97 replies to this topic

[ace01]

Personally, that is a vehicle to maintain, use and enjoy rather than do a "proper" restoration.

The age of registration and little details will never make it a proper S in most peoples eyes. The cost of getting all the details correct (and I'm sure that there will be lots of them when you really look at it) is silly - eg, the instruments.

Make of it what you want - dont worry about the "judges". And be honest if you want to sell it !
.

My thoughts exactly.

[CMXCVIII]

At the risk of queering the thread, I have to say I have some misgivings that this car is already offered for sale elsewhere on the web in the O/P's trade advert as a Cooper S.

Caveat emptor, old boy?

Jon.

[mk1coopers]

That's a shame, it's probably worth what its up for, but it needs a better description

[paul1275s]

Caveat emptor indeed.

[MIGLIACARS]

Looks like a 63 reg as a re-issued reg would be AOA XXXA OR AOBXXXA ETC.

Certainly has some cooper / s features,

Wrong ashtray and no black vynnl covering on the dash top,
Door cards could be cooper (unclear in photo's)
What type of headlining has it got?
Is the gearstick/handbrake chrome?

gearstick is chrome

handbrake is black

[mk1coopers]

Hand brake is correct, gearstick isn't for an early car, not all Coopers have chrome ones, looking at the pictures it looks like a standard Mini shell (as far as I can tell from what you can see) as Cooperman has said it may have been a competition car, starting off life as a 997, being upgraded to 1275 S spec as parts became available, and possibly re-shelled after a competion life, none of which would be unusual. I'm sure it will be a good project for someone, if you do a little more research and advertise it according to what you find out you might get even more for it, if I had the space I'd be interested as it would be a great car to get running then do some Hillclimbs and Sprints in the road going class

Edited by mk1coopers, 10 November 2012 - 08:07 AM.

[MIGLIACARS]

sorry for the late reply i didnt see your msg.

well heres the story.
at the moment i have 2 garages one full of race car one full of a mini nearly complete.
but when this mini is complete i have another one to do. so the mk1 will be third in line as its the bigger project.
so i cannot let it sit out under a car cover all winter.
on Monday ill find out if i can have a unit so it can live in there so at press i dont know if its really foresale, just thought id gauge some interest.
restored correctly i think it can make £11000 to the right man.
i would like to rebuild it.
so im not giving it away.

the roof ling is the same as this

Edited by MIGLIACARS, 10 November 2012 - 08:15 AM.

[Cooperman]

My son restored a 1967 998 Cooper as a fully re-built car for historic rallying. The shell was dreadful, so he used one I managed to obtain which was not too bad and which came from a 1964 Cooper 'S' 1275 which, had in itself already been re-shelled.
After a few events in the up-to-1000 cc class it became obvious that more power was needed so we fitted a full-on 970 'S' engine with SCCR box, 4.1:1 FDR, etc. Now it was a real calss-winner. When we sold it we were absolutely honest about its history, but it made a very good price. it still competes as a 970 Cooper 'S', but of course it's not an original one and no-one would claim it is. However, the shell and engine are both genuine original 'S' ones.

[62S]

I have a feeling that this car was being used for historic rallying in the early 1990's or was at least hanging around the rally scene.

The AAB - A registration is an age related number.

Quite simply back in the days of handwritten logbooks you could simply add an 'S' to Cooper and hey presto you had a Cooper S of sorts. Often, the reason for this was not to increase the value but so you could tell an insurance company you had a Cooper S rather than a modified Mini for a lower premium - or to impress your mates.

[MIGLIACARS]

I have a feeling that this car was being used for historic rallying in the early 1990's or was at least hanging around the rally scene.

The AAB - A registration is an age related number.

Quite simply back in the days of handwritten logbooks you could simply add an 'S' to Cooper and hey presto you had a Cooper S of sorts. Often, the reason for this was not to increase the value but so you could tell an insurance company you had a Cooper S rather than a modified Mini for a lower premium - or to impress your mates.

The AAB - A registration is an age related number.
so its a 62 or 63

[62S]

AAB 280A would have been given to the car when it was plate raped which was probably in the 1980's or early 1990's.

As has been mentioned previously on the thread, for some years all re-registered cars from 1963 and before got an A suffix plate regardless of the age of the car.

[MIGLIACARS]

so then.

this car could have started as a 1071 cooper lets say 1963.
but then in say 1988 some one sold its logbook and vin plate.
then the owner of the shell contacted dvla for new id. and dvla sent them this plate and new id.

[mab01uk]

so then.

this car could have started as a 1071 cooper lets say 1963.
but then in say 1988 some one sold its logbook and vin plate.
then the owner of the shell contacted dvla for new id. and dvla sent them this plate and new id.

'Legally' the owner could not sell the logbook and VIN plate (even though people do without saying so in public!) but could have sold/transferred the original 'dateless' (no year letter) registration whereupon DVLA would have replaced numberplate only with a totally worthless A registration regardless of year of car, all other ID details VIN, etc would have been retained......DVLA would not send out a new ID with the A reg numberplate.

If you apply to DVLA for your full vehicle ownership/registration transfer history all will be revealed.......costs about £5 to apply for.
Download the form V888 , fill it out, post it to them with a cheque for £5. takes 4-6 weeks to come back.
https://www.gov.uk/g...ation-from-dvla

Edited by mab01uk, 11 November 2012 - 02:15 PM.

[paul1275s]

The car would have been a 1071s if the chassis number falls within the band mentioned earlier in this thread. The first part of the chassis number you quoted earlier was a Morris Cooper or Cooper S prefix, it looks to me like the car us wearing an Austin badge on its bonnet. Do the research with the DVLA and apply for a heritage certificate, then you may know a bit more of the truth about this vehicle.

[CMXCVIII]

so then ...

... what happened was that in 1962 a Mini was built and sold and registered at the end of May 1962.

It was registered on a pre-dating registration number which at that time was four numbers followed by two letters [eg 3383 MV]. Sometime later, that number was removed from the car and replaced by the DVLA with a "worthless" A suffix.

That Mini wasn't a Cooper S when it left the factory because they hadn't started selling them.

Sometime after May 1962, that original Mini became a Cooper S with a 1275cc engine - either piece by piece or, conceivably, by suddenly acquiring the entire specification of another car [!] and at some time, an owner contacted the DVLA, advised them that his car now wanted to be a Cooper S and they obligingly changed the registration details to reflect this change as they used to do.

That much we can explain from the official document of record you have shown us.

Jon