or a vent plate.
There are various other plates screwed to the body, for example, over the gyrostarter slot where the lever once came through the rear firewall. This is now floor mounted like the later cars. You are right, the car wasn't complete when I got it and it has clearly undergone Inter related modifications along the way.
One thing I am totally sure about though is the number 15 stamped on the body and engine cover, just 15, no other digits, when restoring it I had the body sand blasted down to bare metal so there is no chance of me missing any other numbers.
Regarding your observations about the engine differences fitted to the cars, I did notice that many years ago. That some later ones have the earlier bitube engine and visa versa. Maybe the factory purchased some old stock from Ydrals??
Its good that you are trying to make sense of it all but I think that in some areas such as engine allocation, there is no sense to be made.
I would be interested to know exactly when the folding axle lever device was discontinued because my car did have that. Also when they moved the gyrostarter lever position from rear firewall to the floor although I think that came along later. Do you have any info on that? Cheers, Bob
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