Howdy, this is my first post to this forum. One of many I'm sure. I recently acquired an Australian 1966 Cooper S requiring restoration. The original color is BRG with white top. Since the car will be stripped to bare metal, I was thinking about changing the color, even though the colors are stamped on the firewall plate (New British Racing Green).

I'm in the USA, not overly found of racing green. What do you think? If you had a 66 in Bathurst colors, would you change it? Red? Island Blue? Bright orange?

Cheers!

Mark

Mate,
The choice of which colour is always going to be up to you, but consider the value of the the car increases dramatically if the car is kept in the original colour. I'm biased of course as I have a 67 New British Racing Green with white roof Cooper s!!

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------------1967 Mini Cooper S--------------
The quality will be long remembered well and truely after the price is forgotten.

I would be painting it the original colour to keep the car original, and it's value higher.

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i'll second that i'm a massive fan of BRG. so i'd leave it.

but if you plan on keeping it a while go with whatever you like, island blue is nice.

I'm not a fan of BRG, but if I had a car that was originally BRG, then I'd keep it - if I didn't know the original colour, I'd do Shadow Blue - it's beautiful, and a '66 colour too

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

How original is the car? Does it have its original matching engine? What about the engine ancillaries and interior? Does it have a known history?

If you can answer positively to the above questions, then I would recommend re-painting the car in its original colour to preserve its history and value.

If the answer is no, and you are not keen on BRG, then maybe go for a colour that was available in that year. There are many nice shades.

BTW the 66 Bathurst winning car was Castrol Green, not BRG.

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In the garage:
1970 Morris Cooper S MK2 | 2010 MINI Cooper JCW Challenge Edition

Now with new owners:
1964 Morris 850 Van | 1965 Morris Cooper S MK1 | 1976 Leyland Mini | 1999 Rover Mini Cooper Classic | 2006 MINI Cooper JCW

Thanks for the correction on the Bathurst color...

Car is very original. Numbers match. Engine, firewall plate, and fan shroud numbers all check out. Interior is faded. All the little Morris Cooper S details are correct.

Value vs. personal taste. That's where I'm stuck.

Shadow Blue looks to be a beautiful color. I don't really plan on selling the car anytime soon, but you never know with job cuts and all...

There seem to be a lot of BRG cars, so I was thinking that a more unique color might be worth consideration.

side note: the doors on my Mini need to be re-skinned, so I you see any rust free roll-up doors at a reasonable price, let me know.

Thanks for the input...

There is a few different opinions about the colour of the Bathurst winning Mini (the whole team of cars actually)
Some say that it was Castrol Green and others say that it was a factory stock green.
My own view is that it was a stock colour. (I have a theory that I am still researching)

If i had that mini i wouldnt even consider the idea of changing the colour

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Reskinning a door is not a big deal really and the door skins are readily available. Its a lesser ordeal than stripping down another door, finding the inevitable rust or bog somewhere.

The only variance in all the door skins is basically the position or type of door handle. Bear in mind that much later rover mini (larger rear window ) had a different sized door.

Mike

my mini is Lake Green, I was in the same position as yourself. All matching numbers etc.. was thinking of white and Black roof. But deceided to go original colour, and At first I hated the colour but now I absoloutley love the Olivey Green that lake Green is!!

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Guy doing the metal work says it will likely be around $1,000 to reskin the doors. I saw a pair here recently for $450. Will likely reskin, but never hurts to look prior to spending $$.

I'll probably stick with the original colors. New British Racing Green/Toga White top.

Hmm - I just looked at a price list from an Australian supplier and they are listed at less than $200 Aus dollars - given that the aus dollar only buys .75 of a US dollar you might find importing from Aus or Britain a better option.

There are number of Aust suppliers that carry practically a full range of mini spares both new and used.

Mike

$200 for a door, or for reskinning an existing door?

No for the door skins themselves. Pressed sheet metal panel.

But even so a good panel beater can cut and shut sheet metal into the rusted areas - its a fairly routine job for them.

I bought a pair of wind up window australian doors off someone on Ausmini a couple of years back and I think the cost was around $100 in total but they are getting harder to find in good condition. I didn't pay postage interntionally though.

Mike