The time has come for major surgery on my car, so thought it would be good to keep a sort of journal of that as it progresses.The story so far
I bought this car in October 2008 when I was a green and, to some extent, naive 18 year-old. I had become obsessed with Minis after learning to drive, but only a Mark I would do. I found myself in the incredibly lucky position of having been given savings by my grandmother that were destined for me when I turned 18, otherwise buying a Mini was a pipe dream.
I don't know what the market is like now, but in 2008 finding a Mark I in Scotland was almost impossible. I looked at a couple: a 997 Cooper in Ireland which I ended up getting cold feet over, and a beautiful surf blue 850 down south, of which the owners decided (understandably) against selling.
AOH 897B had been sitting in the ads for a good 2-3 months at this point, but I'd not taken much interest in it as the car was at the opposite end of the country and "I didn't want a red one". Eventually, after much persuasion, my dad was convinced the 775-mile roundtrip might be worth it. So we ended up going to view the car, I drove it, and immediately fell in love with it. Twenty minutes later my pocket was £3,800 lighter and my dad had the joy of driving this thing back to Scotland on three cylinders.
It was a standard 850. The engine had no identification plate, so might well not have been the original, but I didn't care. It also came with Group 2 arches which, at the time, I wasn't keen on (they ended up staying on it until last week). In the months after purchasing it I started researching what I could do to modify the engine. I picked up a pair of twin SUs (covered in cobwebs) for free, and spent far too much money on a "Stage 3" 850 head that seemed to do little more than increase the fuel consumption.
2009
I hit some black ice on a country lane and skidded into a concrete hydrant marker, knocking it over. The n/s wing was buckled slightly, and a fair bit of filler was involved in straightening things out. In hindsight maybe this was the car telling me it didn't appreciate being made to look like a Cooper 'S'. Later that year I was sideswiped in the rear o/s quarter by a big Mercedes - maybe it's an unlucky car?
2010
After much work, a new engine went in: a shiny reconditioned 998 with various mods in Not-quite-right Green. This was a little smoky to start with but has since proved to be a fabulous engine. The car was then pretty much done as far as I was concerned - it wouldn't change much (except for rust...) for the next ten years.
2011
The entire floor is replaced.
2012-2018
The Mini went through various guises during this period: road-trip companion, trusty daily, botherer of hot hatches. Going through my photos it seems to have been used mostly for getting me to various archaeological digs around Scotland. Along the way it picked up a few more war wounds: in 2015 a friend mounted it from the rear one evening after quite a few mid-excavation beers, denting the roof and cracking the paint. In 2017 a very honest German man parked his motorbike next to it on Mull, only to come back and find his bike had tipped into the driver's side door.
2019
My parents moved house - the place where the Mini had been kept all this time, safe and warm in a garage - and took up residence in a flat with no garage. By this time I had gone to uni, graduated, got a job, and moved to Edinburgh where I could barely afford to rent a flat, let alone a garage for a now 55 year-old car. The guy who does paintwork for me very generously agreed to shove it in a Mini-sized corner of one of his units indefinitely. By the summer he needed the space, and the Mini ended up on my parents' driveway. After a short spell in a neighbour's garage, again out of charity, the Mini was back with my parents.
2020
Last month, the parents moved again - this time to a house and, crucially, one with a garage. Thankfully they don't seem to have any plans for it, so the Mini once again has a roof over its head. With my own life just about at the point where I can invest time and money in the car again, the time has come to start ripping the poor thing apart.
I think I'll leave it there for now. The horror show of close-up photos is probably best left for the next post...
Cheers
Joss
but will look forward to seeing some in the future.
Jip, no pictures
