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

Took mine out for a drive today and had fun almost loosing grip in 2nd and 3rd. She a strong runner that loves to pull hard all the way to 8K.

(Not Stock)

 

I posted these pics over in Rufus' Refresh thread, but they were too pretty not to share over here... 3 coats of ceramic (Gyeon) and a thorough detailing.

 

I like the stickers I have put on my MINIs. They are thematic and I have never given a crap about imagined HP.

 

Heck that extra 25 sticker HP has to help. You get a pass on the Old Fart Motoring Club sticker.

 

My "Old Fart Motoring Club" sticker covers the window tint hole in the back window of my R50 that one of my dogs tore when he tried to break through the window to get a cat. It serves its purpose well.

 

I was in a caravan w/ Nathan, probably heading to MOTD back in 2008 or so. One of his front wheel arches started flapping about madly (the clip let go), so we added a bit of duct tape to keep it from flailing about. One stripe of tape looked pretty funny, but when we added a second... well, it actually looked pretty cool! Like a pair of racing stripes!

 

I-45 Dallas to Houston. Driving to the Houston Grand Prix with a friend and fellow car photographer. It's about ten at night, no moon, only headlights. I've got a Dodge Magnum SRT press car for the week. Full media access to the race. Life is good.

BOOM!

18-wheeler truck tire carcass meets very low hanging Magnum SRT chin spoiler.

We come grinding to a stop on the shoulder, and gather up the loose parts behind us on the highway, and toss them in the back.

We drag the spoiler along the shoulder to a Truck Stop not far South. We buy some Duct Tape, and tape the spoiler back in place, as best we can.

Next morning, we discover the silver paint on the Dodge is the exact color of duct tape. So me and Al do a little Duct Tape bodywork. It doesn't look half bad.

It didn't comfort the Chrysler press car guy. But, I figured I should call him and tell him his Magnum would be in the body shop for a while. He told me it just got out of the body shop for the same repair. Seems that was not a good design element, IMO.

CD

 

When I do full details with coating I have the car 3 days. Most cars are dropped off Fridays after work, this way I can do all the washing and wheel work outside and let the car air dry on the garage overnight.

Saturday is polishing/ paint correction day for however long it takes. When the paint is perfect I apply RainX to all windows wipe down the cars bodywork with “PREP” to remove all oils and waxes. Then I start coating the car with two complete layers. Cure times in between are about an hour. Then the car bakes in my super bright light garage where the temp gets up to 105 degrees easy.

Sunday most cars are picked up at Noon. All I have to is pull the car out, do final touch-ups on windows and tires and off she goes.

 

Thanks, been using them for years. When I get home I spray with Prima Hydro & dry it off. Seems to work well for me. Not Dave O approved. It is Crashton approved. The paint still shines 12 years after it was built.

 

Nice! I'm jealous of the DI system. I'm fairly lucky with Charlotte's municipal water supply being fairly soft (tested by eye, seeing water spots on the paintwork). I've gotten by with a wash with overzealous rinsing of panels already washed (keep everything wet), washing in the shade and using the leaf blower to do 95% of the drying once I'm done washing. It's not anywhere near your setup, but it does OK

 

I have some ideas in mind for the JCW Clubman but some of my constraints are budget and Happy wife.

First off is getting some protection on the front and maybe in the fall change out the stock MINI bonnet strips, we shall see. After I get about 2 or 3K on it, maybe a track day and see how much wobble it has, it cannot be as bad as the wobble in the 16.

 

I haven't seen rats here in Charlotte, but I did see a chipmunk go under the hood of my daily-driver Volvo that I park out in the driveway. I've heard that you can tie fabric softener sheets in the engine bay to keep rodents out of there (they smell too strong and they would rather go somewhere else). I've popped out a few times in the past few weeks to check and everything seems fine under the hood of the Volvo for now.

I did put some Stabil in the tank of the MINI and the Volvo. I filled the tanks in Feb, before the lock-down, and they still have 2/3 of a tank each! I'm out to have some fun in the middle of August w/ a local group of MINI folks, so that problem should be solved soon.

 

Put some Irish Spring soap under your hood. There's something about the tallow in the soap that critters don't like.
It also keeps deer out of the garden, just grate it with a coarse cheese grater and sprinkle it around the perimeter of the garden.

 

Not bloody likely.

After quite a bit of effort I got it out.
It left a big fat T shaped hole that is bigger
than one would feel good about patching and
plugging.

I hate it when this happens to a relatively new
215/45/R17 PS4S.

 

Wow, that truley sucks. I went to Discount today and put full replacement warranty, patching, rotation and blancing on the Bridgestone runflats Turanza t005, not even in the tire place books. So got this covered until this set wears out. I am thinking a set of 17 inch steel wheels with winter tires for the ALL4 this year and the JCW comes with summer tires as ordered to the dealer. Did not even try to negotiate with the salesguy or GSM, not going with the marked up MINI tire and wheel package either, did that in 2007 then put on JCW wheels. And had to get a few more sets of tires as the mods wore them out.

 

Now that is a sweet picture of some Dragon action.

Took the 2011 over to a local wash and detail place and had the flying Golden Retriever hair removed and interior cleaned of the Countryman, it will last a day, but we feel better for the cash outlay. Only $35 to extract all that hair, in and out in about 45 minutes. Came home and gave the outside a nice spiff. At 3:45, the thunderstorms arrived and both MINIs in the garage and the shelters are on the garden and roses to save them from hail too.

Maybe time for a nap.

Don