Heritage have scheduled production for April on 15 new MkI body shells, priced at £10K, or about $12,500 in American, plus taxes and shipping of course.
Whadya think? Good buy or good bye?
Nice price or crack pipe?
Was having this exact discussion with a co-worker of mine today. Guess if you have a mini and everything is pretty good on it but the metal has just been rotting away it's probably a good buy. Probably cheaper at some point than paying someone to fix massive amounts of rust.
As far as constructing a car from scratch starting with a new shell, I just don't see it as cost effective. In the 15K range you can usually find a mini that has been stripped and repainted and probably also a fully functioning car. You'd be at that with just the shell and getting it painted.
Maybe if you wanted to build a full custom vtec or some other one off and didn't plan to use any "stock" trim, interior or drivetrain bits it might be cost effective. Of course any one in custom cars knows you'll never sell it for what you invest.
My 2 cents.
And Theseus' paradox comes into play.
Is it still a MK1 if the entire shell is from 2017?
How many panels can Dan weld for 12 - 15K?
A whole bunch...
My 2 cents are this. So 12k plus shipping plus a paint job, you're probably at 20k now. I can build you a whole new mini if you provide your old shell for 25k give or take. However, if your old shell is completely rotten, the end product starts to suffer and the price will start to creep up. I begin to call these shells Frankenminis because they end up with so many weld lines on them. If you don't mind out of sight areas with a mile of welding done it's not a bad deal. If you want perfect and pristine concourse pebble beach museum quality car, you're probably wanting to spend 20k to have a new heritage shell and another 15-20k+ into the build.
As Dan seems to be indicating - a bit high in price, but if your shell is already bad enough and your after near new results, then the whole new shell route is the way to go. If your after preserving a "driver" Mini, then panel-wise repairs are more economical.
In my Moke's case - the new shell route was the best way to go as it was already a "frankenMini" of patches on patches on patches that do not always follow the correct lines and bends.
Those on the March drive this year will get to see what I mean.
MiniMania has one of these shells for sale, $14,995.00 plus truck shipping from there.
That's not bad mark up for them. ;D
Quote from: MiniDave on March 07, 2017, 01:23:22 PM
MiniMania has one of these shells for sale, $14,995.00 plus truck shipping from there.
Classic = Mini Mania - "this is a special order item" Where they would order it same as any other person could. we all wonder about the shipping + import costs... would 14K cover all of that?
I feel like if they really wanted to provide= Get a shell , Have it on hand, ready to ship= But a 10-12K investment in stock on one item is COSTLY! + import regs and everything associated expecially in California. Many Unknows!
As discussed - 14-15K is alot for a shell Even though its new, Mini Mania post also described that the shell might still be a single bolt for rubber mounted sub frame.. Like Later shells they produce.. So they're really only Mk1 the exterior features.
I don't know what heritage shells go for if ordered direct, but my Moke shell was just under $8K (not including shipping) at late November/early December conversion rates.
The Moke shell is being constructed by a different company that has the Moke panels & jigs from the last factory productions. (http://www.m-parts.co.uk)
Hadn't thought about them being single bolt subframed. Makes sense I suppose.