Tommyboy12

So has it been bought yet?? Ill chip in and say 7.5k isn't too bad nowadays considering rarity. A decent mini is fetching 6k plus nowadays and that doesn't have a snail. A self done engine rebuild is about £1500 nowadays if you include the gearbox. Get a builder to do it your looking 4-5k minimum up to 10k+. While you're in there it's a perfect opportunity to give yourself a little bit more grunt. I went a little too far on the grunt and run 175hp...

Nope. Always starts fine. It stumbles and doesn't always idle smoothly on hot restart but I gather that's fairly common with these. In fact I've only lifted the bonnet to check the oil!

More pottering around Wales taking more pictures of the Volvo than the scenery. It's returning a semi respectable 30mpg on average. Im sure some of these are 2023 calendar worthy 😅 Also spotted this beauty

The Volvo is proving a venerable camping steed this week. I even treated it to some photos around Elan Valley.

Theres nothing wrong with painting a car with a roller. But I can see the diffraction of light in the images from a rushed job with minimal prep.

I was the one posting the tiktok videos 😅 I did pick up a bit of a following with it. Not sure if this guy is doing anything on tiktok with it. But yeah I agree. It's not the best paint job. Lost a lot of character.

It's been a little while so update time! The Volvo remains a venerable and reliable daily. It recently was on wardrobe transport duty. It swalloeed up the furniture up no problem. Not a surprise with this boot. It's proving a good car. No issues at all. It's comfortable to drive and cavernous. It's returning about 30mpg which is tolerable given my limited mileage nowadays. The 998 mini finally ran this week! Until the fuel pump shat itself after about 2 minutes... A new fuel pump adorns my kitchen table awaiting fitment. In other news. The new owner painted the Montego with a roller and brush... 🤦

Not really sure how I feel about it. It's not my car anymore but it's a shame. Its been roller painted too so probably looks shocking

Took the turbo Mini to Himley Hall mini show today. It always looks ridiculously low when parked on grass. I did also scrape my exhaust coming into the park 😅

Seemed appropriate to bring the Volvo today

The radio did indeed have a separate amp which I have left in situ with the new radio. I unplugged the loom for it all and shoved it in the under boot storage along with the old radio if in the future anyone can/wants to repair it. I think its scrap personally but some people like originality

Yeah the bezel turned out well. Basically I did a load of digging to find a RHD facia plate and found someone in the UK had already rendered a 3D printable one which is stored on a 3D printing website. Linky below: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4904146 I then approached a company on Etsy that can 3D print on your behalf. I used this company specifically: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/3DLix It was just under £11 to print it plus postage. I had mine printed in PLA which is a bit temperature sensitive but you could have it done in something more resistant if you think its going to be a problem. Personally I dont think the cabin is likely to reach the 55-60C so I dont see it a being a problem. I would say the design was good but the slot is too tight. I had to trim inner faces of the radio slot to be able to fit the radio and I fitted it without the cage. Id call it an interference fit 😅 You could ask any company you work with to open up the slot a little bit in their CAD software.

The Volvo now has a working radio! First time I've ever found a practical use case for 3D printing in my life. Its not the nicest looking radio as it's a cheap one but it's functional and I at least think it doesn't look tacky like some cheap radios. I wanted all black and no stupid RGB lighting. I bought a harness adapter to keep things simple but still ended up doing some soldering as the loom came with a male plug for one of the connections and the loom in the car was male too.

MoT day for the turbo Mini yesterday. Passed with flying colours! The brake rollers remain a challenge...

I'm not sure I'd class wiping it down with the spray cleaner I found in the back seat as 'washing' it 😅