reshelling

[jd12345]

hi all

im sure someone on here at some point has reshelled a mini, was wondering what the rules are.

i have got to the point now where im thinking chasing the rust around in mine is never going to end, although i have a virtually rust free shell in the garage which has been sat there now for 3 years and was thinking treat that, take everything off my car and put it on to that shell, the engine everything, and go with that. does anyone know what the DVLA would think off this?

i know you have those stamp things in the engine bay that if im correct identify the shell, so can you just swap them over? or is this illegal? and if it is could anyone find out?

thanks
Jamie

[ljonez]

if you want to reshell a mini the only legal way to do it is to buy a new BMH shell and then a certain percantage of the old car has to be kept

if you use a second hand shell and change its identity its called ringing and if highly illegal and you can serve time for it, however that's if you get caught alot of people do it and no one is any the wiser

[taffy1967]

If it was done using an identical style shell (i.e mark 5 or 6 etc) to the highest standards, how could anyone tell?



But yes it is illegal, although there's probably hundreds if not thousands of late model Minis in America that are registered as 1960's Minis.

Just why the authorities there don't question why a supposedly 1960's car has an air-bag I'll never know.

[ljonez]

Jul 14, 2009 15:41:39 GMT 1 taffy1967 said:

If it was done using an identical style shell (i.e mark 5 or 6 etc) to the highest standards, how could anyone tell?

yeah thats my point if you do it with a simular aged shell and dont tell any one, it will be hard for any one to prove

i do laugh when you see people re-shelling a mini (illegally ) and post their work on open forums. it has been known for vosa/dvla/police to check car forums

[taffy1967]

Yes that's true and I can remember someone from America posting a question on the Mini Cooper Register, how they believed they'd bought a 1970 Mini Cooper.

It turns out the id was fake and it was actually a 1990/91 Mainstream Rover Mini Cooper instead.

But whoever faked it, did one hell of a job because they'd not only fitted false VIN plates, they'd even stamped a fake VIN number into the scuttle panel rain channel too.

Unbelievable really, because they could have just left it blank.

[Phil J]

Personally I do not think it's too bad as long as the car you are using as the replacement shell was legally obtained, Just have a look on ebay and see how many pre 72 cars are in later shells.

We were going to do the same on Jamie's car but had a change of mind after hearing a whisper it might get reported

[jd12345]

just checking to see what the opinion of it was thanks

[jjitaljob]

i was going to do this. solely to be able to have blakc and silver plates and tax exempt but the cost of the documents and i.d plates has shot up. must be high demand even if it is illegal. not as bad as buying heroin now is it...