Unfortunately, this 1967 Mini Cooper was the victim of a slow rollover in 1981 and has been off the road ever since. The current owner says that they purchased the car from an estate in Montana in 2019 after first seeing it in 2000! It can be found here on eBay with an asking price of $10,000. The seller doesn’t have a clear title but has a break/bond title, which will hopefully be okay for the new owner. Check out this project and see if you think it is salvageable. Thanks to George for the tip on this crushed Cooper.
The engine looks pretty clean. The seller doesn’t say much about the 1275cc four-banger, but they do mention their intention was to get it running and driving…So I guess it isn’t? The random red spark plug boot may indicate some maintenance work has been done at some point. Hopefully, the drive train will be okay with all the bodywork that this car will need.
The interior looks decent for being off the road for so long. Unfortunately, due to the extensive body damage, this car may be better off being stripped. There appear to be plenty of usable parts that could easily complete the restoration of a different car. The seller has a mockup of a roadster-style Mini with the roof chopped off. I’m not sure if that is a viable option, but I guess it’s up to the new owner.
I’m not sure what the future will hold for this car, but hopefully, it will see the highway once again. What do you think of this car? Have you ever tried to fix a rollover? Tell us your story.
Have fixed roll overs but not any with this much damage. Square cars don’t roll well. Tough to make a convertible out of it due to limited structure in the pan and no place to put any more. If you look at a Mini Moke you see all the boxed members used to support the load of people and running gear. A car this nice would be well worth the effort to rebuild.
A $10k parts car.
I have a sound and entire roof from a Mini, even kept the window support-legs. The buyer ought to know it’s available.
Aye, chop the top off a rotten one; they’re not hard to find, even these days. Roof and window frames. Watch out because there’s often a rotty bit at the lower windscreen corners.
Looks like an expensive parts car. Have to wonder how you roll a Mini other than a ditch. Watch these cars race and with their track and low center of gravity they kill it! The dual carbs and the included tach tells me this was no ordinary Mini either.
How does one roll a Mini-Cooper?
… must take some serious effort or enormous level of stupidity, extreme bad luck, and road conditions I’ve never experienced.
My thoughts exactly. I’ve driven the backside out of minis, 1100s and 1800s and damned if I was ever able to roll one. They all stuck to the asphalt like a dog dump to a blanket.
Seller gives an honest description, but it´ was previously a re-shell so won´t ever be a Cooper S again. And you´d need to be an expert to know if the car has all the Cooper S parts. I wonder why it´s on standard 3.5″ Mini wheels, for example, as the wheels on a Cooper S have always been part of its considerable sex appeal (compared to a stock Mini):
Not even a clear title parts car. A bit overpriced.
Full replacement body shells are available https://www.minisport.com/mini-body-repair-panels/mini-body-shells.html, but I don’t know if it would be economically feasible to import one, especially with such a high price set for the parts car.
Always loved the original Minis. Got a big kick seeing them in the London New Years Day Parade.
My first car was a 1965 Mini Cooper. Paid $25.00 for it in 1969 when I was 15. Had a rod sticking out of the front block. I’ve seen go karts roll over, so I guess a Mini Cooper could do the same
Repair it or re-shell it. Both possible.
Maybe roll it the other direction… problem solved.
$1K I’m in.
One thing to consider is that this car rolled, and we don’t know how long it was either upside-down or on it’s side. In such an accident, the engine is usually running when the car rolls, and the last thing most people are concerned with is turning off the ignition. They are usually more concerned if everyone in the car is OK, and how to get out safely.
The question is how long did the engine run in a position where the oil was not making it to the crankshaft and rod bearings. I would certainly want to hear the car running, both hot and cold, and give it some revs to see if anything rattles.
Kinda hard to get gas into the cylinders while wrong-side up.
Getting 4 plus quarts of oil immediately dumped on the back side of the pistons will stop it too assuming the driver doesn’t have his foot on the gas pedal. Carbs don’t like upside down either.
Steveo,
An engine can run long enough in an inverted position to cause lack of lubrication at the crank journals, it doesn’t take long, just a few minutes.
My eldest daughter was a paramedic and emergency first responder who has remarked of cars still running while on their side or upside down when she arrived on the scene. Her station for years was along the I-270 corridor that has a lot of high speed rollovers.
My original 1962 997 Cooper was rolled by a family member, on a freshly gravelled sideroad. The back of the roof was so badly bent that the top of the rear window opening was touching the parcel shelf, and all 4 wheels were bent, and pointed in different directions. Bought it back from the insurance co, and, lacking funds, drove it 35 miles, to a well-known bodyshop, at 20 MPH, with 4-ways flashing. Previously, the back end had been hopping sideways, at speed, on bumpy sideroads. Body repaired and painted, drove it to the local BMC dealer for a full alignment, and, thenceforth, it handled like it was on rails, at any speed. With just a windshield and the door windows, everything loose removed, I terrorized more than a few of the local hotrodders, until I came up against a Mercury Comet which was built by Ford for the dragstrip, with everything you could think of made of aluminum. He dusted me, bigtime! The narrow Mini wheels, on this car, may have been part of the problem, or the owner may have read the factory manual, as did I, that specified 18 psi for tire pressure. Upon finalization of the purchase, I set everything to factory spec (HA), and almost rolled the car within a half mile, on a big curve, at 75 MPH. The Mini engines came in Green, not Red, and the upholstery in Coopers for Canada were two-tone, gray with red/green/blue/black inserts. I think a good bodyshop should be able to straighten this body, but one has to be careful to see if the body has been twisted, such that the floorpan at the front is not in the same plane as the floorpan in the rear. British cars were known to have pretty accurate speedometers, and a 1275 S could wind it up pretty close to the end. FUN !
I’d buy it, if I didn’t suffer from too many years, and the attendant wear & tear.