'89 Mini Flame

[HeidiL]

This is my Mini, which I've named Heinz, partly because when I got him he had a ridiculous twin bean-tin exhaust, and partly because the carb's set up wrong, or possibly just the wrong carb, and so he's rather flatulent.
He needs work to stop the flatulence, make it easier to get into third gear, and to sort out the bodywork and paint.
The stripes and flag roof were done by a previous owner, and while the stripes are standard decals, they felt the need to do the flag in what seems to be hammerite. It's lumpy and you can see where they took the masking tape off. Several panels are a slightly different red, including both doors and the boot lid, all of which are replacements, apparently all from different cars, so there are currently four keys - one for each door, one for the boot and one for the ignition.
I've already removed the 'Crewe's Missiles' and other window decals but I've not got round to putting on the replacements I bought. Once I've got the mechanicals sorted I'll sort out the bodywork and locks and get it resprayed. The DVLA have it listed as 'multicoloured' so I can do pretty much what I want with that. I've had a few ideas but not decided anything yet, though I do want to get the silver arches.

[waydee]

+ YouTube Video

Nice mini, certainly sounds like it has character

[HeidiL]

Of course, it's a mini. It's a rotbox, I know that, but it's *mine* and I love it even more after I passed my test in it this morning. And yes, that's the scene I was thinking of when I took that picture in the tyre place.

[waydee]

Oh excellent, congrats on passing. My cars being rather flatulent right now too, it's getting me disapproving looks

[HeidiL]

You should have heard the mini when it had the bean-tins on the back. Could barely hear the broken radio with its one stuck-in CD going 'unce unce unce' over the noise! White Van Man seemed to like it, though. That came off fast, but sadly Central Tyre botched the job, so now I've got squeaks.

[waydee]

buy it off a young guy? it always makes me sad when I see a car like a mini chav'd out, wish they'd stick to Corsas.

[shad_68]

so there are currently four keys - one for each door, one for the boot and one for the ignition.

But still, original Mini =

[killpanda]

I love the original mini, so much better than the BMW version...

Definitely on my cars wish-list

[HeidiL]

It's not bad for £900, certainly. I wouldn't have wanted a concours one, half the fun is in doing it yourself.
And yes, I bought it off a young lad, but the horrible paint and such wasn't his fault, it was like that when he bought it. They also had a rather nice white-with-black-roof in better - and more standard - condition that he'd bought to replace it.

[waydee]

Came close to buying one myself for a first car, was between a cooper and a mgb gt for a while. God knows how I ended up with a japanese saloon but there you go. Still want one though, I'm with killpanda - the new mini just doesn't have the appeal of the older ones.

[HeidiL]

It so doesn't. As I said on #gear yesterday, they're not minis, they're cosplaying BMWs. Probably nice enough, I've not driven one, but they're not minis.

[waydee]

They are great to drive, my driving school car was a Cooper and I've a few friends with them and the Cooper S but everything about them is BMW, very nicely put together, smooth, good power for a small car but as far from a Mini as you can get - no sense that you could repair it with a a rusty spanner and roll of duck tape. Big and heavy.

I never realised we had an IRC channel, I'll have to take a look

[HeidiL]

A friend's got the clubman - and they got that wrong, the front's the same, it's more of a countryman - and it seemed like a nice car, but yeah, pretty big.
With the mini, though... even nipping to tesco is fun. Never used duct tape on mine, but plenty of sandpaper. Had to fix the electrics with sandpaper.

[matt2000]

That's a fantastic little Mini. Does it have steel wheels under the hub caps? I think it would look nicer without them on.

Fixing the electrics with sandpaper = getting rid of corrosion on earth connections?

[HeidiL]

Yeah the hubcaps lasted until Gaydon's Mini 50 event, where we replaced one of the wheels with a random one we bought at the autojumble, as it had no spare. I can't remember now if we broke one getting it off or it wouldn't fit the new wheel, it was something like that.
I have informed my parents that what it wants for Christmas is a set of ultralites. The sandpaper was on the corroded connectors, yes.
Incidentally, my first car-maintenance experience was on a Land Rover Discovery and involved a hammer.

[killpanda]

Are you, by any chance, called Jeremy?

[HeidiL]

*lol* No, I don't think Mr C would fit in a mini. We were trying to change the alternator, and it was stuck so that we couldn't put enough force on the socket thingy. So we hit it with a hammer until it moved. That approach doesn't work as well on Impreza brakes.

[killpanda]

[jayhawk]

For giggles, repaint the roof with a flag from a obscure country like Trashcanistan or some such.

[SpitfireMK461]

Ooo! Nice Mini! That flag fits the old Mini so well. I'd like to get my hands on one of those some day, they seem like they can be very fun cars.