Only four months late with this tidbit, but if your headlight is on but inexplicably dim, it's not actually on. The British minis have the parking/side lights hidden behind the headlight, shining through a clear section in the reflector. I have had a lot of troubles with the wiring on my headlights, with the connector at the back of the light shorting out so bad it melted. Then the light switch inside the car somehow shorted against the top of the heater box. That one was incredibly frustrating, as it would work fine as soon as you drop the heater to test the wiring! Now I seem to have a problem with either the wiring to, or the actual dim/dip switch on the floor. Same net result though, everyone tells me the low beams are on, just really dim. It's just those parking lights shining through again....
Ah yes, but US Minis don't have those park lights in the headlights, ours use sealed beams, which have a high and low beam (dipped) built in, but no park lights. On our cars the park light is in the turn signal - they light up steady, with a second element that's brighter that lights up for turns. I maintain she has a bad ground, that's usually the cause of a dim headlight.
No V-Tech in Craig's near flawless Panel. I don't remember if it's a 1293 or 1380 that was built by Brian Waters, but it runs better than most street cars I've seen. The wheels are 10x6 Mambas w/o spacers on an all Cooper S brake set-up. Take a look at post 64 above and you'll get a glimpse of the side of both cars... On our next track excursion, my buddy with the MGB ought'a have his Panel out there to add to the mix. Here's a teaser pic. He'll be posting some detailed shots before too long, I'm sure. :beer
My lady and I bought this on Tuesday and got it legally on the road today...I'm in the process of learning how to fix minis now because we have had a couple of small niggles but it's quickly becoming a passion of mine (I've always been useless at DIY in the past but maybe I never had a reason to attempt it before)...first job is to replace the carb float arm thing, put a matching wing mirror on and add some interior trims, then I'd like to learn about the engine in more detail We are already in love with her, we just need to name her now...any suggestions??
Here are some photos of my Mini getting a state inspection a couple of months ago, right after I imported it. That was the first part of the registration/licensing process. No, it didn't fall through the hole in the shop floor! The state inspection was easy, but I really got the run-around with local police departments in trying to get one of them to actually look at the car and inspect the VIN (necessary because it had foreign paperwork). Finally got a detective to verify the VIN and then I gave the DMV a stack of paperwork to satisfy them. The state's happy, and I'm happy. As for the car, it's an '88 Austin Mini (and it really is an 1988 model - I wanted to made sure it was completely legal for import under the 25 year rule so I didn't have to worry about the feds potentially coming after it later on). This is the 7th Mini I've owned and for this one I basically commissioned the car to be built to my wishes by a good shop in the UK. I chose the white color as my first car was a white Mini when I was 17, so this is nostalgic for me.
Hey, Bruce - I'd love to hear more about the process you went through to get the car here. How did you hook up with the shop over there?
Bruce, that looks just like the inspection station I had to take Buzz thru to get his VIN verified before I could license him..... I'm surprised I hadn't posted a pic of Buzz in this thread yet......
The gold really adds something to the look of the car, I'm not normally a gold wheels fan, but since the rest of the color is so bland, they do help! I don't think it would look as good with black or even silver wheels....