Laurence's ongoing adventures in the world of shite - A year (and a half) in review

[Mr Laurence]

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I was last on here, but I realised that I never made a thread to document my cars on. Better late than never though, even if I haven't been driving a lot recently. 

This Mx5 is my most recent purchase. I picked it up in mid February from a woman who was moving to somewhere without a garage, so didn't have anywhere to keep it. She'd had it about 7 years and clearly taken really good care of it. It's got 161,000 miles at the minute, but I've seen some with half the mileage in far worse shape. Much to my amazement, it's also virtually rust free: even the front chassis legs, which nearly always disintegrate felt solid. In typical 90's Japanese car fashion, it's also fine mechanically. I think that it's a povvo spec version with absolutely no options, as it has the smaller 1.6 engine, hand crank windows, no AC and acres of blank switches. At the minute I'm just working away on little jobs to make it perfect, but even after buying a hardtop and a few other bits and pieces, it still owes me less than a grand, so I've got to say that I'm very happy with it. 

And possibly more interestingly, here's my Mini. It's a 1999 MPI, but unlike most of them, it isn't badged as a Cooper, so rather than stripes and a white roof, it's got pepperpot wheels and a beige tartan interior.  It was my first car, and I've had it about 4 years now. The photo certainly flatters it, as it's really starting to show it's age now. I love it to bits though, and to be honest I feel a little bad for neglecting it since I got the MX5. I'm hoping that I can start to tidy it up use it a bit more over the summer though.

 

I guess that's all for now. I'll do my best to keep this updated when anything interesting happens

 

- Laurence

[Tickman]

Mini certainly does look tidy in the picture and well done for finding a non crusty MX5

[Mr Laurence]

54 minutes ago, Tickman said:

Mini certainly does look tidy in the picture and well done for finding a non crusty MX5

Thank you! I’ve done what I can to take care of it, but rust is starting to appear in a few of the usual mini areas - the worst of it is on the door skins, a panels and below the windscreen. When I can afford to have it all done properly, I’m hoping that I can get it all sorted

[gm]

1 hour ago, Tickman said:

a non crusty MX5

a rare thing, indeed ! looks like a good 'un - any plans for it or just enjoy as is ? 

[Mr Laurence]

2 minutes ago, gm said:

a rare thing, indeed ! looks like a good 'un - any plans for it or just enjoy as is ? 

For now I just want to enjoy it as it is, but that might change eventually. When I bought it, I had only planned to keep it until the end of summer, but I’ve grown quite attached to it already. So far I’ve just been fixing some of the little problems with it. The drivers mirror was damaged and rattled about, so I’ve replaced that and swapped the broken CD player for a new Bluetooth one. The antenna doesn’t retract all the way down, so I think that might be my next job.

[spartacus]

That's a neat fleet. Which one is your daily? 

[stripped fred]

A couple of interesting cars there. A mini was my first car back in 1987 although it was a clubman with a walnut dash and the engine out of an Austin 1100. Well done on finding a non rusty MX5. Where do people find these cheap motors? Please keep us updated on how you get along with them.

[Mr Laurence]

38 minutes ago, spartacus said:

That's a neat fleet. Which one is your daily? 

Thank you!! At the moment it’s the MX5. I did daily the mini for about a year though

[Mr Laurence]

28 minutes ago, stripped fred said:

A couple of interetesting cars there. A mini was my first car back in 1987 although it was a clubman with a walnut dash and the engine out of an Austin 1100. Well done on finding a non rusty MX5. Where do people find these cheap motors? Please keep us updated on how you get along with them.

Thank you! Mine has a walnut dash too. I would love to have a clubman at some point. They seem to be getting pretty hard to find now though.

I’d spent a few months searching for a nice mx5 before this one turned up on eBay. There were only a few photos and no description on the listing, but as it was only 15 minutes down the road I went for a look at it and I was pleasantly surprised. There’s still good deals to be had out there, it just takes a lot of patience:)

[2flags]

Well bought. It's nice to see people taking care of older cars and not going down the PFC route. I myself have had a few minis over the years. Great little cars. Get it waxoiled or similar to stop, or at least slow down the rust. As to the MX5, enjoy.

[Mr Laurence]

In some technically MX5 related news, this arrived today. Expect a post in the shite in miniature thread about it once it’s done. No prizes for guessing what colour it’s going to be painted

[Mr Laurence]

Not much to report at the minute, I had ordered some bits to service the MX5, but there was some stuff missing from my ECP order when it arrived, so that’s had to be put on hold until I can get it sorted unfortunately. 
 

But does anyone recognise this spoiler? I’ve never seen one like it before and I’ve got to say that I like how it looks. This ones also the same colour as my car too, which is a bonus. It’s at a U-Pull it in Edinburgh though, which is miles from me, so I’ll probably have to keep my eyes peeled for another.

[Mr Laurence]

Been working on a little lockdown project over the last couple of days. I found that despite it being 8 years ago, there are still places selling tat from the London Olympics. So for a very modest amount, I picked up this (roughly 1:72 scale) Mini keyring.

 

The rivet holding it together is no more than 1mm in diameter, so I didn’t want to take any chances drilling it out and not being able to put everything back together again, and since the windows are just painted on anyway, I masked the wheels off and painted it with a base coat of silver:

 

Followed by a coat of translucent red:

 

and after removing the masking and adding a little detail, I’m pretty pleased with the result.

 

and finally with a equally miniature MX5

 

Stuff like this is a bit sad, and I’ve no idea how the paint will hold up if an actual set of keys, but it’s kept me entertained for a few hours and I’m a sucker for little details like this. Even if my time and money would probably be better spent on the real thing ?

 

[Mr Laurence]

MOTs for both the Mini and the MX5 have been booked for next week, so fingers crossed that all goes well.

I've also ordered a new set of tyres for the Mini. At the minute, it has 145/70 R12s fitted, but the choice in that size is pretty dire, so I ordered some in 165/60 R12 instead. The general consensus online is that these will fit without any trouble, and I’ve checked for any potential clearance issues myself and I can’t see any, but there’s always going to be a slight cloud of doubt in my mind until they’re fitted. I’m 99% sure that they’ll be fine, but I’ll report back either way next week

[Mr Laurence]

Okay, that’s the Mini back from an MOT. It passed, but the garage said that they didn’t want to put the new tyres on as they thought they were going to rub. They’ve recommended finding some spacers, or some different wheels. I know that it’s a bit ‘obvious’, but I wouldn’t mind having some minilites for it, so that’s something I’ll look into.

I also got an advisory for “Sills/various areas surface corrosion”. Honestly, I can’t say I’m all that surprised. It’s starting to look very tired in places. I’ve had a look through the service history, and the last owner had £450 worth of welding done in 2015, but I guess that wasn’t enough to sort everything.

(excuse the photos - it was raining so they aren’t the best)

the Drivers’ side sill is the better of the two. It’s by no means perfect, but it still looks pretty much okay.

 

the passengers side, not so much. It’s getting a bit scabby in places

There’s dozens of other little issues that I’d really like to get sorted, and the car doesn’t seem to be running quite as well as it used to, so there’s lots I need to look at. Does anyone know of any welders or mini specialists near the North Yorkshire area that they’d recommend?

 

[Mr Laurence]

And that’s the MX5 sorted too! It needed a new anti roll bar link and some brake pipe replacing, but not a bad result for a car that was 20 this year really.

[paulplom]

The a series engine is very easy to work on. Just get yourself a service kit and have a go.

[Mr Laurence]

A set of Mini wheels have been found! I’ll report back tomorrow once they’ve been collected

[Mr Laurence]

And that’s the wheels collected! They’re just a set of Rover Minilites mostly used on Coopers and a few limited editions, though they were available  as a dealer fit option on my car, so they should look good. The tyres on these ones are shot, but since I’m replacing them anyway that really doesn’t matter. They’re also covered in this weird shade of dentist’s waiting room green paint which will have to be sanded off and painted over. I’ve picked up the stuff to sort that, but it might have to wait for a slightly less windy day. I was also really surprised by just how light they are. Even for such small wheels, they barely weigh anything.

 

[Mr Laurence]

A brief wheel update: not a clue what that green paint is. It seems chalky and textured. It does come off fairly easily though, so that’s definitely a plus at least. It’s started raining so I’ve had to call it a day, but hopefully I can get some new paint on them tomorrow.

[Mr Laurence]

More wheel progress: I’ve got most of that green shizz scrubbed off now and the wheels are looking silver again. There’s a little corrosion I still want to sort, but they’re almost ready to paint now. I wish that I’d just found a set that were already nice and ready to go on the car...

[Mr Laurence]

There’s a few paint chips on the mx5, the worst of which were in the hardtop, so I got a pen and set about fixing them today. I might go back and wet sand a few of them once they’re completely dry, but it definitely looks far better now than it did before.

Before:

 

After:

 

Before:

 

After:

[Mr Laurence]

Firstly, a Mini wheel update. They have been painted now. Just the clear to go and they’ll be done. Up close they’re a bit of a mess and they seem to have come out darker than I was expecting (the paint I bought from Halfords said silver, but it seems like a dark grey to me), but they’ll be okay and hopefully suit the ‘nice from a distance’ aesthetic the rest of the car has at the moment. I was using the age old playing card trick to mask the wheels to start with, but as they aren’t being kept and were already covered in paint I quickly gave up on this. Hopefully this won’t be something that comes back to bite me in the arse later.

The Mx5 has now been serviced too; a job that took far more time and swearing than I’d hoped it would as a result of a very stubborn oil filter that just refused to budge.
 

I also took a trip to U-Pull it and came home with a new centre console and some facelift lights taken from a very rotten mk2.5

After a quick clean up they came out okay

The centre console that was in the car had a broken hinge on the storage compartment and no cupholders. This photo doesn’t show it too well, but it was also a bit faded and worn out. Long overdue replacement then. When Mazda facelifted the Mk2, one of the things they changed was this console. It’s a bolt in fit to older cars, and you gain two cupholders and a less fragile hinge and lose the ashtray and a little storage room. As I don’t smoke or keep much stuff in there anyway, this seemed like a fairly obvious decision.

the old:

And after removing - interestingly, all the wiring for electric windows is already there, and this is something I miss having, so I may look into this at some point. Someone else had got to those parts before me on the scrap car though, so I may have to wait.

Then finally, the new one all fitted. I swapped the electric window switch blanking plate, gearknob surround and lock from the old console this, which thankfully were the same on both.

 

I haven’t put the rear lights on yet, since I’m still undecided as to whether or not I prefer them to the ones it already has with orange indicators. I’d like to get some opinions on which look better (photo of the lights it already has for reference below) so please let me know which you prefer

[Mr Laurence]

Forgot to add - U-Pull-it (York) also had some largely complete Shite in when I went. Namely a Mk2 Mondeo ST24, a mk3 Cavalier and a Nissan Figaro, amongst a couple of others. Just wanted to mention it in case anyone reading this needs some bits for theirs

[Mr Laurence]

Picked up the Mini earlier today after having the minilites and new tyres fitted, and I’ll be totally honest, I’m not completely sold on the way they look. The colour just seems too dark and up close, the finish on the paint is a bit crap. Between the cost of the tyres, the wheels and all the messing about having them fitted, they’ve also cost me a small fortune. Perhaps I’m just used to seeing it on the pepperpots though. I’m sure that it’ll grow on me. I still have the old set too, which had tyres that passed an MOT less than a month ago, so having those in case I ever need spares for something is a bonus.

However, once your sat inside, you can’t see how they look anyway and they have made a difference to how it drives. Miles nicer than worn out no-name death rings. 

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been using the mini as my daily, and I’ve come to the realisation that for the sort of driving I do and the mileage I cover, I could quite easily manage without the MX5. I had initially planned on selling it once the summer was coming to an end, but right now I’m undecided. Having some more money to put towards the Mini would definitely be nice. 
 

On the subject of which, I’ve noticed it seems to be rusting at an alarming rate now. When I bought it 4 years ago there were some small bubbles in all of the usual trouble spots on the front end, but here is how the a-panels look today:

The other side is a similar story, and realistically, Every panel from the windscreen forwards and both door skins need replacing. As I said, it wasn’t a concours standard car when I bought it and nearly half a decade has passed since then so I’m not surprised by it. I don’t know how to weld and having burnt through all of the money I had saved up during lockdown when I was out of a job, I’m also skint, so it’s work that I’ve been putting off. How soon do I have before this rot becomes a serious problem?

[Mr Laurence]

A new set of dealer plates have been ordered for the Mini. Big thanks to @greengartsideand @Mr_Bo11ox for pointing me in the direction of somewhere that makes them. Hopefully they’ll not take long to arrive.

It’s also booked in for a little welding next week. I’ll post an update here when that’s done too.

[Mr Laurence]

Just spotted this posted on Facebook. They look absolutely spectacular! I can’t wait for them to arrive, and they should look miles better than the tatty cracked plates that are on there at the moment

(sad, I know, but sometimes it’s the little things)

[mk2_craig]

Those plates look brilliant!

[Mally]

On 8/4/2020 at 8:13 PM, Mr Laurence said:

The other side is a similar story, and realistically, Every panel from the windscreen forwards and both door skins need replacing. As I said, it wasn’t a concours standard car when I bought it and nearly half a decade has passed since then so I’m not surprised by it. I don’t know how to weld and having burnt through all of the money I had saved up during lockdown when I was out of a job, I’m also skint, so it’s work that I’ve been putting off. How soon do I have before this rot becomes a serious problem?

Only just come across this.

You can just replace the A panels, but as you say, probably everything forward of the screen except bonnet.

Panels are cheap, the welding is not, and then you need a respray.

Also check sills inside and out, front floor at corners, bottom of pockets at side of rear seat, boot floor, rear subframe and mounting points.

It will last as long as it keeps passing MOT, but they will shortly start pointing things out.

Save up, get a few quotes, learn to weld maybe.

These things are a gold mine. It should be hard to put more into it than it's value.

Looks nice.

[Mr Laurence]

2 hours ago, Mally said:

Only just come across this.

You can just replace the A panels, but as you say, probably everything forward of the screen except bonnet.

Panels are cheap, the welding is not, and then you need a respray.

Also check sills inside and out, front floor at corners, bottom of pockets at side of rear seat, boot floor, rear subframe and mounting points.

It will last as long as it keeps passing MOT, but they will shortly start pointing things out.

Save up, get a few quotes, learn to weld maybe.

These things are a gold mine. It should be hard to put more into it than it's value.

Looks nice.

Thank you! I’m away from the car at the moment, but next time I’m near it I’ll give everything a check. My goal is to have the majority of the rot taken care of before the next MOT.
 

In an ideal world, I’d teach myself to weld and do as much of the work as I could myself, but I’m quite busy in general at the moment, so I don’t know if I’d have the time to get it done to a standard I was happy with. 
 

Prices seem to have gone up a lot recently, so I’m in the fortunate position where even if I were to throw loads of money at it, it may still be worth more than I’ve spent (not that I’d ever want to sell it)