At The Auctions

[phib]

A little bit of googling on the net and the engine number before someone changed the plate was

9FF-AH39418 Which obviously isn’t a cooper an engine !

I really don’t think the headline description of that car should be 1966 Mini Cooper s

Nothing wrong with it if it’s sold and advertised as what it is a mini mk3 shell with an unknown engine and a stuck and none running Q plate mini.

Which is probably £1-2k not as advertised.

Phib

[rolesyboy]

He sounds like Rowley Birkin QC off the Fast Show for the first 5 minutes

Moody “S” at Mathewson’s , built from a 1960 850 by the looks of the shell and loom, not that Derek would know the front end from the back of a Cooper S to be brutally honest! Pribably a while ago though looking at the early Newton trim.

https://youtu.be/g0n20-F4CZ8?si=Y7R_NlvLke-gjbbg

Decent buy for someone though if it’s cheap enough.

[Exminiman]

Have we had this one?
https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/auction ... i-cooper-s

Struggling to find much "Cooper s" about that one except Servo, Twin Tank and maybe engine, but maybe not as cant see much of it..

What shell is that, I get a bit lost when you get past a MK3, is it a MK4 ?

£5.5k inc fees…….I wouldn't of bid that much, in the end its just the value of the bits and then you have to shift a shell witn a sunroof etc…..

[Pedromintor]

If it has a 1275 cooper s engine and gearbox then it looks good value for 5k ? Worth that in bits ? The story was on this car that when then owner bought it on the logbook the chassis number was wrong . So the owner sent in the heritage certificate to dvla to get them to put the chassis number correct on the logbook. Dvla asked for photos of the car. When they seen it was in a mk3 shell cancelled the logbook and asked him to re register it. Shame it was not re shelled in a mk1 shell back in the day and it probably been fine . Its a shame and even if it was re shelled again with a brand new mk1 shell and new application to dvla under the chassis number i reckon there be a marker on it and wont be able to be registered again under the correct mk1 s chassis number.
Peter

[Pedromintor]

Have we had this one?
https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/auction ... i-cooper-s

Struggling to find much "Cooper s" about that one except Servo, Twin Tank and maybe engine, but maybe not as cant see much of it..

What shell is that, I get a bit lost when you get past a MK3, is it a MK4 ?

£5.5k inc fees…….I wouldn't of bid that much, in the end its just the value of the bits and then you have to shift a shell witn a sunroof etc…..

if its a cooper s engine and gear box its worth that . looks a good mk3 shell as well . few other cooper s bits

[Exminiman]

Struggling to find much "Cooper s" about that one except Servo, Twin Tank and maybe engine, but maybe not as cant see much of it..

What shell is that, I get a bit lost when you get past a MK3, is it a MK4 ?

£5.5k inc fees…….I wouldn't of bid that much, in the end its just the value of the bits and then you have to shift a shell witn a sunroof etc…..

if its a cooper s engine and gear box its worth that . looks a good mk3 shell as well . few other cooper s bits

I am not so sure, it depends on the condition of the engine, it may need re-lining, the crank/rods may not be S , the servo may be knackered etc etc...you may or may not be lucky.....I still see it as a gamble, that you dont need to take, when you can readily buy an S engine in bits and check the parts.

[Pete]

If it has a 1275 cooper s engine and gearbox then it looks good value for 5k ? Worth that in bits ? The story was on this car that when then owner bought it on the logbook the chassis number was wrong . So the owner sent in the heritage certificate to dvla to get them to put the chassis number correct on the logbook. Dvla asked for photos of the car. When they seen it was in a mk3 shell cancelled the logbook and asked him to re register it. Shame it was not re shelled in a mk1 shell back in the day and it probably been fine . Its a shame and even if it was re shelled again with a brand new mk1 shell and new application to dvla under the chassis number i reckon there be a marker on it and wont be able to be registered again under the correct mk1 s chassis number.
Peter

Seems fairly harsh. Oodles of Mk1s got rebooted into Mk3 shells, even so called £200k works cars that are now magically back to Mk1 again and still retain their number plates, Mk3s reshelled into Mk4 or 5 is quite common, GTs reshelled info Clubman or later shells aswell. Just bad luck for that one then but one thing you can’t count on with DVLA is consistancy!

[Costafortune]

RIGHT THEN GUYS, HERE WE GO LOOK

Very rough 997 Cooper and it looks at face value to be a proper one.

https://www.mathewsons.co.uk/auction/lo ... 8&pn=6&g=1

I think 12k is a bit optimistic.....or not?

[steve1071]

RIGHT THEN GUYS, HERE WE GO LOOK

Very rough 997 Cooper and it looks at face value to be a proper one.

https://www.mathewsons.co.uk/auction/lo ... 8&pn=6&g=1

I think 12k is a bit optimistic.....or not?

I was offered that last week at £12k, it had been bought off ebay for £10,600 recently to flip.

[Old English White]

I think that's a little high bearing restoration costs in mind but a rare find in that condition.
Shame it's lost its original registration at some point - and the stainless wheelarch trim of course.
I'm surprised to see the low seat belt mountings and courtesy light switches on a car of that age? Shouldn't that still be high seatbelt mount?

[Polarsilver]

should not have those door switches

[Pete]

Exactly, so the ‘67 ‘S’ they have is actually built from an earlier 850 and the 997 Cooper they have is built from a later 850. So many Coopers are not quite what it says on the tin!

[Old English White]

It's been a minefield for years hasn't it - and the auction houses - who maybe ought to know better? - seem happy to offer any old thing

[mab01uk]

But back in the day it was standard practice to reshell a rusty or road/competition accident damaged Cooper or Cooper S into a better and more common secondhand 850/1000 Mk1/2 shell/or 'upgrade' to Mk3, (often a one lady owner automatic 850 donor if you could find one). It was usually uneconomic to do major restorations or repairs to a shell based on the value of the car and Mini-Machine were not doing complete Mk1 replacement floors, etc!
Also at the time there was no great shame in doing that and no internet/specialist car forums, even restorations in the Classic Car magazines often detailed donor shell replacement as part of the owners restoration story, plus the DVLA rules about secondhand replacement bodyshells were still in the future if you were going to go public on the history.
I don't see how any auction house can be expert on every marque of car that passes through their hands, based on anorak features like courtesy light switches, etc so really it is a case of 'buyer beware' and potential buyers doing there own research to navigate through the minefield of a Minis history, if they are after correct original factory spec and provenance for their money.
eg. I consider myself to be fairly expert on Minis if I was in the market to buy one...but if I suddenly had a desire to invest in a genuine Mk1 Ford Escort Mexico I would have to do quite a bit of research on the important details to confirm it was not based on a 1300L donor shell....

[Pre-Cooper Pete]

Very confusing unless you know your stuff, is there anyone reliable who can do a PPI on these?

[Pete]

Yeah it’s nothing new you’re right Martin, we’ve probably all reshelled something or other at some time but by the same token so many 850s have had to die purely to bring so many Cooper logbooks back to life! I’ve even had a ‘63 997 Cooper which was in a 65 S shell and also a late 1275 S which had a 970 S shell!

[Exminiman]

I tend to think that a car with an original shell (with original panels) is a special thing, rather than a re shell being a wrong thing. Especially if the re-shell was done back in the day, when its really part of the cars history. Is a shell with a complete new floor, bulkhead , boot area and front end any more “ Original”

Also I know of a recent car (not mine) that was slagged off as being wrong ( not on here) despite it actually being right with an original shell, just with a few panels wrong as that was all that was available in the past.

It is though, a bit sad when they do a re shell in recent times and get it so wrong

[mini_surfari]

I tend to think that a car with an original shell (with original panels) is a special thing, rather than a re shell being a wrong thing. Especially if the re-shell was done back in the day, when its really part of the cars history. Is a shell with a complete new floor, bulkhead , boot area and front end any more “ Original”

It is though, a bit sad when they do a re shell in recent times and get it so wrong

Couldn't agree more!

Buying a Cooper S that was re-shelled in the 70's with an 850 shell that is now so rotten it needs 75% of the panels replacing anyway, isn't worth worrying about personally, especially as all the information/ details would now allow it to be restored accurately... and who would really know then!

[Peter Laidler]

If mini-surfari says that, then it's good enough for me!

I am in the same boat. I restored my S in the 80';s using all the panels that were available from BL/Unipart back then. Alas, some of them differed slightly from the original 69'ers.