I was going for a new Heritage shell but the delivery was something like 12
months (but this is a few years ago) I decided to have dipped a 1970 MGB
GT shell I had bought as "good". The chap who was doing the work for me
called and said the body was dipped and he had one word for it -
"DISASTER". So I had a real top notch body man "do it". It needed new
floors, boot floor, one full rear quarter. one half rear quarter, door
skins, new dog legs and sills, repairs to tunnel, bulkhead, bonnet, engine
bay (to fit a Rover 3.5l), headlight holes fixed - a new wing(fender) had
a different shape (correct) to existing (bodged). When finished it was
better than new and you could not see where the repairs were done. Doors,
rear tailgate, and bonnet fitted perfectly. Total cost of body repairs
including panels was close to Cdn$6K. My estimate of the Heritage shell
was Cdn$10,000 before I got it shipped !!!
At 01:15 PM 10/31/2003 -0600, Paul Root wrote:
>If I remember correctly. About 10 years, around when they first came out,
>ago Peter Egan built a new MG with a shell. He put on a lot of new
>parts, because it was "too hard" to put old grubby parts on the nice new body.
>
>All told, not counting his labor, which is always free, he sunk $12-13k on it.
>
>Paul.
>
>
>Dodd, Kelvin wrote:
>
>>The shells are available, last time I looked they only did one US spec
>>shell (LHD). That is the approximately a 72-74 design.
>>Figure approximately $5,500 at your doorstep. This is not an accurate
>>figure, but use it to determine if you really want to inquire or not. If
>>you are serious I can find out what is available, and get a better handle
>>on cost.
>>Moss can have them shipped to either California or New Jersey, then they
>>would go truck frt from there. There is a crating charge, as the only
>>way to ensure they are mostly in one piece is to build a 2x4 box around
>>the entire car before they go on the boat. They come direct from
>>Heritage fairly unprotected.
>>An interesting point was that originally the tubs were supplied bare for
>>the customer to use their choice of new or used sheetmetal. Then
>>Heritage found that no-one had the experience to hang doors, fenders,
>>trunk lid etc. So the tubs are now assembled with new components.
>>Lawrie just beat me to the punch, but the reason no US supplier is
>>pushing these shells is that by the time you get one, have it prepped and
>>painted, fix the niggly bits that are always a pain and build the car up,
>>you could have bought a couple of reasonably rust-free US cars.
>>The heritage shell is a wonderful starting point if you have a totally
>>rusted out shell, such as found in the UK. Usually here in the US it is
>>not that difficult to find shells that only need simple repair such as
>>floors, sills etc.
>>Kelvin.
>>
>>
>>>>Hello list: Where could I find information on Heritage Body
>>>>shells? What does one cost, etc?
>>>
>>>They cost quite a bit. They're a special order item. Kelvin can
>>>obviously give you the gory details, but Brown & Gammons lists them in
>>>their catalog, and they're all north of UKP3000 (with VAT). Do the
>>>conversion to USD, and you're looking at a pretty big chunk of money.
>
>
>
>--
> ______
> / _ \ Paul T. Root <proot@iaces.com>
> / /|| \\ 600 Stinson Blvd N.E., Fl 1S
>||\/ || _ | Minneapolis, MN 55413
>|| || || PAG: +1 (877) 693-7155
> \ ||__// WRK: +1 (612) 664-3385
> \______/
>
Regards
Barrie
Barrie Robinson
barrier@bconnex.net
|