62 replies to this topic

[roofless]

earl.....my new toy to be.....is pretty much re-shelled, I think the only original metal is the roof and A / B and C pillars down to the swage line......But I can run with the original Reg plate cant I as its a a 'repaired' shell rather than a replacement ??

[duffman]

none of mine have been reshelled BUT one i had years ago had pertty much everything apart from the shell replaced, legalities aside, is that morally ok? It had new/recon/good used parts for pretty much everything and a couple of shell repairs but in that instance it had more of the car replaced than it kept but this is morally ok?

I'm not condoning illegal cloning or ringing of cars but if you buy, LEGALLY, two rough cars with same MK model/similar year log books and make one good one out of the pair who cares. they're both legally your cars, as long as your not trying to get, for example, an MPI into the tax exempt bracket, etc who cares. not everyone can afford to go out and buy brand new parts to replace, like shells, and find it cheaper to buy a rough/mot failure and use it as a donor. mini's/classics aren't and shouldn't be restricted to the wealthy.

i will say though, all shells and donors SHOULD be sold/bought with a log book.

[alicetheauto]

Baby is as far as I know not re shelled although the doors, bonnet and boot are not original to that car. If there was a way you could send off a V5c and the VIN plates to the dvla then it would legally get the ID 'out of the system' then it would help? Both cars would have to be legally owned by one person, and theft checks can be done before the dvla issue a certificate of destruction for the donor ID?

[JustSteve]

My mini will have a grand total of 1 panel that hasn't been replaced with heritage or modified. I will more or less have a brand new heritage shell that I've modified and fitted a donor rear bulkhead to.

Because of this I justify sticking the ID from a shell that was scrapped 15 years ago onto it.



Might not be legal, but the car will be closer to the new logbook (79) because of the engine and interior than the original one (99).



I would NEVER sell the 99 logbook however. It will remain in my possession until I buy a heritage shell or build something else that I want to put the ID on. But that doesn't mean buying a shell off eBay without an ID

[MIGLIACARS]

Within the motor-sport world, re-shelling has always been the way to fix a badly damaged car. Talking Minis, back in the 60's & 70's whewn a competition Mini was badly damaged on a rally or race it was totally acceptable to buy a 2nd hand 850 Mini with a 'smoking' or 'rattling' engine and/or a rotten rttear sub-frame and use that shell to re-build the rally car. We all did it, even semi-professional teams.
So, let me ask you a question. If you had a Mk.1 Cooper 'S' historic rally car which you had rolled badly in a forest where fully comp insurance could not apply. Let's say the car was worth £30,000. So, would you just scrap it or find a decent Mk.1 shell for around £2500 to £3000 and rebuild it? Honest answers please.

Within the motor-sport world, re-shelling has always been the way to fix a badly damaged car. Talking Minis, back in the 60's & 70's whewn a competition Mini was badly damaged on a rally or race it was totally acceptable to buy a 2nd hand 850 Mini with a 'smoking' or 'rattling' engine and/or a rotten rttear sub-frame and use that shell to re-build the rally car. We all did it, even semi-professional teams.
So, let me ask you a question. If you had a Mk.1 Cooper 'S' historic rally car which you had rolled badly in a forest where fully comp insurance could not apply. Let's say the car was worth £30,000. So, would you just scrap it or find a decent Mk.1 shell for around £2500 to £3000 and rebuild it? Honest answers please.

im with you on this one.

[leroy26]

is it legal to reshell into a brand new heritage shell?

[mini-luke]

Yes, it's the only time it is

Edited by mini-luke, 04 February 2013 - 08:36 PM.

[Bungle]

is it legal to reshell into a brand new heritage shell?

yes because it's a direct replacement spare part that has no ID of it's own

[mab01uk]

is it legal to reshell into a brand new heritage shell?

If it wasn't what would be the point of them and the Heritage MGB shells, etc.......unless you wanted to create a totally new car which would no doubt create problems with DVLA registration, safety, emissions regs, etc and as some parts (engine, gearbox castings, etc?) are no longer available new.

[Bungle]

earl.....my new toy to be.....is pretty much re-shelled, I think the only original metal is the roof and A / B and C pillars down to the swage line......But I can run with the original Reg plate cant I as its a a 'repaired' shell rather than a replacement ??

yes you can replace every panel and it's still the same car

as all of the panels are new none of them have their own id

[mini-luke]

earl.....my new toy to be.....is pretty much re-shelled, I think the only original metal is the roof and A / B and C pillars down to the swage line......But I can run with the original Reg plate cant I as its a a 'repaired' shell rather than a replacement ??

yes you can replace every panel and it's still the same car

as all of the panels are new none of them have their own id

What if you used second hand panels? Conceivably you could end up with more of the car the panels were removed from than the original, unlikely with a mini but I've seen daft amounts of rare MK2 golfs replaced with second hand panels

[Bungle]

in the air cooled VW scene it's quite popular to buy big chunks of body work from a scrap shell to weld into your rusty shell as replacement body panels aren't so readily available

http://www.southwest...co.uk/parts.php

i'm not sure how you would get on with that if you were to tell the DVLA

[Shifty]

I don't like re-shelling, its a different car once you've done that and I'd never do it to a car I cared about.

[Cooperman]

Once again, the motto seems to be 'if you need to do it, then do it, just don't talk about it'.
Mini shells carry little or no identification, especially the Mk.1 & Mk.2 cars. There are many well-known Minis which have been re-shelled, 24PK for example, but there doesn't seem to be an issue with them.
The stupid thing is that if you have crashed your Mk.1 you can legally re-shell it into a Mk.5 Heritage shell, despite the fact that not much will fit and lots of things will need to be re-engineered, and it will be legal, but buy a 2nd hand genuine Mk.1 shell and it's illegal.
As I mentioned earlier, breaking the speed limit is also illegal, but we don't get the 'speeding police' on here, just the 'V5 police'!
If my Mk.1 Cooper 'S' needed a replacement shell it would get one and no-one would ever know as it would look exactly the same. I even have a Mk.1 shell which is in reasonable condition and could be used if necessary.

[1984mini25]

I hope all you guys who think that reshelling Minis with old previously used shells don't have your cars stolen. I am getting sick and tired of people saying it is fine to save a Mini by giving it a reshell. What's wrong with rebuilding the donor car, or is it OK for that Minis ID to be lost and not saved. Does anyone not think that the rise in thefts of cars has nothing to do with the prevailing thought that it is OK to reshell a car that's body is beyond economic repair.
There was a thread on here yesterday posted from someone enquiring about how to obtain a log book for a Mk1 that they found in a field so they could married it to another shell which has no ID which came from Holland. Why has a shell come from Holland without an ID I wonder?
Ringing is illegal, it always has been, and I just wish people would stop condoning it.

G
I said that I think its okay to 're-shell' a legally owned mini with another legally owned mini

At no point did I say that stealing minis is okay. Thats ludicrous!

Were my comments directed at you personally?

Riniging is illegal. Saving a Mini by using a used shell is not saving a Mini from the scrap yard, once done the donor Mini has been scrapped. The more that reshelling goes on the more people will loose faith in any car being original and legitimate. I know of two cases of Minis that have desputed ownership due to reshelling in the last year. That means two people are going to loose their hard earned money because some people think it is OK to buy and sell used Mini shells and log books.
If only BMC/BL/Austin Rover had stamped the shells like most other manufacturers did then this practice would be a lot more difficult to pull off.

Just to recap.

Ringing is illegal.

From around the mid 80's at least the cars original chassis number was stamped into the scuttle channel.
Now I bet a lot of these 'reshelled' tax exempt later minis will still have the original id stamped in the scuttle. I don't know, but a car with 2 different chassis numbers could cause problems if ever found out.