Indi Blue MCS with Union Jack roof
I fitted some chrome washer jet caps on GBMINI today – the black ones were graying from wax, and Indi Blue looks much better with chrome. I bought them from CooperTuning, a german company – the parts arrived in about a week so no problems with shipping. The price with shipping is around $30. They fit over the black washer jet and fastens with double sided tape – it does not quite fit down to the hood, but looks fine unless you get really close!
A little MINI therapy tonight – the first wash since before MINIs On Top last month!
I also vacuumed out the inside and put in some blue MINI carpet mats that I bought from someone in Canada (MINI Canada has them (part number 51-471-490-809), but you can’t get them in USA!)
I think they look nice – have to see how they hold up compared with the Cocomats I had before (which do a great job of swallowing the dirt). UPDATE: The blue mats do not like winter grit – I switched back to the Cocomats till spring comes …
GBMINI is back 🙂
Tweeter Nashua called this morning to say it was ready – supposedly everything was removed and the car was back to how it was before I took it up there for the install. So I got a friend to drive me up …
Somewhat unsurprisingly, I found the car NOT in the condition it was before Tweeter first worked on it!
There was NO SOUND AT ALL from the speakers.
When I checked in the trunk, I found that they had not bothered to reconnect the old Harmon Kardon amplifier – in fact the harness for it was still bundled with other wires and inaccessible.
I managed to get the harness reconnected and then had sound; I checked that all four speaker positions were working and sounded correct – at least they got the speakers back properly!
In addition there are a number of cables in the car now that did not used to be there – apparently Tweeter did not think it necessary to remove all that they had done to the car (their interpretation of “back to how it was” and mine differ).
It was great to be driving a MINI again, and nice to be able to listen to good sounding music with no engine noise. So tonight my wife and I went out for a drive to Rockport and back. Saw a scary accident about two miles from home – a car basically in a tree to the side of the road and the police still measuring (the speed limit there is 30; no idea how the car got where it was). The windshield was seriously deformed on the passenger side 😦 A major reminder of the importance of safe driving, speed limits, seat belts, etc.
On the way back I noticed a metallic rattling from the passenger side; Margaret said it sounded like it was coming from the lower area, where the seat belt comes from. So when I got home I had a quick check round … I was horrified to discover that the seat belt mounting bracket was not properly installed to the floor so was loose and rattling!
Tweeter presumably removed it at some time (necessary to remove the panel under the door) and did not correctly re-install it! I cannot imagine what would have happened if we had needed the seat belt to function!
So you will not be surprised to learn that I will not visit Tweeter Nashua again. I do not know if they failed so badly with my stereo install due to a problem with the MINI, the equipment or their own skill levels … some of the things that went wrong bias me toward a particular answer.
If you own a MINI Cooper S with Lojack and have successfully installed an amp and speakers, please contact me!
M&I / GBMINI 