Congrats on the car!

If you ever want to have a ludicrous speed option, you can vtec easily enough. The D series option sure looks tasty and not so expensive.

Enjoy your Mini!

 

Ummm, there is no such thing as a revin. The correct word is, "updated."

 

Congrats! You are going to have a blast with that Mini.

 

WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE!
Life will never be the same again.....muhahahahaha

 

Is it called the "dark side" because of the Lucas wiring?

 

you got it .........be prepared for any and everything.....lol.......here is the important info http://www.hermit.cc/mania/tmc/articles/lucas.htm

 

Great collection - wish I had that along side to laugh as I was tracing wires for the first month I had my classic trying to get the flashers and more than one headlight working

With this and a Haynes manual all will be good.

My example of why I love my classic:
Every weekend on Long Island there is a gathering of gearheads that draws anywhere from 100-300 cars. I showed up this past Sunday in my classic. I am slowly looking for a place to park and I am stopped next to a Black Lamborghini, some guy walking next to me says wow that so cool. I look left and say yes it is he say "forget that" your car is awesome!!! Got to love it.

 

You are going to have so much fun! After some work (thank you Way Motor Works) my classic is back to running. As others have said "Welcome to the insanity." Just hope your MINI doesn't get as jealous as mine did.

 

Give Dave Georgie a call at the Winners Circle here in Cleveland. Dave's an old time BugEye and Mini racer since who flung the chunk. He even raced Lotus's for a while. He's got an old building crammed with new old stock Austin race parts that makes us old MG/AH guys almost faint. He's got a BugEye with 20k miles and ALL original paint that he drives in the summer. (drool here) It's the ugliest color, but it's all original ugly.

Anyways.....nice Mini ya gots there.........Les

 

Congrats on the Mini Find, and welcome to the family! If you get serious about body work, I'd suggest you get the Haynes Mini Restoration Manual. It goes into great detail on bodywork, panel repair, replacement, etc. But don't automatically assume that's what you'll need to do. Take your time to learn the car first. And learn how to take the bonnet off (and more importantly, put it back on in the same place), because it makes engine work a lot easier... especialy on the head - yours.

 

I was looking at the Haynes' Restoration and Performance manuals on Amazon... I already have the Haynes service manual (aka: "The Haynes Book of Lies", or so I hear ) on order, but I was wondering if the other ones were worth it or if lots of that info is already in the main Haynes' book...

 

Damn weasel stole my post.

I was just going to post,

"Congrats... I am SOOOOO jealous."

But Roberta isn't quite as understanding about these things as Kara seems to be (yet, anyway...)

but someday...

 

Congrats - great-looking little car. I can tell just from the discussion I read above that I do NOT have time for this right now. It will be fun following your experience though.

[to self: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO]

 

Understanding? You weren't here for the "discussions" we had. LOL. This is Matt's car. I own the part that the wife gets to drive now and then.

 

If you're going to get into some serious restoration (body panels, wiring "issues", mechanicals), then I think the Haynes restoration book (Porter) would be a good investment. Another one that is good for engine tuning is the David Vizard "Tuning the A-Series Engine". Its textbook quality. There are several others out there (Mundy, Rees) that have good ideas and history stuff, but are not into the nuts and bolts of a restoral. There also may be other books out there that I'm not aware of that others on this forum can offer up.

 

I've got the Chris Rees book but it has nothing about restoration or mechanicals, no. I'm mainly looking for a good service manual that can show me how to take care of the more common issues (carb problems, how to replace points, etc.) initially, and then I figure I'll get into more performance-type upgrades later on (maybe in a year or two after I know my way around better). I figure between here and the guys I know in Ohio that really know their way around Minis, actually DIAGNOSING the issues I have will be the least of my problems.

 

For engine tuning, try to look for David Vizard's book- Tuning the A-Series Engine.

 

Congratulations! RHD is fun for the driver - a little disconcerting for the passenger though.

 

Ahhhhhhhh.... here we go...

 

That's the same kind I put on my MG Midget. Very nice!

 

For restoration, the Lindsey Porter book. For repairs, the Haynes Service & Repair book. For another Mini forum, go to Minimania.com and their Communities section. That one tends to be more nuts&bolts problem solving than here. There is also a section with technical articles. Between this site and MM, and the books, you should be ready for almost any surprises your Mini presents you with.

 

Oh, good... I was hoping someone I know had actually used the part. I assume it's as nice in person as it is in the photo?

 

What y'all lookin at??

 

<<What y'all lookin at??>>

Thanks for asking - I thought it was just me...

 

I can't see the photos at work, but I can at home... weird. It's a polished aluminum rocker cover fior an A-series engine.