Is or is not?

[atlanticdave]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLASSIC-MINI- ... 53fa9492e1

To my knowledge, and from what I can see this is not an S shell, so why do folk persist in advertizing them as such....or am I just in a Thursday bad mood.

D

[guru_1071]

of course its a s shell and worth every penny of the 7 grand.......

the 6 vent cover sills and holes in the parcel shelf for a pair of 6x9's should tell you everything you need to know about this car and the seller......

oh, and its a super rare magic wand option as well.....

[mk1coopers]

And it also look like it's got the even rarer Automatic option, must have been a coachbuilt S

[ivor badger]

of course its a s shell and worth every penny of the 7 grand.......

the 6 vent cover sills and holes in the parcel shelf for a pair of 6x9's should tell you everything you need to know about this car and the seller......

oh, and its a super rare magic wand option as well.....

But the speaker holes only show in one photo. Unlike the drain holes in the sills, which don't appear at all.

[guru_1071]

..... Unlike the drain holes in the sills, which don't appear at all.

oh, I bet they are there, festering away under the mk3 cover sills that have been clapped on over them

[Andrew1967]

'..the shell looks brand new and shows no sign of repair'

Unless you look at the underneath shot of the floor that is

[atlanticdave]

lol, just makes my blood boil, must be a getting older thing, mind you am only 37, but no excuse I felt like messaging them just to say "oi gets yer facts right doosh bag" I have calmed down now so am ok haha.

p.s don't even get me started on the over sills, am currently excavating just those things on a late model mpi cooper

[Pete]

Despite what we might think there's some epic botchery still goes on with Minis still today and I've never noticed oversills really going out of fashion. I doubt anyone would buy a primed shell with random panels on when you can buy a real mint complete car for the same money , if not less.
I remember going to look at a ''primed shell'' just like that in Bradford a year or two ago, the seller left me to look at it only to return with a confused expression to find me literally corpsing at the state of the welding on it. Best five minutes of comedy I've ever seen and well worth the petrol money.

[Lord Croker]

Pete, you are right, those wide over-sills are as prolific now as they ever were, I hate them, they are just a quick fix MOT fail codge up in my opinion, which do not even form the correct box section with the inner sill. Getting back to the shell in question, why would anyone buy that rather than a heritage shell, which is all brand new metal? The price cannot be much different, maybe less. I've heard all this kind of stuff, outside of ebay, I meet people in the pub who assure me they have a Mini Cooper 'S' shell for sale, so I go & look at it & it's clearly an old rotted out Mk3 Mini 1000 or similar, when I ask them what makes them think it's an 'S' shell, there seem to be two common answers, it's either "Well, they're all the same, aren't they?", or "My mate says it's an 'S' & he knows about Minis". I walk away, muttering "Oh no he doesn't!" I may be wrong on this, as en ex rally driver & not very knowledgeable about interior trim! Since when would a 1964 Cooper 'S' have an ash-tray on top of the rear tunnel?

[atlanticdave]

Its very true what the two above posts mention, we are not any further ahead in reality when it comes to questionable repairs being done on minis as say a quick fix or for MOT purposes. I think in reality something minis have always had against them is the thought they are cheap to run, maintain and fix your self, this may be the case if indeed you cut corners, the big issue is when folk attempt to do things and make something look the part, where in actual fact its just covering a multitude of sins, and some of these could be regarded as structurally unsafe repairs.

Minis are not alone with regards to this as I am well aware, seeing that my job is restoration. Some of the welding and attachment of panels I have witnessed over the years has been shocking. I was looking at a mid 60's TR4 and the previous "restoration" work amounted to a lot of panels being cut wrong and the gaps merely filled with tonnes of weld, which distorted most of the surrounding panels. I think I spend more time re-doing and cutting out old bad repairs. My eyes normally light up when I go to look at a car and it has what I refer to as "authentic rust" ie no bodges, no poor attempts at a fix, makes life so much easier.

Maybe there should be a petition started to outlaw over sills for a start. Final point I wouldn't buy a new shell the quality of metal on the heritage shells really doesn't impress me in the slightest, even some of the repair panels are paper thin and overpriced in my opinion.