So last year I spotted a mini up for sale that had done 27 miles in three years in north Wales and with various mods I was looking to do anyway. I wasn’t looking for a project but something that I could enjoy for a couple of years before needing work.So given the mini had an MOT I decided I was driving it near 400 miles home. That’s when the fun began ?. Given the car hadn’t gone far in the last few years I said I wasn’t going to push it but the joy I had for the first 20 minutes was amazing. I felt so good to be back in a mini. First breakdown I discovered the reason I was overtaking everyone was the speedo wasn’t calibrated properly so what I thought was 50/60 mph, wasn’t! Car over heating and sludge in the cooling system meant I was flushing the system for a couple of hours before I could set off again. It was getting dark since I wasted a lot of time with the first breakdown and then noticed the headlights were like candlesticks. Now I know mini headlights aren’t great but this was silly. With my mate driving behind me with proper headlights we got 300 odd miles before we needed to stop for a sleep. It had been a long day. Trying to start the car after the rest and it wouldn’t. Tired and just wanting to get home I succumbed and phoned breakdown to finish the journey.
So getting home a list began.
With the access of the flipfront I took a look at why I broke down. Looking at why the car didn’t make it home was a simple slip of the alternator bottom bracket. Had I not been exhausted I could have made the whole journey under its own steam but oh well. So tighted that up. The headlights I discovered were sealed beams and given the age of the car and some of the modifications I’m surprised there weren’t changed to H4s. So new halogen headlights were ordered.
The mini was on 13s when I bought it but they weren’t for me. I ran 12s on my first mini and that handled better but I thought this time round it would have to be 10s so a brake disc conversion was ordered, 10x5 exacton wheels from a friend in the club (powder coated gold) and some yoko tyres was to be my first proper mark on the mini.