What's made you smile today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

It is very tasty , apart from the Rostyle wheels & the 13 inch Momo steering wheel from my old Mini, she's all standard & original, even down to the leaded head as when it was last on the road in 1999 leaded fuel was still available, so I decided to leave it as it is & use the lead additive whenever I fill up, I love the interior smell of the earlier Mini's there's nothing else like it

The wheels are actually the only thing I don't like, never did like Rostyles. Personal thing though and if age related that's fine? I always liked the simple look of Cooper "S" reverse rims myself. I had a Moto-Lita woodrim wheel on my "S".

I keep a couple of bottles of lead additive for the old horticultural engines I mess about with - run them on "super" grade fuel too to avoid the 10% ethanol corroding the carbs and "eating" the fuel lines.

 

[bugsymike]

I love the interior smell of the earlier Mini's there's nothing else like it

Sure it's not the neighbours cat, when you left the windows down

 

[FiatMatt94]

The wheels are actually the only thing I don't like, never did like Rostyles. Personal thing though and if age related that's fine? I always liked the simple look of Cooper "S" reverse rims myself. I had a Moto-Lita woodrim wheel on my "S".

I keep a couple of bottles of lead additive for the old horticultural engines I mess about with - run them on "super" grade fuel too to avoid the 10% ethanol corroding the carbs and "eating" the fuel lines.

When I had my old Mini I had 10 inch Wolfrace slot mags on it for about 2-3 years, here is a pic, excuse the rally decals I had just turned 20 & was a boy racer


after a while I fancied a change & purchased a set of 5 original Dunlop reverse rims as I also like them myself, the originals are very hard to get hold off & quite valuable in good nick, although there are reproduction ones but they're not the same, I bought them on eBay unseen with delivery, they turned up, I thought they didn't look too bad, left them for about a year before I did anything with them & when I took all the previous paint off which was quite a few layers they were in really bad condition to the point they were unsalvageable, luckily I didn't pay through the roof for them & just about broke even when I sold them on, I don't run this Mini on E10, she has the E5 Super Unleaded with Redex lead additive which works out at only an extra £2.50 a tank which isn't too bad, me personally I've never been a lover of wood steering wheels, the Momo Competition wheel I have is leather & although it's looking a tad tatty up close nowadays as it's nearly 30 years old my dad gave it to me about 10 years ago as I was going to buy a Mota Lita & he pulled the Momo out of his cupboard & said he bought it new in the 90's, used it a few times but couldn't get on with it so I could have it & I've had it in Mini's ever since but it's such a nice & comfortable wheel for a Mini I don't want to part with it

 

[bugsymike]

One of the many Minis I had including vans and pick ups was a fairly clean Mini 1000 I used for wedding duties at my first wedding, "friends" decorated it with shaving cream and confetti. By the time I got to wash it off it had eaten into the paint
The last mini I had a a 1971? pick up, quite presentable apart from the rear metal sections that hold the lights and the tailgate latched on to, I had bought two genuine from local Wadham Stringer as had a trade account for around £25 the pair, in the end I never fitted them and sold the complete vehicle for the £25 the buyer drove off well happy and so was I until I realised they were now worth strong money. Duh!

 

[FiatMatt94]

My old Mini was quite presentable at first until I'd had it for about 3 years & the bodywork started to blow out really quickly so I took it off the road when I got the Panda & when I stripped it down it had every body work bodge known to man to the point it made me cringe as I thought the way I used to drive it & it had structural panels held in place with bathroom sealer & not even welded, snapped subframe bolts had been used instead of replacing them & triggers broom wiring etc so when I looked at this one I went over everything pulled carpets up, seats up & every nook & cranny, it's had sills & a pair of wings at some point, but it looks to have been done to a good standard as they used proper sills etc, the only not so nice thing it's had a patch around the air vent in the off side inner wing which could have been done better but it's solid so it doesn't warrant taking really good wings off to do it so it's being left until the wings need doing or I repaint the car, the rest of the car though is original with all the factory spot welds etc, the underside is also all original with the factory welds with no patches, it was also wax injected when it was new which I think has helped it as when you look inside the pillars with an endoscope you can still see the wax, I've learnt over the years there's no such thing as a perfect Mini in terms of bodywork, it doesn't exist apart from the patch on the inner wing which is solid & doesn't effect anything so I'm not bothering with it for the time being, mines pretty much spot on for a 44 year old Mini

 

[bugsymike]

My old Mini was quite presentable at first until I'd had it for about 3 years & the bodywork started to blow out really quickly so I took it off the road when I got the Panda & when I stripped it down it had every body work bodge known to man to the point it made me cringe as I thought the way I used to drive it & it had structural panels held in place with bathroom sealer & not even welded, snapped subframe bolts had been used instead of replacing them & triggers broom wiring etc so when I looked at this one I went over everything pulled carpets up, seats up & every nook & cranny, it's had sills & a pair of wings at some point, but it looks to have been done to a good standard as they used proper sills etc, the only not so nice thing it's had a patch around the air vent in the off side inner wing which could have been done better but it's solid so it doesn't warrant taking really good wings off to do it so it's being left until the wings need doing or I repaint the car, the rest of the car though is original with all the factory spot welds etc, the underside is also all original with the factory welds with no patches, it was also wax injected when it was new which I think has helped it as when you look inside the pillars with an endoscope you can still see the wax, I've learnt over the years there's no such thing as a perfect Mini in terms of bodywork, it doesn't exist apart from the patch on the inner wing which is solid & doesn't effect anything so I'm not bothering with it for the time being, mines pretty much spot on for a 44 year old Mini

Considering the age and the fact at time they were in the lower price range so in fairness were not expected to live for ever, it has done remarkably well and I always enjoy seeing vehicles of my youth still going strong.
Even today I was with my youngest daughter and grand daughter at a Steam Rally, doing my usual boring "I had one of those or my sister had that model etc"
In fairness ours were always the cheaper end of the market as all we could afford, even as we parked in the public car park another visitor rolled up in a 1964 Mk3 Ford Zephyr, certainly not immaculate, but still road legal, which I doubt if the 4 cyl. version I had of same age model would still be around. From memory I saw it a few months later with it's new owner around 1973 roughly, then with flames painted on the front wings and a plank of wood jamming the broken front bench seat up enough for the owner to see over the steering wheel! I had lots of fun with like all my cheap bangers.

 

[The Panda Nut]

When I had my old Mini I had 10 inch Wolfrace slot mags on it for about 2-3 years, here is a pic, excuse the rally decals I had just turned 20 & was a boy racer
View attachment 449458

after a while I fancied a change & purchased a set of 5 original Dunlop reverse rims as I also like them myself, the originals are very hard to get hold off & quite valuable in good nick, although there are reproduction ones but they're not the same, I bought them on eBay unseen with delivery, they turned up, I thought they didn't look too bad, left them for about a year before I did anything with them & when I took all the previous paint off which was quite a few layers they were in really bad condition to the point they were unsalvageable, luckily I didn't pay through the roof for them & just about broke even when I sold them on, I don't run this Mini on E10, she has the E5 Super Unleaded with Redex lead additive which works out at only an extra £2.50 a tank which isn't too bad, me personally I've never been a lover of wood steering wheels, the Momo Competition wheel I have is leather & although it's looking a tad tatty up close nowadays as it's nearly 30 years old my dad gave it to me about 10 years ago as I was going to buy a Mota Lita & he pulled the Momo out of his cupboard & said he bought it new in the 90's, used it a few times but couldn't get on with it so I could have it & I've had it in Mini's ever since but it's such a nice & comfortable wheel for a Mini I don't want to part with it

WOW look at the shine on that paint!!!

 

[FiatMatt94]

Considering the age and the fact at time they were in the lower price range so in fairness were not expected to live for ever, it has done remarkably well and I always enjoy seeing vehicles of my youth still going strong.
Even today I was with my youngest daughter and grand daughter at a Steam Rally, doing my usual boring "I had one of those or my sister had that model etc"
In fairness ours were always the cheaper end of the market as all we could afford, even as we parked in the public car park another visitor rolled up in a 1964 Mk3 Ford Zephyr, certainly not immaculate, but still road legal, which I doubt if the 4 cyl. version I had of same age model would still be around. From memory I saw it a few months later with it's new owner around 1973 roughly, then with flames painted on the front wings and a plank of wood jamming the broken front bench seat up enough for the owner to see over the steering wheel! I had lots of fun with like all my cheap bangers.

It has indeed done very well, the things that have helped it were the fact it was wax injected from the factory when new as I have the ticket for it somewhere, it must have been good stuff as it's still in there over 4 decades on, the elderly lady who owned it from early 1983 had it waxoyled every year when it was MOT'ed, then I think she must of passed on in 1999 as it was then transferred to her husband's name who then left it in dry storage for 24 years & as a result only has 29k on the clock which is genuine as I have the service history along with MOT's from 1985 upto 1999 when it was laid up, I even have the original British Leyland passport to service book with the first 3 services in it up to 1983 which apparently is like gold dust nowadays

 

[FiatMatt94]

WOW look at the shine on that paint!!!

It was very shiny until a lot of rot & gearbox failure took it of the road in 2018, I still miss that car now it was my pride & joy, the shell was well beyond redemption so I looked into a brand new British Motor Heritage body shell which with paint etc would have been near £20k & I thought If I spent that I wouldn't want to drive it so we made the decision to strip the shell & the scrap man picked the old shell up, fast forward to late 2022 I started hankering after another Mini so I set about looking for the best one I could that had hardly been messed with & also wanted the earliest car I could get within £10k so that was either MK3 or MK4 & I decided I wasn't going to go & look at one unless it sounded decent & stood out to me, came across the one I have now from a Mini specialist which was a 6 hour round trip to the New Forest & when I got there the trip was definitely worth it, there was 1 small imperfection as I lifted everything up , carpets, dash the lot & the seller was looking on in shock i think went for a test drive then the negotiation started, he wanted just short of £9k, I started haggling which I'm very good at I started at £7.5K & we ended up settling at £8,250 & I said for that I want it delivered as well, I think for that money I got a good buy as she is now on classic car insurance policy with an agreed valuation of £14k. This one staying with me until I get my hands on a MK1 Cooper S but that'll be a few years off yet as I'm planning a big move up to the North at some point hopefully within the next year so after that the saving for a MK1 S will start

 

[bugsymike]

Top deck of an old bus at Steam Rally, I am the one on the left

It has indeed done very well, the things that have helped it were the fact it was wax injected from the factory when new as I have the ticket for it somewhere, it must have been good stuff as it's still in there over 4 decades on, the elderly lady who owned it from early 1983 had it waxoyled every year when it was MOT'ed, then I think she must of passed on in 1999 as it was then transferred to her husband's name who then left it in dry storage for 24 years & as a result only has 29k on the clock which is genuine as I have the service history along with MOT's from 1985 upto 1999 when it was laid up, I even have the original British Leyland passport to service book with the first 3 services in it up to 1983 which apparently is like gold dust nowadays

Long way from the prices I paid in the 1970s and 80s, Waxoyl must have been well done.
In the early 80s I was offered a early Mini Automatic, I thought it was 850cc, but could be they only did them in 1000cc, not a fan of Mini automatics, but the salesman where I was working had refused to even take it for £50, it was the old lady's recently diseased husbands, on my way home I had a look at the car, it looked awful but I bought it as it appeared sound.
The lady told me her husband did all the servicing himself regularly and when oil change finished he used to paint the entire car with it! Slightly eccentric there was even talcum powder around all the door rubbers. I washed the entire car with paraffin then loads of soap water before the final T Cut and polish, it was immaculate, flew through the Mot and I sold it for £650

 

[FiatMatt94]

Top deck of an old bus at Steam Rally, I am the one on the left

View attachment 449460

Long way from the prices I paid in the 1970s and 80s, Waxoyl must have been well done.
In the early 80s I was offered a early Mini Automatic, I thought it was 850cc, but could be they only did them in 1000cc, not a fan of Mini automatics, but the salesman where I was working had refused to even take it for £50, it was the old lady's recently diseased husbands, on my way home I had a look at the car, it looked awful but I bought it as it appeared sound.
The lady told me her husband did all the servicing himself regularly and when oil change finished he used to paint the entire car with it! Slightly eccentric there was even talcum powder around all the door rubbers. I washed the entire car with paraffin then loads of soap water before the final T Cut and polish, it was immaculate, flew through the Mot and I sold it for £650

There were a few 850 automatic but not that many, I believe now there's none left, my dad had a MK3 850 auto when I was born in 1994 which he got from the end of an auction which ended up being written off by an MG Metro, he told me a story in 1990 he got a 5 year old Lada Riva off a mechanic for £30 as he couldn't solve an overheating problem, turned out it was the thermostat so he got it working for £0 & put it through the auction on the same evening & got £130. It's like the Seicento I just got, a few people had already walked away from it as they didn't want to spend a couple of days tidying it up, mainly the underside but after spending the equivalent of 3 days on it she's now pretty immaculate & it's quite nice driving around in something that was once a very common sight but is quite rare nowadays

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Came across these definitions on another forum the other day:

Understeer: When you hit the wall with the front of the car
Oversteer: When you hit the wall with the back of the car
Horsepower: How fast you're going when you hit the wall
Torque: How far you take parts of the wall with you

Puts a broad grin on my face!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

There were a few 850 automatic but not that many, I believe now there's none left, my dad had a MK3 850 auto when I was born in 1994 which he got from the end of an auction which ended up being written off by an MG Metro, he told me a story in 1990 he got a 5 year old Lada Riva off a mechanic for £30 as he couldn't solve an overheating problem, turned out it was the thermostat so he got it working for £0 & put it through the auction on the same evening & got £130

Having worked a lot in BL dealerships I ran into that AP gearbox on many occasions, mostly unhappy ones. It seemed to be a gearbox which gained a reputation for being unreliable, which is certainly my recollection.

 

[FiatMatt94]

Having worked a lot in BL dealerships I ran into that AP gearbox on many occasions, mostly unhappy ones. It seemed to be a gearbox which gained a reputation for being unreliable, which is certainly my recollection.

The 850 auto my dad had was crash damaged as the subframe was all bent & the car was all full of filler but it never scrubbed tyres, that gearbox was definitely not happy as a result of the damage you couldn't just put it in drive & go, you had to drive it in a certain sequence, my dad still remembers the sequence to this day 30 years on

 

[bugsymike]

There were a few 850 automatic but not that many, I believe now there's none left, my dad had a MK3 850 auto when I was born in 1994 which he got from the end of an auction which ended up being written off by an MG Metro, he told me a story in 1990 he got a 5 year old Lada Riva off a mechanic for £30 as he couldn't solve an overheating problem, turned out it was the thermostat so he got it working for £0 & put it through the auction on the same evening & got £130. It's like the Seicento I just got, a few people had already walked away from it as they didn't want to spend a couple of days tidying it up, mainly the underside but after spending the equivalent of 3 days on it she's now pretty immaculate & it's quite nice driving around in something that was once a very common sight but is quite rare nowadays

I worked at a Lada Dealership from 75-82, so did a fair bit on the 1200 and 1500s, later I had a Riva and sold it to a Russian sailor, I thought he was going to use it , but apparently they used to strip everything off to sell and throw the body shell over the side on the way back to Russia.
@Pugglt Auld Jock re the mini autos, we would take them to a local "specialist" and on refitting would find more troubles than they went with , plus extra oil leaks!!! So it was strange to find that one was working perfectly.

 

[portland_bill]

Having worked a lot in BL dealerships I ran into that AP gearbox on many occasions, mostly unhappy ones. It seemed to be a gearbox which gained a reputation for being unreliable, which is certainly my recollection.

We had a guy specialised in them. Had usually one a fortnight to repair/rebuild.
One silly incident, customer reported their auto Metro would jump into drive when idling. This guy tested it in the car park, no issues, drove it around a bit, selecting neutral at each stop, no issues. Parked it in his bay, facing the wall, stepped out and it went clunk, and gently hit the wall. So a bit of bodywork to do after the gearbox repair then. Within 20 minutes, someone had found a sign, for the wall, "No vehicles beyond this point". Sign stayed for years.

 

[portland_bill]

Spent two days dismantling and cleaning the Dyson hand-held vacuum. They have many little parts, and lots of internal nooks and crannies, that gently fill with dust. They come apart easily, once you know where to prise, and where to find the T6 screws. Then all being plastic, can be washed, and left to dry, then rebuilt. Now lifting the carpet off the floor. An annual job. (The refurbish, not the vacuuming)

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

After many years of experimenting with different electric shavers when I was younger I settled on the Philips rotary shavers. My present one is a 3000 cordless wet and dry which I've had for a long time and the battery is slowly failing - such that instead of getting about a week's worth of shaving on one charge as it did when new I'm now getting one day at full speed and two more at reduced speed. So, new shaver needed.

Looking at the options but decided to stay with the "devil I know" so got to be a Philips. Got a big shock at how they've increased in price - but hasn't everything? Anyway, I got on well with my old 3,000 so I'll just have another. Mrs J says "How much is it? About £50 just Use my Boots Advantage Card, I've got easily enough on it to buy that". Back onto the computer and it turns out the 3000 is now a "series" The cheapest is the 3000X which is on offer £54.99 reduced to £49.99, Looks identical to the one I have just now and that's a nice surprise, saves me £5, very nice. Wonder how the other models in the 3000 series differ. Oh look , there's one at £59.99, must be the next one up in the range? So started to compare features and then noticed "on special offer, usual price £139.99. Must be a mistake? Looked again, it's the top of the range model. Let's ring up the Princes street branch and see if that price is right. Blimey, it is! it's on special promotion. Can you put one behind the till for me? Certainly sir, collect before end of business today, we're open 'till 7pm. Jumped straight in the bus and shot up there and here it is:

It's quite similar to the old one - the one with the red trim in the next picture:

But it has 3 oblong lights below the on/off switch (you can see them in the picture on the box) which light up when you turn it on or when it's charging to let you know the state of the battery. The old one had one light which lit up to tell you "I'm nearly flat" which you knew anyway because it would be running slow!

The cutting heads are very similar.

The circular metal grills float in the three plastic holders which themselves are also hinged to allow movement to follow the contours of your face, however, the new one's entire head is also hinged:

They call it 5D. older one doesn't have this "feature" and is now called 4D:

Seems a bit of a "gimmick" to me but time will tell if it allows it to provide a better shave.

The only rather strange thing is that it doesn't come with it's own charger - all the one's I've had in the past included a charger in the box - This new one just includes a UBS lead. So I could charge it from the laptop I suppose? Then Mrs J said "I've got a spare UBS charger from my old iPad, would that work"? Luckily it's got specs written on the outside - output 5v DC @ 2.4A. Yippee, the spec for a charger for the shaver is 5v DC @ greater than 1 amp. Sorted. And the old apple charger is dual 110/240 volt input so I can use it anywhere if needed. In fact it's been connected for about 45 minutes now and the 3rd light has just come on so, Happy days!

Interesting, perhaps? that the website shows many models, including this one, out of stock. but when you ring the branch they still have some. Maybe reducing stock of a model soon to be replaced? Anyway, if you're looking for a shaver and you want one of these, I'd get on the phone to your local branch double quick time before they're all gone. Slightly less than half price? I never get bargains like that!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Spent two days dismantling and cleaning the Dyson hand-held vacuum. They have many little parts, and lots of internal nooks and crannies, that gently fill with dust. They come apart easily, once you know where to prise, and where to find the T6 screws. Then all being plastic, can be washed, and left to dry, then rebuilt. Now lifting the carpet off the floor. An annual job. (The refurbish, not the vacuuming)

Yup, Cleaning out the Dyson! Daughter in law has one, as does daughter (but she lives at the other end of the country) so I end up doing daughter in law's one pretty much every year and it really benefits from it. Norman, my commercial Numatic (He's a Henry but not so "posh") never needs more than a new bag from time to time and happily lifts the carpet at any time if you let him! (that's what the wee twisty air vent on the handle's for)

 

[Cheest]

I took the two youngest shi...er...grandkids fishing today.

It was beastly hot but the fish were biting. You'll notice that I have an inflatable instead of a proper boat. That isn't required to be registered in Illannoy whereas a regular boat and trailer needs to be licensed, titled, and insured. Deflate, fold, store on a shelf. Sticking it to da man!

The two behaved themselves while on the water with limited whining, so we stopped for ice cream on the way back to grandma's house.