ALLGBMINI – Page 421 – M&I / GBMINI

GBMINIs First Zaino

Posted on June 4, 2005February 11, 2017 by Ian C.

Previously I have used Klasse, Zymol and P21S products to keep GBMINI(#1, #2) clean – but last year I saw what Zaino could do, on Josh Wardells Black MINI.
So for GBMINI#3 I followed Josh advice and bought a Zaino kit. Finally with todays improved weather I was able to tackle poor dirty GBMINI … and here is the result of more than 3 hours work – the painted hood stripes & “S” on the roof look much better when cleaned & polished!

Minolta DSC

Following instructions in the Zaino Kit, I first “Dawn” washed GBMINI#3, then used the included claybars – disappointingly these steps did not totally remove bird-dropping damage.
After that I used the Zaino Z7 to properly wash the car, followed by an application of Z5 then Z2 polish – I used the ZFX accelerator with both, but you still have to wait half an hour after application. I followed both polishes with the Z6, as instructed.

I probably need to apply more coats of polish but already one coat of each looks good – and I was running out of day!

Touring the MINI factory

Posted on June 3, 2005February 11, 2017 by Ian C.

Back in 2003 I toured the MINI factory in Oxford, England during a trip there; more recently Gabe Bridger visited and wrote about it on Motoringfile.

Today I received a write-up from Pat, who just took a trip over there – always interesting to read another perspective:
My arrangements to visit the MINI factory were made with Pedro from the BMW Group about three weeks before the visit. He sent a detailed packet of information via e-mail to help me prepare. After arriving at Heathrow Airport from Frankfurt, Germany, I took the Oxford Bus Lines from Heathrow. It’s about a 70-minute ride. Once in Oxford, I took the #10 bus from City Center to Cowley …
We take a short drive to Building 30 “Body in White” … we see pairs of robots working in unison to weld the middle section of the car together … the joined pieces have a small transducer mounted to the location where the pedals will be placed later. This transducer will tell the robots what model is to be built as the car moves through the shop …
… two MINIs hanging from the ceiling: one is a Cooper S while the other is a Convertible. From underneath, it’s easy to see the extra bracing, called a V-brace, which the Convertible has to stiffen its frame …
… they had already produced 179 cars for the day according to the large red digital sign in the Assembly building. As we left, they were approaching 212. Our guide said it was likely they’d make 340 or so by day’s end …
There were no MINIs in some remote parking lot just waiting around for shipment. Every day, each car is shipped to its final destination …

You can read Pats full write-up in pdf format (download here)

MINIsOnTop 2005 – nearly time!

Posted on June 1, 2005February 11, 2017 by Ian C.

Today I received my “care package” for MINIsOnTop 2005:

MINIsOnTop 2005 package

THANK YOU STEVE!

Included:
Grey T-shirt with “MINIsOnTop logo” design on front and “MINIsOnTop decal” design on back;
Name tags for me & Margaret (thanks Diane);
Big yellow “MINIsOnTop” antenna ball;
Green “MINIsOnTop” static cling decals, theoretically to put on GBMINI#3 – but the green will clash 😉
“Raffle” tickets to be used to “bid” for one or more of the many donated door prizes;
Vouchers for lunch and for the ride up Mount Washington on the auto road;
Info on the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, and the Kancamagus Highway.

If you are registered you will soon receive your package too (remember the T-shirt and vouchers are “paid for” items).