49 replies to this topic

[willydc26]

from what ive read, in regards to IVA's, as long as you retain 2 original parts and can produce a receipt for a new shell (whether its genuine heritage, fiberglass, or carbon fiber) the car retains its year and plate.

[matt615]

The corrosion can't be that excessive if it passed an MOT 8 months ago. Get a second opinion and see if it's repairable before thinking about a new shell.

[WiredbyWilson]

Sounds like the garage just doesn't fancy doing the welding. I know of places that price themselves out of the work if they don't want it.

As above i'm sure it can be weleded back up with new panels - a new body shell seems a bit extreme in this case IMHO.

[littlemo72]

Thanks that's helpful. Gulped loudly at price of bodyshell!! Oh well, no way I can afford a new bodyshell so maybe I should get that second opinion just in case it is resolvable. I'lll try and get a couple of quotes for welding and try and keep it on the road if possible because as said running wise she flies!

In terms of selling it, I did try to sell it last year but had a lot of timewasters and realised how much I would miss it so I didn't renew the ad. Am not sure how much it would fetch now?! But then if someone is prepared to do the work then I would probably find her hard to give up again knowing me!

[guliver77]

Hello everybody,
I've just registered on here - so I'm sorry if I'm writing this in the wrong place!
We are in the same situation as the person who started this post. We have a 1989 British Racing Green and we love her to bits. She runs fine but is very, very rusty. We've been watching her slowly get worse and worse over the last few years with not a clue how to do anything about it ourselves, plus being too scared to do anything in case we ruin her and we don't have a garage. She passed her MOT fine in October, the guy just said she had 'corrosion that will need looking at'. We took her to a Mini place in Nottinghamshire and they said she's nackered and it'd be too expensive to fix her up so our best bet would be to buy another Mini that has a good shell but no engine, something like that, then they could butcher that one to fix ours.
So, I was just wondering if anyone could give us some more advice on this. Where/what to look for in a Mini that we could use (although I'd rather not have to kill one Mini to fix another... it seems too sad!) or what else might be a good course of action. Also, how much might it cost for this garage to put on the shell from a second mini and then respray it for us?
Thank you very much in advance!

[Mini Mad Drakeley]

it cant be that bad if it passed an mot not long ago but some pictures would be helpful so we can see if its savable or not

Adam

[bmcecosse]

As pointed out earlier - you are NOT permitted to use a second-hand shell to rebuild your car. Either fix the one you have, or fit a brand new shell.

[ShoutforJoy]

Hello everybody,
I've just registered on here - so I'm sorry if I'm writing this in the wrong place!
We are in the same situation as the person who started this post. We have a 1989 British Racing Green and we love her to bits. She runs fine but is very, very rusty. We've been watching her slowly get worse and worse over the last few years with not a clue how to do anything about it ourselves, plus being too scared to do anything in case we ruin her and we don't have a garage. She passed her MOT fine in October, the guy just said she had 'corrosion that will need looking at'. We took her to a Mini place in Nottinghamshire and they said she's nackered and it'd be too expensive to fix her up so our best bet would be to buy another Mini that has a good shell but no engine, something like that, then they could butcher that one to fix ours.
So, I was just wondering if anyone could give us some more advice on this. Where/what to look for in a Mini that we could use (although I'd rather not have to kill one Mini to fix another... it seems too sad!) or what else might be a good course of action. Also, how much might it cost for this garage to put on the shell from a second mini and then respray it for us?
Thank you very much in advance!

First off I would recommend that you get a second opinion. A few moons ago I took a car to a Mini specialist in Notts (perhaps the same one) and was told it was "beyond economic repair". I sold the car on for spares or repair and it is now restored and back on the road. What is beyond repair to one may not be beyond repair to all. Mini specialists are not always the most cost effective - the one I took mine to has a very good reputation but is also known to be a little expensive.

I suspect that they are not recommending butchering another car to put yours back on the road - as has been said, swapping identities is illegal. It's likely to be the other way around - butchering yours for the engine and other bits to put another one back on the road - this is not illegal.

Something like this mini shell that needs an engine: http://www.theminifo...howtopic=190302

[Bungle]

if your going to own classic cars and stick with them in the future it would be worth getting your self on a welding corse at your local college

panels are cheap it's the labour that will sting you and bump up the cost

[guliver77]

Hello all and thank you for the replies,
So, it's illegal to put the shell from one Mini onto another one?! I've not heard that before! The plan with the place that we went to was to get another Mini and then put it's shell onto our Mini, there was nothing about taking anything out of our car! Our Mini is like our baby!
As far as I know there are two Mini places in Nottingham (or there were at least) and one of them we found bad reviews for, and the other had good reviews. So we went to the one with the good reviews, obviously..
ShoutforJoy - that link that you put is for a Mini that has an engine but needs some parts to get it going again, so would it be illegal to buy that Mini and take off it's shell to put on our Mini?
You guys are a wealth of information!
I'll go and take some pictures of the rusty parts, then try and figure out how to get pictures onto here! You'll have to forgive me though, the Mini is quite dirty too! The last time we washed her my other half managed to put a hole in one of her rusty bits, so I've been forbidden to wash her again!
I did suggest learning to weld to my other half but he pointed out that we'd have to learn how to weld and then buy all the equipment you need by which point we may as well have just paid someone else to do it. Our local college does a welding course for £657 + exam fees and that's way too expensive.

[guliver77]

Right, I have taken some photos.
In the first one you can see rust and where the wing was resprayed badly in the past. In the second one I've tried to get the bonnet stuff and the under the headlights stuff in the one shot so I've circled the rust in case it's not clear. In the third one you can see she needs a new drivers door and the rust around it (a truck tried to take off the door a while back!)
She also has rust along the back behind the rear bumper and there's some rust on the boot. There's rust along the top at the back too, mostly just bits. I've put a picture on of the worst part there which is where she had been damaged somehow before we got her.
I think that's all of it really, apart from maybe the odd spot. So, what do people think? Maybe she doesn't look as bad in the photos as she does in actuallity..

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[ShoutforJoy]

Hello all and thank you for the replies,
So, it's illegal to put the shell from one Mini onto another one?! I've not heard that before! The plan with the place that we went to was to get another Mini and then put it's shell onto our Mini, there was nothing about taking anything out of our car! Our Mini is like our baby!
As far as I know there are two Mini places in Nottingham (or there were at least) and one of them we found bad reviews for, and the other had good reviews. So we went to the one with the good reviews, obviously..
ShoutforJoy - that link that you put is for a Mini that has an engine but needs some parts to get it going again, so would it be illegal to buy that Mini and take off it's shell to put on our Mini?
You guys are a wealth of information!
I'll go and take some pictures of the rusty parts, then try and figure out how to get pictures onto here! You'll have to forgive me though, the Mini is quite dirty too! The last time we washed her my other half managed to put a hole in one of her rusty bits, so I've been forbidden to wash her again!
I did suggest learning to weld to my other half but he pointed out that we'd have to learn how to weld and then buy all the equipment you need by which point we may as well have just paid someone else to do it. Our local college does a welding course for £657 + exam fees and that's way too expensive.

I will try to explain exactly what we're getting at, but please accept my apologies if it sounds a bit patronising - that's not my intention.

The mini has a monocoque design where everything hangs off the shell, unlike the traditional chassis design where everything hangs off the chassis. The shell is part of the structure and strength of the car. You cannot take-off or put-on a shell on a mini; you have to take everything off the old shell and attach it to a new one. This is what the term 're-shelling' refers to.

When people talk about the identity of a mini they usually mean the VIN or chassis number. In then case of a Mini this is the number of the shell and will usually have a corresponding registration number. You can see the VIN number on your V5 registration document - it should correspond with the VIN number stamped on a plate somewhere in your mini - on the inner wing if I remember correctly for a car of your age.

Now what is illegal is to take the registration number off your car and attach it to a different shell. That would be to change it's identity, most often referred to as "ringing". Unless you buy a brand new heritage shell at £4k+.

What you could do is to buy another mini (like the one I referred to) and swap all or some of the bits from your existing mini onto it. This could include the full interior, engine, wheels etc so that it looks the same. You could even spray it BRG and put some new decals on it if you wished too. But you must not change the registration number from the one that the replacement shell has currently - that's the big no no.

If you would like a second opinion and don't mind a run out to the other side of Nottingham (Bingham) I could give you the details of the garage that does the work of my Mini that I am not able or do not have the time to do. He is not a Mini specialist but does have many years experience in restoration (mainly MG's I do believe)

hth, Paul

[ShoutforJoy]

Right, I have taken some photos.
In the first one you can see rust and where the wing was resprayed badly in the past. In the second one I've tried to get the bonnet stuff and the under the headlights stuff in the one shot so I've circled the rust in case it's not clear. In the third one you can see she needs a new drivers door and the rust around it (a truck tried to take off the door a while back!)
She also has rust along the back behind the rear bumper and there's some rust on the boot. There's rust along the top at the back too, mostly just bits. I've put a picture on of the worst part there which is where she had been damaged somehow before we got her.
I think that's all of it really, apart from maybe the odd spot. So, what do people think? Maybe she doesn't look as bad in the photos as she does in actuallity..

You posted this while I was composing my last reply

The rust around the front end should not be a problem to fix, a new front end on a mini is not a big issue. The patch above the rear screen will be more tricky - I'll wait for the body work experts to comment more fully. I do wonder what the underside looks like. When it's all done a respray would be needed.

Unless you can do some or all of it yourself it's not going to be cheap though. And that's probably where the specialists were coming from. It is likely to be cheaper to swap bits onto a good shell. However you could spend a few thousand now to give it another five or ten years of life.

It may all boil down to how much you're prepared to spend to keep your baby going!

Paul

[Timtom]

you could though use all the panels from your second hand shell to mend your current shell though

[Cooperman]

There is no-way your existing shell is beyond economical repair. Like many Minis of that age it probably needs a nw front panel, wings, inner-wing repairs, A-panels, sills (inner & outer), rear quarter lower repairs, door skins and, possibly rear valence and boot floor repairs. If you could just strip off the removeable bits like lights, wiring, bumpers, trim, etc, and get the car to a Mini body specialist the entire job, assuming all that needs doind and including parts anmd re-painting, should not cost more than £2000 which is a lot less than a new shell plus build (that would be around £7500+). My Grandson and I have just done all that work to a 1997 MPI and the panels cost us about £400, the painting, inc. paint, was £1000 from my friendly Mini body shop, but we did all the stripping, welding, grinding back and basic preparation ourselves.
It now looks like a new car.