1.3 HL into MG Turbo 316

[Guest]

Been on here for a while now but not put up any pics as yet. So i thought that i would put some up of my 2 maestros, soon to be 1.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/100_0358.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/100_0354.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/100_0336.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/100_0333.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/100_0361.jpg

Started swapping suspension over now. So there will lots of 1.3 parts looking for a good home, including an A+ engine and gearbox with only 35000 miles.

[Guest]

So whats wrong with turbo 316?.

And that 1.3 looks like a pretty solid car too!.

Mal.

[John S]

Great idea with regards to saving yourself work on welding but how on earth are you going to legally re-shell the car?? I wouldn't fancy having anything other than the original number plate for starters...

[Guest]

Why waste a very Nice and Rare Maestro.
You could easily buy Panels of Hadrians or something like that and weld them in.
After all it looks far too good and rare to be stripped for the sake of an illegal re-shell.

[Wetfish]

Yes, nice idea but I guess everybody is thinking “How is he going to do that?”
And everybody knows what’s coming next…
The really bad idea is advertising the fact, of course if it’s a Q car carry on.
Somethings are best kept behind closed (garage) doors.

[Guest]

Turbo 316, has done 231k, so the shell will be quite a bit weaker now, and the floor and sills and underbody have been repaired so many times before, and are so rotten that a reshell is really the only option. It looks nice on the out side but is very very rotten, and would be unsafe and a waste of time to try to repair the shell.

The 1.3 shell is very soild, just needs a new inner arch on the o/s/r, and 2 new outer sills. The drivers door also needs replacing but not due to rust, due to accident damage.

I will legally reshell 316, which will mean having Q plates. Or i could scrap 316 and just make a B reg Maestro turbo, though if i did that it would not be a tickford one anymore.

[Guest]

Oh dear .. You shouldnt of admitted doing that .. Its something you get frowned on and abused for doing ..
Personally I have no problem with it .. The shell of the car is just one big bit .. It all comes down to how you do it .. I have a car that was a Maestro Turbo and is no in an Advantage shell and it has that cars identity .. All nice and straight forward If however you move the identity its where all the fun comes ..
I had planned to do it with 477, but got lots of abuse so gave the car away for parts
If a car is terminally rusty I dont see the problem.. Lots of the panels are NLA and I think by the end of 2008 you wont be able to get any new ones from Rover (X Part).. So to all the ones who frown upon this, and dont have a mint car I think its a very shortsighted view.
If done properly a reshell can easily be done so no one would know :laugh: carefull bit of welding and a bareshell respray .. Job Done
Or you could declare and go for a Q plate ... Decisions Decisions

[Guest]

Thanks for your support MGTurbo261, at the end of the day the Mg Maestro Tickford turbos were all made on the same line, and it was the luck of the draw which chassis got the MG Tickford turbo number.

At the end of the day i am going to save myself a lot of time and money doing it this way and what i am doing is better than just breaking the car on ebay for parts. MG Turbo 316 may have its oriagal shell scraped but the rest will live on.

I have posted the pics on here as i am being honest about what i am doing and am doing every thing legally.

By carrying out this reshell i will be helping other owners keep their cars on the road as nothing will be wasted. All trim parts from the 1.3 will be available, it has brown trim and the first type dash, so quite rare. The turbo has the early type MG seats fitted so when i get them retrimed of replaced with the correct type someone will be able to have them 2, and as i understand it they are very rare in themshelves.

[Guest]

Thanks for your support MGTurbo261, at the end of the day the Mg Maestro Tickford turbos were all made on the same line, and it was the luck of the draw which chassis got the MG Tickford turbo number.

At the end of the day i am going to save myself a lot of time and money doing it this way and what i am doing is better than just breaking the car on ebay for parts. MG Turbo 316 may have its oriagal shell scraped but the rest will live on.

I have posted the pics on here as i am being honest about what i am doing and am doing every thing legally.

By carrying out this reshell i will be helping other owners keep their cars on the road as nothing will be wasted. All trim parts from the 1.3 will be available, it has brown trim and the first type dash, so quite rare. The turbo has the early type MG seats fitted so when i get them retrimed of replaced with the correct type someone will be able to have them 2, and as i understand it they are very rare in themshelves.

People forget that you will be putting a lot of time effort and cost into the project and will be saving another rare Tickford Turbo, its not like you woke up one day and thought I know I will reshell my Maestro Turbo ..
I for one congratulate you for doing this .. Keep us posted with progress

[John S]

I'd have it on the original B reg plate then fit a private plate or say, "look, I decided to restore the original car after all!"

[Guest]

"look, I decided to restore the original car after all!"

Me too ...

[Guest]

Seems like a plan to me

[D87SMW]

You've said Turbo 316 is too far gone to safely restore. You've decided to scrap the shell because of this, so that's the car gone. It is pointless 're-shelling' it into another car because it is no longer the car that the genuine number was assigned to.

In this case, why not leave the low mileage, great condition, original, rare 1.3HL alone for someone to use and get yourself an MG EFi/2.0i that you can upgrade with the Turbo parts and have yourself a spares source for. You'd have a better starting point there, having similar running gear, trim, interior etc. etc.

You've probably decided what you're going to do now anyway, but you're on about taking two original vehicles, both rare in their own ways and making a 'bits-a' car out of them, with the end result being neither of the two.

If you source a tidy run of the mill 1.3/1.6L/LX/SL etc. of similar vintage as the Turbo you could even assign your numberplate across to it and still have that...

[Guest]

You've said Turbo 316 is too far gone to safely restore. You've decided to scrap the shell because of this, so that's the car gone. It is pointless 're-shelling' it into another car because it is no longer the car that the genuine number was assigned to.

In this case, why not leave the low mileage, great condition, original, rare 1.3HL alone for someone to use and get yourself an MG EFi/2.0i that you can upgrade with the Turbo parts and have yourself a spares source for. You'd have a better starting point there, having similar running gear, trim, interior etc. etc.

You've probably decided what you're going to do now anyway, but you're on about taking two original vehicles, both rare in their own ways and making a 'bits-a' car out of them, with the end result being neither of the two.

If you source a tidy run of the mill 1.3/1.6L/LX/SL etc. of similar vintage as the Turbo you could even assign your numberplate across to it and still have that...

The genuine number was attached to a car which was a collection of parts, the vin number on a plate attached to the pillar and also stamped into the suspension top. Using your argument anyone who changes the doors etc or even part of the engine looses its identity ..
Reshelling takes place all the time, look at MGB's, Minis etc etc .. a reshelled Mk1 Mini Cooper is still a Mk1 Mini Cooper .. It just happens to have a new or used part to replace one that was rotten.
The chances are the other car was destined for the scrapper anyway, the cars are his and what he wants to do with them is surely his business.
Steve why not give him your Maestro kit car and swap that for the 1.3HL ? The pristine shell of yours would be much better on a Turbo

[Wetfish]

If you consider the VIN number is the identity of a vehicle, what would happen if you owned car A and then officially scrapped that vehicle via the DVLA. You then removed everything from the shell including the VIN stamp on the front turret, leaving no sign that any number had been stamped. You then paint said shell the same colour as car B and then say to the DVLA I’ve acquired a new shell for this vehicle, can I use the original VIN number? Presumably, the vehicle would need to be inspected before this would happen but it’s not inconceivable that there “might” be new shells out there. After all, it’s happening with ‘B’s, Midgets, Sprites and Mini’s so it’s not unheard of.
Anybody care to comment or discuss, it might lead somewhere.