Cooper 997 on Bring A Trailer with odd body number matching Heritage Certificate

[boxweed]

To minicoop63. I am anxiously awaiting the pictures of your restoration of a rusty, accident-damaged mini, so that we can all see how a “professional” would do it. Actually, I’m guessing you’ve never done a complete restoration, as has been my experience with people who put down other restorer’s work. Your blather about the body number on this car shows as much knowledge as your blather about the quality of the restoration.

[Rusty old S]

I am afraid I can see where this is going to end up! The Mk1 police will put someone in jail, this should be polite and friendly.

[Exminiman]

looks like Boxweed may of been the seller https://bringatrailer.com/member/boxweed/

[Exminiman]

I reckon they built a load of shells while tooled up, stuck them in a store and pulled them out as needed, so last in would be first out. At the end of the day BMC didn't care what the numbers were, they just wanted their £600 quid

This is almost certainly going to be correct, probably same for FE numbers.

There is a danger that people relate a simple id number sequence of a component part with a specific build date sequence of a car - there is not necessarily any correlation.

[woodypup59]

For standard UK production, that FE would be about April 1960.

And the "A" body number is more like 1964.

[Exminiman]

That is probably spot on, but I am not sure how they managed the process, say the FEs were "Free Issued" to the shell assembler, who as Catmint said didn`t use them according to strict stock rotation, they could of sat at the back of a store for ages....or until required for a sale or stock order or a spare...

[MiNiKiN]

T.....The shell it self has had a lot of rust repair and for a seller who claims 55 years of experience I think he has completely screwed the pooch on this one. The front subframe appears misaligned so bad that the hole in the floor for the shifter had to be cut after all the body work was complete in order for it to fit. There are spacers between it and the shell up front on clutch side. It appears the subframe was cut to clear the foot wells on the bottom too. But all of that stuff (theres a lot more if you look at the pictures with a keen eye) isn't what has me baffled. It's the body number. It has a body number of A120xxx on the slam panel and the heritage certificate as well. ......

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1962- ... cooper-11/

The body mis-alignments are not too much of a surprise if you look at the photo that shows the car w/o a floor pan and not a single strengthener in place. That just cries out to create a car as straight as a banana.

52-00.jpg

Source: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1962- ... cooper-11/

[boxweed]

To minikin. You would never weld in braces on a car that has been badly damaged in an accident until all the bent metal had been straightened or removed, otherwise you would be assured that the finished product would be as misaligned as it was before you started. The picture you posted shows the car with the rusted metal removed and some of the bent metal straightened, but not all. Once all the bent metal was straightened, then it would be appropriate to weld in bracing, which of course was done on this car.