Just got off the phone with CB (formerly of British Sports & Spares) and he does indeed still have my engine and OD transmission. Yay! I'm coordinating with a friend in Seattle to pick them up next week sometime. He's also my engine rebuilder so I can get him started on that, if I can convince him to work on something as asthmatic as a B-series engine (he mostly builds engines for rally and motorsport).

Now to find an early roller tub, probably better and more likely than finding my original bodyshell at this point, and we're really in business.

Even with a different body shell, so many of the parts would be the same that I would still consider it the same car. I guess this is a philosophical point that all major restorations deal with - if you replace all the timbers in a tall ship is it the same ship? Not to mention, all the trim that would be replaced anyway.

Well it would have the same VIN tag at least!