It’s not a MINI

Posted on by Ian C.

I dropped off GBMINI#3 at Sublime Restorations this morning, so they can prep it ready for touching up the “S” design on the roof on Saturday morning – the plan is for me to be present with Scott (the graphics artist) so that hopefully I will be happy with the results this time.
Meanwhile, I get to drive this:

Rental (not a MINI)

Surprising how big the “A” and “B” pillars are, blocking more view than I am used to. On the other hand, the stereo has loads more bass than GBMINI#3 (with its aftermarket head unit but stock speakers) – I think it must have a sub somewhere in the car …

Hopefully I will get GBMINI#3 back next week, with a finished “S” design on the roof, and (finally) bonnet stripes too!

A “Hot Pocket” for GBMINI#3

Posted on by Ian C.

For storage between the downtubes, I still think the original “Hot Pocket” is the best; I have now tried various factory solutions, but on GBMINI#3 I have gone back to my old favorite.
I decided to buy a new “Hot Pocket” for GBMINI#3, rather than recycling the old one from #2, and I (part-)installed it recently:

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

(I have not yet velcro’ed the sides into place)

Disappointingly, the quality is nowhere near as good as the original one – you can see the lining of the Hot Pocket is quite loose in the new one (on the original, there are no untidy wrinkles).
So maybe I will clean up the old one and re-use that; but you can’t really see the wrinkles once it is installed, so perhaps it is OK anyway.

A little naughty of TVA to still show the original well made product on their website, but sell an inferior one (and not at a lower price, either!)

Another new Weblog

Posted on by Ian C.

Josh Wardell has maintained a great MINI website for some time now, including useful “how-to’s”; his was one of the sites I listed recently (“Other Peoples Websites”)
Now Josh has re-structured his pages, creating a nice weblog and using Flickr to host his pictures – this way Josh does not need the big hosting storage that I have here (presumably saving money).

Check out his amazing “animated thumbnails” on the left of his main page, under “Galleries” – very neat 🙂