My 99 and 69 Minis

[anonymous-user]

That 99 is lovely.
Gold wheels are the way forward.

[Downton Mini]

Thanks yes the wheels seem to divide opion but I knew when I brought I had to get some gold centred wheels for it some confirmed to me then I saw a Almond Green Downton Cport 40 with gold centred wheels and that was the choice made just had to find the right size. There 13 x 7 so slightly wider then the original sportspack wheels but I think it makes the car look a bit meaner (although the turning circle is shocking!)

[anonymous-user]

I'll be downsizing to 10x6 from the 12x6 this year.
Still gold centred.

[VXRuss]

Love both of them, had a 1380 mini as my first car, such a hoot and surprised so many other cars on the road.

Just get a sense of something special when driving an original mini

[Downton Mini]

VXRuss said:

Love both of them, had a 1380 mini as my first car, such a hoot and surprised so many other cars on the road.

Just get a sense of something special when driving an original mini

Cheers I now what you mean I felt so alive after driving it on wednesday night. No traction control/ABS/PAS just me and the Mini fantastic. I've said before I want a MINI as an everyday car in the future and I'm sure I will but it wouldn't replace either of my classic it will be as well as the classics

I was looking trough Mini Magazine last night and spotted an advert for a company producing a throtle body kit for the MPI Mini including a mapabel ECU. I quite like the idea of this as I was looking at supercharging it but a some where near £4k I don't think it'll happen the throtle body kit is about £1200 and could possibel achive about 140 bhp!!! Not sure if I'm aloud to post a link or not(Please let my numbners come up on the lottery tomorrow night)

[Downton Mini]

Well the saga of the speedo continues!!

Got it all back together onyl for the lower part of the speedo cable to break right at the end in the speedo drive in the gearbox!!! So we have spent the last few days trying to get that out with no luck there is a bush which hold the drive in place which we can not get out.

I did manage to get the parrot working properly so thats good.

Really need to get it all back together as its due it's MOT at the end of the month.And I want to start drving it again

[Downton Mini]

Well a quick update managed the speedo drive out to try and get the broken bit of the sppedo cable out to find this



Think its a bit broken!!!

I had a bit of a job finding a replacement as no one makes them anymore how ever after a facebook post one of my facebook friends came to the rescue and hopefully I'll have it for tomorrow!

[Downton Mini]

Today I have had to admit defeat and take Dumbo the troublesome Downton to the garage next door to sort out the problem with the speedo drive and an oil leak that he has developed (thanks to paul over tightening one of the bolts in the gear box casing and stripping the thread!!) But it was a nice morning for a drive to work until I discovered that Dumbo now only has 4 forward gears !!!! Think I maqy have to sell my body off the medical science to be able to pay the bill at the end of it!!

Why do we do it?.......

[cagedmini]

We do it 'cos its a mini!!

[pistonpie]

Downton Mini said:

Well heres a few picutres of my Minis













The Green Mini is a 1999 Rover Mini with Downton Sport Touring Conversaion carried out from new it os No 1 of 5!! I brought it new in 1999. It has a stage 3 head, 5 speed 'box, adjustabl;e suspension, rear anti roll bar,4 pot calipers and grooved dics ion the front It had specila leather interior which I have changed to be copbra seats to give more support. ( i have the original seats still) I have fitted the chrome spot lights, and MKi grille to give the retro look I have a 60's roof rack I use when I go camping with the Mini. Ialso changed the original sportsd pack wheels for the gold centred superlites.

The blue Mini was my first car and I still have it

never been to fond of Minis...but that green one is amazingly good! would love it!

[Downton Mini]

cagedmini said:

We do it 'cos its a mini!!

This is true even after the last few weeks head scratching this morning I fell in love with driving again!

[Downton Mini]

pistonpie said:

never been to fond of Minis...but that green one is amazingly good! would love it!

Thank you I love them both as they are both very different the Blue MKII won't be rush and id best around town and local but the Green one is has happy on the motorway as it is on the A & B roads the A 7 B roads are much more fun though

[Downton Mini]

Well the Downton has been in the garage having the speedo drive sorted after having a few problems getting the old one out. They ended up taking the engine out. They have managed to sort out the oil leak too which was coming from the crank snesor so that'll stop me having to fill it up with oil!!!

THey've got to MOT it before I can collect it so I'm hoping either this afternoon or tomorrow I can have it back and get it ready for next weekend splash dash in Wales

[Downton Mini]

Thouht I should update this a bit

Fianlly got the Mini back and all is well now and the speedo reads more or less bang on without using the gear box I had made. Turns out the orignal speedo drive was the wrong one!!!

Been busy driving my brother Mini from Lands End to John O'groats last month and then used my green one to take a lad across the road to his prom it was quite a good feeling seeing the reaction the car got bearing in mind there were numorus Astons and Bentleys etc there

I am now trying to move the washer bottle form the boot to under the bonnet to try and free up boot space which is limited having 2 tanks in the boot.

We've also sprayed the roof box we brought last year to match the roof of the car now looking at fitting to my chrome and wood roof rack as the bars that came with it are too clase to the roof even without anything in the box.

Hoping to get to some shows later in the year provding they aren't all rain off!

[Downton Mini]

Well the Mini is still running fine had to replace the brake pads over the weekend ready for my journey down to Devon for a week of camping and driving.

Also while sorting out some picutres I found some photos form when the car was used in a scene in a film called Miranda starring Christina Ricci so I thought I'd uplaod a few the pictures show the car before I started changing it.

[Downton Mini]

Heres a quick picutre taken after leaving our tempory campsite after a rather wet weekend in North Devon over the bank holiday weekend





The campsite is actually a sheep feild normally and due to the waether conditions I managed to get stuck twice! The farmer who lets us use his feild (for free) came and laid a tempory roadway for us.

[Rew]

Loving the Almond Green sportpack and the blue one looks a bit special.

I searched for many months trying to find a genuine Rover Sportpack in AG but never managed to source one. The only ones in that colour I could find was the 35 special model. Ended up buying a BRG one with 14k on the clock

A low mileage Almond Green appeared for sale 2 weeks later

[Downton Mini]

Thanks I changed my mind about the colour so many times. When the sports pack was launched I fell in love with the Thaiti blue but by the time I came to ordering mine they were quite a comon sight about 2 weeks after placing a provisional order for mine dad spotted a AG one in the garage showroom where I had ordered mine form and I knew that was the colour I had to have. The garage painted the roof in snowberry white for me (free of charge as it was the second most expensive Mini they had ever sold!) I love the colour and get so many comments at shows and even on the supermaket carpark.

I need to spend a bit of money on it now the doors are starting to go so thats the next job!

[Downton Mini]

Time for a bit of an update for anyone whos interested.

With the snow we have been having it has given me time to do a few bits on the Downton.

Back in August one of my dipped beam head lights decided to blow luckily one of the people we were camping with had a spare set (I had to change the other as the bulds in the car were halgen ones and the spares weren't!)

Well as part of my christmas present my brother brought me some new brighter bulbs so I decided I would get these fitted I also needed to sort out my one spot light which had stopped working just after the headlight had blown.

As is normal with any car this simple job lead to a number of others.

I noticed the inside of the head light rims has sign of rust on them



So I cleaned them up then I then applied a coat of hamerrite to the internal surfaces to try and protect them.



The clips that hold the headlight retaining rim in place were also showing signs of rust and one from each head light was missing so I brought 2 new sets off ebay and have applied a coat fo silver paint to tray and protect these a bit



We traced the problem with the spot light to a loose conection possible from the engine being out earlier last year to sort out the probelms with the gearbox

While the grill is off I plan to clean behind it and clean the grill itself as with the spots and fogs on the front of the car its a bit of a pain. I also want to replace the fuse box cover under the bonnet as the clip has broken I have a replacement but it needs a bit of a clean up.

I also have a set of Mini Fins for the rear drums whihc I'm currently painting red.

Further plans are to change the rear anti roll bar bushes for uprated ones (another christmas present) add some more sound deadening to try and make the Mini a bit quiter in preperation for this year LEJOG in june (we took part last year in my brothers Downton and it was fantasic fun but after 8 hours on the way home with a straight cut box I think this year we will take mine!)

I also need to sort out an oil leak (yes I know Mini's leak oil it's built in to them I'm sure but this leak is then its under pressure. I also need to check the cooling system as after fitting a new set of pipes and header tank the water level drops after the car has been used for a good run my first thought is the cap isn't sealing correctly so this is something I will be looking at.

I'm off to Mini Fair on sunday all being well (but I think it will be in the Golf) so hopefully I will be able to get any bits I need.

One other thing I would like to do is make the rear quater lights open electrically I know this can be done as I've seen it doen before I'm just trying to find out as much info as I can before buying any bits for it.

Edited by Downton Mini on Monday 21st January 08:31

[Downton Mini]

Over the weekend with the help of my brother I have managedto convert the rear windows to be operated electrically! We did this by using a pair of motors form a BMW (E46?) Compact while the installation isn't 100% finished it works and we have be abel to put it on to one switch too so to me that's even better. Just need to tidy the interior up now to make it look more OEM which is that I wanted it to look like. Oh and the best bit is so far the conversion has cost me abotu £50!

Whilst doing the work I discpverd a bit of rust (yeah rust on a classic Mini unheard of !! lol ) on the window frame whihc we have treated I just need to get some paint to re finish it now to bring it back to being as it should.

The next job is to try and sort out the dirvers doors central looking which isn't working, then I want to fit some more sound deadening and if I can clean the head lining but need to find a effective way of doing this.

I am now considering fitting electric windows to the fornt windows although I do not like the look of the kits on the market (I know you don't see most of them but they all do away with the window winder and offer a blanking plate (whihc I think looks rubbish) but my brother thinks we may be abel to do it so the window winder is fitted in place and the switches will go in the centre console I like this idea just need to find a decent kit now.