Nice Rack

Years ago, I had gotten a whole bunch of used Midget parts from a fellow at church. Amidst the collection was everthing from body panels to doors to seats to mechanical parts to whatever. Most of the stuff is old and rusty and unusable. But among the stuff was a luggage rack and a boot lid. The luggage rack itself would've cost me $300 from eBay, but we paid just $100 for the whole collection of stuff.

Anyway, with thoughts of getting the car painted soon, I thought it'd be neat to get both boot lids painted (one with holes for the rack and one without) so that I had the option to choose. I think I prefer the cleanliness of the car sans rack, but I like the option of being able to use the rack if I was going on a trip or needed the space.

So today I affixed the rack to the lid, and then the lid to the car - to see how it all came together. It's hard to tell with the unpainted lid, but I think it looks nice.

Back Up Lights are Back Up

Finally got the 'correct' reverse lamp switch from Moss. Not sure if they labeled it wrong, or if my transmission is actually a 60s model, but I put it in earlier this week with minor setbacks. I should be all set for inspection now!

Spring Time

The Midget is equipped with 1/2 elliptic leaf springs as part of its rear suspension. In preparation for inspection, I went about replacing all of the worn bushings on the right side. Dad and I had done the left side back in 2008, so I won't go into a lot of detail since it has been covered before. But it was certainly more difficult than I remembered. I got off to a good start with disassembly, but I eventually had to enlist Dad's help on two occasions.

The first, I was only able to remove half of the bushing on the front side. Dad helped me hammer out the rest with a chisel. The second, upon reassembly, I somehow cross-threaded one of the nuts welded to the floorboard of the car. Dad showed up tonight with his tap and die set, and we were able to clean it up. He stuck around to help me put the rest of things back together for which I was extremely thankful. Some things are so much easier to do logistically with two people. Like when screwing in the 3 bolts in the rear plate, one person had to hold the bolt steady from underneath the car while the other secures the nut from inside the boot. It was quite difficult for me to remove them by myself, and I'd imagine putting them back in by myself would have been crazy difficult. It was tricky. It went relatively smooth with Dad here.

So thanks again to my dad for his assistance. When I called him, I was so frustrated that I could never seem to finish a task (of a certain magnitude) on my own. But I just keep reminding myself that I'm slowly learning new things (which I am) and continuing to acquire a respectable tool collection (Dad is 'lending' me his tap and die set and brought me some chisels) - both of which will help me in future projects.

I still don't have a vise though. So I improvised.

Rear BEFORE

Rear AFTER

Front BEFORE

Front AFTER

Completed leaf spring.

Getting it back on the car.

Looking Back

I took a drive down to my parents today for Mother's Day. I went across the street to visit Amy, an old neighbor, who has owned two Binis. A red hardtop which, from what I understand, was quite the lemon. And more recently, a red cabriolet. An '07 I think.

We each took a turn behind the wheel of each other's cars. Although she doesn't normally drive stick, she was comfortable enough going up and down the cul-de-sac. Then I took her automatic out on the roads. One of my favorite things about my gray Mini was the interior, so it was pretty nostalgic sitting inside of her car. I felt immediately comfortable. Her interior was quite nice too - chrome trim, additional gauges, leather seats. And although hers wasn't an S (nor a manual), the experience has fueled my desire to get another one of these beasts.

Crazy Sunday

I got up this morning and headed out for a drive that ended up lasting several hours. I drove toward Zionsville in the Midget to stop at a few nurseries (I need some arborvitae for my backyard) and to try and locate some billboards I had designed at work. I only found two billboards but ended up stopping at 3 or 4 different nurseries. I definitely got some color from the sun, and the car drove great. At this point, the only thing I haven't been able to fix yet on the Midget is the reverse light switch. I've ordered two from Moss whose product descriptions fit my year/engine, but both have been much too small. So I'm not sure what now. I have a month to sort it out until inspection is up.



Then when I returned home, I changed the oil in the Mini. I waited much too long to do this...especially since the engine and transmission share the same supply. Although the manual says to get the car up in the air, it can somewhat easily be done without doing so. The drain plug is located near the front of the car and can be accessed from underneath. The filter, though also accessible from the bottom, can be reached more easily by removing the front grill. This is the approach I took.




As I was working on the car, a guy and his dog stopped at the foot of my driveway and asked if the car was a Mini (the guy did; not the dog). Turns out he's originally from Britain and guess what his first car was? He's not the first person I met that this was the case. For some reason, he didn't want to walk up the driveway and take a look at it, even though I presented the invitation. So we conveniently yelled out our conversation for the next 10 minutes at an awkward distance. He asked the usual questions and went along his way. He had a British accent, which is cool. I couldn't pick up the dog's dialect.