128 replies to this topic

[CityEPete]

I think you will also find the ones making all the noise don't have a historic mini worth shelling in the first place

Now that we can agree on, yours isn't an historic racer though its just another ringer, you still havent told us how its chassis 12 by the way.

[Bubblebobble]

Isnt this car just the same as getting the engine from , say a 65 cooper , and the seats and a few other bits and bobs ,  chucking them in something else and calling it a cooper .

 

Its not a 'special early car ' because its not all there .

[Cooperman]

My rally 'S' is a case in point. I bought it in 1990 after it was found in poor condition in a used car yard in E. London. My police officer friend went to see the dealer after a young copper jumped over a wall whilst chasing a shop-lifter and landed on this 'old Mini'. He went to see the dealer in case there was damage to the car, but the Dealer said it was just an old Mini Cooper and not worth a lot. Now my Police Sergeant friend, who had a MK.1 'S' himself, asked him how much he wanted, inspected the V5, phoned me and said he had just bought a Mini Cooper 'S' for me for £600.

I stored it for a while as I was doing a rally car with my son, plus another car, and I finally got around to doing the work about a year later.

When I stripped it I found it had a full 998 Cooper engine, but the V5 and a Heritage check said it was a 1275 Cooper 'S' and the year fitted the shell, the speedo was a correct 120 mph one and lots of other bits appeared correct.  It had been (badly) painted mid-blue, using a roller I reckon and never cut back. The gearbox was a 3-syncro 'S' box with 3.44:1 FDR.

I had the shell sand blasted and a comprehensive body restoration was done by a friend who owned a really top body-shop. It was extensively seam welded, had a new 1275 'S' engine, fully treated front sub-frame, new rear sub-frame, etc., etc.

Now I have no way of knowing if it had been re-shelled, but it was just valued at over £30,000 mainly due to its historic rally history and if I wrote if off I would have no hesitation in using a spare shell to re-build it. Anyone preaching on here about not re-shelling would do the same and if they claim otherwise they are not being truthful, unless they are so rich that £30k is nothing to them. But I didn't build it to sell it on, I built it to do, so far, 32 historic rallies and to win 5 of them outright with all the other finishes, except one, inside the top 5. It is my rally car. I will never sell it and it will be my Grandson's to drive & enjoy when I go as I've willed it to him, so the actual value is not as important to me as having the car to pass on to him.

Should the shell have been changed from the original it came out of the factory with over 50 years ago would you want it crushed as a 'ringer'?

Edited by Cooperman, 30 December 2014 - 06:27 PM.

[CityEPete]

If any lessons can be learnt from this car and hopefully everyone can agree is that anyone who does anything similar keeps the Vin plates and V5 from the donor car and takes plenty of pictures of the transplant, worse case scenario then is you can revert it back, in this case purely for example, to a very nice 1960 cherry red mini which you could even get a heritage cert for too. Of course as it stands it would still be illegal yet we have shells with no V5 for sale on here.

The issue here will always be heresay, no one can prove one way or another who that shell belonged to, it could have been aunty mables pride and joy until it was nicked to stick the front subframe and vin plate from the 59 rotter on. It can never be chassis 12 in my eyes as it was chassis ???? driving around as a complete car at one time.


All this competition talk is pointless imo, this one is what it is and its described as such and not misleading really as any muppet should be able to grasp that its only chassis 12 on paper.

[CityEPete]

My rally 'S' is a case in point. I bought it in 1990 after it was found in poor condition in a used car yard in E. London. My police officer friend went to see the dealer after a young copper jumped over a wall whilst chasing a shop-lifter and landed on this 'old Mini'. He went to see the dealer in case there was damage to the car, but the Dealer said it was just an old Mini Cooper and not worth a lot. Now my Police Sergeant friend, who had a MK.1 'S' himself, asked him how much he wanted, inspected the V5, phoned me and said he had just bought a Mini Cooper 'S' for me for £600.
I stored it for a while as I was doing a rally car with my son, plus another car, and I finally got around to doing the work about a year later.
When I stripped it I found it had a full 998 Cooper engine, but the V5 and a Heritage check said it was a 1275 Cooper 'S' and the year fitted the shell, the speedo was a correct 120 mph one and lots of other bits appeared correct.  It had been (badly) painted mid-blue, using a roller I reckon and never cut back. The gearbox was a 3-syncro 'S' box with 3.44:1 FDR.
I had the shell sand blasted and a comprehensive body restoration was done by a friend who owned a really top body-shop. It was extensively seam welded, had a new 1275 'S' engine, fully treated front sub-frame, new rear sub-frame, etc., etc.
Now I have no way of knowing if it had been re-shelled, but it was just valued at over £30,000 mainly due to its historic rally history and if I wrote if off I would have no hesitation in using a spare shell to re-build it. Anyone preaching on here about not re-shelling would do the same and if they claim otherwise they are not being truthful, unless they are so rich that £30k is nothing to them. But I didn't build it to sell it on, I built it to do, so far, 32 historic rallies and to win 5 of them outright with all the other finishes, except one, inside the top 5. It is my rally car. I will never sell it and it will be my Grandson's to drive & enjoy when I go as I've willed it to him, so the actual value is not as important to me as having the car to pass on to him.
Should the shell have been changed from the original it came out of the factory with over 50 years ago would you want it crushed as a 'ringer'?

I do appreciate all that but we are now in an age where even the worst early shells are being welded and put on the road(a whole new argument about where it becomes new), where are you going to get spare shells from now, cut up a reasonably tidy 850 super deluxe? I already know you are going to tell me you have loads spare blah blah but they wont last forever will they, at some point you need to stop crashing the rally cars! Lol

[evosal]

I think you will also find the ones making all the noise don't have a historic mini worth shelling in the first place

Now that we can agree on, yours isn't an historic racer though its just another ringer, you still havent told us how its chassis 12 by the way.

Because it's on the v5, the heritage cert, the vin plate and the engine, gearbox sub frames and most other parts are from the original car, although it's been reshelled it does have continuous history, minis don't have a chassis of course only sub frames but they carry no id numbers unfortunately

[evosal]

We are never going to agree on this, you have no interest in buying it so it's not worth going over and over the same nonsense with you

As for lessons that can be learnt from this, yes there is one, if you ever re-shell a mini keep it to yourself, it's totally pointless doing the right thing and declaring in your advert it as this thread has clearly shown.

Edited by evosal, 30 December 2014 - 07:11 PM.

[Covert]

9 pages , wow !
What a waste of forum space.....

[the.stroker]

I think it's agree to disagree on this one. Folk are going round in circles and chasing thier tails and in all fairness I think it's ran its course. If anyone has a problem with it being closed feel free to drop me a PM