Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

I must be lucky - I only got pulled over once in all these years in Wisconsin, was doing 65+ in a construction zone north of Beaver Dam on 151 heading to Road America in the rain. Only a warning. I don't really go over the limit often, and in fact am getting old and grumpy about the morons driving into Madison in the morning doing 75 in a 55. Never seen a single cop in that segment of 151, ever. Add photo radar and you can fund the entire city police department with the revenue of that camera, but people around here don't want them...

In my town (Sun Prairie) cops seem to be non-existent. Traffic rules are not enforced at all - right turn on red from the second lane going onto Main street - you could write 1000 tickets there a day, but nobody ever is pulled over. Running 4-way stops at 15mph? Hell, that's almost like stopping here. Seems they don't want to offend the local voters with ticketing them.

In all my years of driving in the US, I only got one ticket, for doing 87 in a 70 in the middle of nowhere in Nevada, close to the Utah border on US 50. Moments before I was being passed by a posse of locals doing 100+ in vans and pickups. But I had out of state plates (in the rear only, didn't matter to the guy) in a red sporty car - ticket magnet. That is also why my son put the plate on the front of our Chili Red Mini... ticket magnet color.

 

When I had two cars, a daily driver and a Miata toy, I had the Miata set up for tracking at Motorsports Ranch, where I was a member. One of the mods I did was have the wheels aligned with about 1-degree of negative camber. Since I only put a couple thousand miles a year on that car, and it being a 2,400 pound car, I didn't have any significant tire wear issues.

With my MINI being my ONLY car, right now, I am reluctant to do any mods to it.

CD

 

Crappy rear tire wear is from not adding adjustable rear control arms and having your car aligned correctly. The spec BMW / MINI alignment is crap for a MINI with spacers, larger anti-sway bar , lowerd or wider tires.

If you mod your suspension the OEM specs are not for you.

 

Dropped my car off at HELIX today for this springs RMW mod list. Woohoo

Oh anyone need a kidney? I have a good one with only 49 years on it. lol

 

Oh but I do Gave the ol' girl a bath last night. I swear I've never needed bug and tar remover in my life, until I moved to GA. I had a streak of tar all the way up my door from the front tire.

 

Emptied my catch can yesterday. I had an M7 can on there for a year and all that was in the can after that year was a dirty film inside. A $105 Mishimoto from Amazon- https://www.amazon.com/Mishimoto-MMBCC-MSTWO-BK-Compact-Baffled-2-Port/dp/B00OBEP51K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1519315027&sr=8-3&keywords=mishimoto+catch+can was MUCH better, as it ACTUALLY WORKS.
This is what came out of it, that's 3 months of water and a little oil sludge on top.

 

So Qik when do you do the front wiper delete?

 

My car sat in driving rain all day, in a mud parking lot. I am photographing a dead guy's "collection" of 68 cars this week. It has everything from a 1980 Pacer with 3,000 miles, to a 2010 Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead with 1,400 miles, and a 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC with 130 miles, that still has the factory protective plastic on the seats -- a 20 year old new car.

Ah, and there is also a 2012 MINI CooperS Roadster in Spice Orange with low mileage -- I didn't look at the odometer, yet. Pretty car, but it is an automatic.

CD

 

It's raining today because I washed my car last night. Had to get all that dirt and sand off my car from last weekend's road trip.

 

I use 5 inch pads and purchased a separate 5 inch backing plate. Amazon sells them for cheap.

Try a Rupes Yellow pad with Sonax Perfect finish for cutting and polishing. Then switch to the softer Rupes White pad to “fine” polish with the same Sonax product. Watch the video below.

http://www.esotericcarcare.com/sonax-perfect-finish/

 

Thanks Dave that's a good video. I used to watch the guy that owns Ammo NYC on the youtubes, I've got a full day to watch pointers on this Esoteric channel Got me some 6" and 5" polishing and finishing pads as well as that Sonax Perfect Finish. Got some 6"ers since we've got a 4 door F-150 and I'm sure they'll still be to small for that giant.

The MINI is a tad dirty since it's been raining all week. She's feelin great but lately I've been wondering... Since my previous HPFP replacement at about 55-60k I've put nothing but QT 93 which was recommended to me by a BMW master tech/engineer out of BMW of South ATL. That HPFP failed at about 98k. Todd at Bavarian Repair told me his thoughts were that they could be failing due to the ethanol in our gas nowa days, but he's not 100% sure that's why they fail. Does anyone really know why they fail so often?
Happy Friday you MINI freaks!

 

This pacer has 1,880 miles on it. If I can get it for cheap enough, I'm going to buy it -- just because it is weird, and has 1,880 miles on it. I have to buy it at the auction, no pre-sales allowed, but if they know I want it, they can try to make it go to me... but in the end, they have to go with the high bidder. It is a balancing act. They can try and help me buy it, but they have an ethical obligation to put the seller's interests first. But, being and estate collection, it is all no reserve. So, anything can happen.

There are a couple cars and trucks I'm interested in buying if the price is right. Lots of very ordinary cars with incredibly low milage. If I can get them dirt cheap, I can market them and make some money -- maybe not a lot of money, but enough to make it worth my time. That 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII that still has the factory protective plastic on the seats is an interesting gamble.

CD

 

Bitsy Mae's valve cover is starting to in the front. I feel a How To coming on

 

Nothing. I drove to Austin on business, and got a rent-a-car on the customer's dime. My MINI is spotless right now, and I don't have time to take my Hill Country route to Austin, so it is a rented Toyota Corolla taking the I-35 (NAFTA Highway) beating on this trip. I had to swerve onto the shoulder at one point to avoid a truck tire carcass in the middle of my lane today. I'm not risking my MINI on that kind of BS.

CD

 

Will be changing the header on my ride tomorrow. Flex pipe is all tore to hell.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Make sure you use a sanding block.

 

I did a 78 car collection photoshoot last week, and grabbed a couple of license plates, which are not "stamped" in Texas, so they are perfectly flat. I used them as backing plates for my own FLP, so now my FLP is three plates thick.

It was a free fix, so I'll see how it works. Being 56 and white, I could get away with no FLP where I live, but I drive through some real hick towns from time to time, so why give some revenue-generating cop an opportunity to make a quick 200-bucks.

CD

 

Watched the snow cover mine today. Hopefully for the last time this year.