Posted in Uncategorized on February 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
When the Mini’s engine is ready, I want to drive it to…
THE DONUT HOLE in La Puente!!
No reason other than I want to see a donut so big I can drive through it.
Of course, to finish the engine, I have to start working on it soon. I’m in the process of finding an engine puller and an engine stand, so hopefully we can get going on it soon. I really want to be able to drive ourselves around this summer. And also teach Jenny how to drive a manual.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »
On Sunday, we went to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to check out the BMW Art Cars world tour. I am a sucker for old race cars, especially BMW’s, so we have been planning on visiting the display as soon as we heard about it back in January. The sky was pretty bleak in the afternoon, so my pictures didn’t come out that great. But I got some pretty good ones of the Andy Warhol M1:
and the Frank Stella 3.0CSL:
The best part? The cars were right outside the museum, so it was free to look at them, and on Sunday, street parking was also free. So we didn’t have to pay for admission or for parking in front of the Museums in downtown LA. Miracle Mile indeed!
The only bummer was there were no E30 M3’s, but hey, it was free. So I can’t and won’t complain. See you next time!
Posted in Uncategorized on February 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I haven’t posted pictures of the new stickers yet! We listen to Oasis more than the Sex Pistols, and they’re just as English. Maybe even more so.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The other day, I temporarily moved the Driving Lamps to the grille. Temporarily because we don’t have real brackets and we won’t be driving anywhere yet anyway. They seemed to be in a dangerous spot mounted all the way out front like they were. I also tried out some extra Hella 500 driving lights to see how they looked, but they were a little bit too modern looking for this little guy. While I was at it, I replaced the slightly rusty bumper hardware with some shiny stainless steel locknuts.
I used my super authentic Ensenada hoodie to keep them from getting scratched or rolling away.
Here’s how they look now: Maybe in the future, we’ll find another pair and have a full set of four to scare small rodents and New Minis out of our way while driving.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
You can’t tell from the damp driveway, but there was finally a break from the rain and even some sunshine! If you look closely, you might even see it in the upper left corner of the first photo.
It was a nice clear day, so I took the mini’s younger sibling out from under its blanket for a short drive to shake off the moisture of the past few weeks and more importantly pick up some Popeye’s chicken.
I think the color is a pretty close match for two very different cars! It’s nice to know I can just buy a few gallons of Henna Red BMW paint in bulk when the time comes.
And for you people with the dirty minds, I was talking about the age difference between the cars.
Jenny is not old enough to be a cougar… yet!
Posted in Uncategorized on February 18, 2009| 1 Comment »
Still rainy today, but I did get this Ben Sherman T-shirt over the weekend. It kind of goes with my Vespa T-shirt. And the Mod Target T-shirts. And the Union Jack Hoodie. Oh, and the Mini as well!
Pictured is one of my Valentine’s day gifts. It’s Winnie the Pooh’s friend Piglet, crocheted by Jenny herself!
Maybe when the weather improves, I will get back to posting about the actual car. I did look up the engine number and it verified that the engine is a 1275cc, so there’s been a little bit of progress. The car also looks like it’s probably an early MK3 chassis, so the research is coming right along and I’m learning more about these little cars a bit at a time.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
It was a cold, wet weekend. We didn’t get a chance to do much with the Mini, but to make up for it we watched the Italian Job with Michael Caine while driving to the Grove for dinner. Jenny was amazed at what the cars could do, but we were both kind of bummed that they rolled them off the cliff at the end. Those were three perfectly good Mini Coopers!
Today was President’s day and everywhere I needed to go was closed, so I was doing some research to pass the time. I found out that Steve McQueen’s Mini Cooper had the same (or at least similar) headlight grilles! Sweet!
Our car:
Steve McQueen’s car:
This proves that I am as cool as Steve McQueen. It’s true.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2009| 1 Comment »
During the Mini’s first whole day at home, Lizzie the grumpy Cocker Spaniel came by to give her approval.
It was a pretty busy day of going through the car and cleaning it up to look for hidden treasures. I found a bunch of receipts from New Zealand in the late 90’s, and a 1991 New Zealand Dollar coin. I also cleaned up some of the more obviously dangerous wiring like the stereo system and the foglights. I removed the roof racks and all the stuff from the boot and removed most of the checkered flag sticker on the back of the car. The only thing I left is the Sex Pistols sticker for now, and I added the Mini Cooper decal I’ve been saving in my sticker stash for years.
Hopefully the weather will stay dry tomorrow so I can vacuum up the interior, but it was already sprinkling a little bit of rain tonight.
Posted in Mini Cooper on February 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Today, the weather cleared up and I had some time after my Real Estate exam to schedule a cab ride home for our new baby. A nice fellow named Charlie came to pick him up and I drove it up onto the truck. It even had seatbelts to keep him from flying off.
After an hour of watching the California sunset from the 110 freeway, we made it home. The little guy started right up and roared into the driveway to rest for the night.
