A new game... Post pics from your cel phone V.1.0

[Jims5543]

How many MINIs were there this year? In the past they could have as many as 600 cars attend this event!

My first new MINI was an electric blue with matching top, just like this one. Mine was a 2003 JCW that they guy must have bought every factory accessory available at the time.....they said his car came to over $40K on the sticker!

Mine had the two tone blue leather interior, what does this  one have?

I'm amazed at the paint fade on the roof, I wonder if it was painted once before? What did it cost to get it painted?

I have no idea how many minis were there. A lot? LOL!  TBH it was not a scene I was digging, way too many people, crowds, cars. I love my mountain roads empty. It was fun to be there, I have hosted many Dragon events with my Porsche friends and our groups would be 12 cars, which IMHO is perfect. When there are 500 cars anywhere, its overwhelming. 

As far as what it cost me to paint this car, he cut me a nice deal because he was slow and needed work. I paid $3,500 for a full respray, I did some of the reassembly with him and at home. I also blacked out all the trim and installed it myself.  Best we can tell it had original paint, I suspect the brutal sun of Honolulu and Florida wrecked the paint. It is ceramic coated now which is amazing.  So easy to keep clean. 

We ended up changing the tail lights after a year, I never really liked the aftermarket lights I purchased. the OEM were faded and shot.  I ended up changing them to these.



After this MOTD trip we contemplated selling everything and moving to the Fontana / Bryson City area and semi retiring. I toyed with opening up a Mini Cooper Touring company. 

Similar to this:

https://www.thextremexperience.com/open-road-supercar-driving-tours/

Just more budget minded and with only Mini's, various Minis from Classics to R53's and beyond all the way up to modern Mini's.

I found a property right near Fontana village on 2 acres of land with lots of room for a large metal building to house this operation and no restrictions from stopping me.

What stops me? I kind of love what I do now, I love my job, I love the equipment I use, my clients are awesome. I love being out in the field, I get especially excited when I know I am going to be out in the forest all day on acreage.  Some of the properties I work on are just amazing. I hate being in the office, I hate working in front of a computer. My perfect scenario? I work in the field all day and have someone in the office handling it.

Sadly, because I hold the damn license, that is not feasible. So I spend about 4-5 hours a day in the field and 5-6 hours a day in the office.

I am far from ready to retire, BUT want to scale down my work weeks and try to have 3-4 day weekends all weekends. I am working towards that, my game plan and to just ride the wave, wherever the economic wave flows, I will happily ride it. We achieved all out financial goals, in late 2020 I set out to be 100% debt free (for the second time in my life, in 2004 I was 100% debt free then the housing crash happened) We achieved all our goals by early 2022. 

I plan on keeping this place open another 20 years especially since it is nepotism central, both my sons work for me now. The older one is the second best employee I ever had only being beat by my BIL who worked for me in the early 2000's. The younger one will be an asset as he matures, sadly, he is very immature for his age, but he will come into himself eventually. he is a good kid, keeps his head down and stays out of trouble.

He is 20 years old lives at home (because there is no chance in hell he can afford a house right now) and has about 30K in his savings. I also had him open an investment account and he puts 10% of his earnings in there too. I think he will be the one to obtain his degree and Surveyor License if he wants to pursue this route. 

[94touring]

Now that the divorce is over I'm able to finish my studio condo remodel. It was intended for traveling nurses but now will be my home till my other tenant moves out of my original condo.  I had bought all this stuff earlier in the year for the intended nurse rental. Still trim and paint to do.  Before, during, and after. 

[BruceK]

Looks nice.  I really like the new floor tile. 

[94touring]

Looks nice.  I really like the new floor tile. 

Thanks the bathroom got the same tile. 

[Jims5543]

Mrs5543 approved!!  LOL!!


You have a good eye Dan, that is a nice look.

[94touring]

Mrs5543 approved!!  LOL!!


You have a good eye Dan, that is a nice look.

Yeah my buddy who helped me move some things yesterday and who's known me for 20 years pointed out he'd think I was gay given my fashion sense and eye for interior design if it weren't for the shop and car hobbies lol. I own more shoes than Jen for example lol

[94touring]

I also got a new bakour burner since the other was left at the old house.  If you're unfamiliar with bakour, it's wood soaked in oils you burn on a little briquette.  It's middle easten incense.  I got turned onto the stuff with all my time in the middle east.  Doesn't have the smoke burnt smell incense has in the states.  More of a perfume.

[94touring]

The living area is almost done.  Waiting on a small dining table and chairs.  Got a TV stand though and all hooked up with my surround sound and internet.

[MiniDave]

Looks nice, almost livable now.....but I think you need a few more buttons on your remotes!     

[Jims5543]

About 18 months ago I received an email from a man in New Jersey asking if my Grandfathers name was Adams with a picture of a hand made shop sign.

He said he found my posts online and was sure this sign belonged to my grandfather, he purchased it at a yard sale up the street from his house with a story told about the sign.

The old man selling it owned a towing company that used to deliver broken down cars to my grandfathers shop. My grandfather retired from the shop in the mid 1970's, he was 50% owner of a BMC shop in Manhattan, he reason for getting out was due to the Japanese cars growing popularity. he could see the BMC days were coming to an end, his partner bought him out thinking he was crazy, no one would forget Pearl Harbor. In the early 80's the shop closed down, my grandfather was right.

So this cat from Jersey saw this sign and purchased it for $20 from a yard sale, the seller told him he was at the shop when it was closing and they were throwing a lot of stuff away, he asked about the sign and they told him to take it, so he did and it sat in his garage for 40 years.

After he purchased it he did some research and found me. Emailed me, then after some back and forth I paid for it to be packaged and shipped on my dime to me, it cost about $400 to get this to me. Money well spent to have a piece of my Grandfathers history in my possession that I can pass down to my kids. 





The guy from Jersey is also a Petrol Head, we talked cars on the phone, he has had some cool cars over the years including aPorsche 944 Turbo which he said was his favorite car.  As a thank you to the fellow for doing this I bought him this Porsche Coffee Table book, tossed $200 cash inside it and told him to take his wife to a nice dinner on me.





We were going to try to brighten up the sign and decided to leave the patina, I have it on a wall in my office now.

[MiniDave]

That's amazing about the sign, even more incredible that they found you so you could have it!

One of my favorite uncles had a shop from about the turn of the century (His father started it, but he worked there most of his life) till the 70's, when the area was bought up to build a huge hotel complex. I can't find a single picture of my Uncles old shop, but a couple of years ago I helped my cousin clear out his father's house after he passed and found a box of clean new invoice pads. I use them now  - just as scribble pads - but it's nice to have the reminder.

The only pic I could find was of the building right next door - "Carl's Hollywood Mufflers" which was a really famous local speed shop from the late 40's on.......My uncle's shop was at 2733 Oak, the two streets came together here, so even tho a different address, they were next door......just north of this building. The interesting thing about this pic that I didn't notice before is the advertisement painted on the building that they worked on British cars, the MG Octagon painted to the left of the door and "British Cars" painted on the right side of the fascia. No idea why the lighthouse on the roof, and I don't remember if it was lit up or not.

[Jims5543]

My dog about to learn a lesson.  Huge Blue crab on the other end of that claw.

[MPlayle]

Did you catch the crab?  It should make a tasty apetizer or entre.

[MiniDave]

Are the blue ones good eating?

[Jims5543]

Yes they are good eating and its a wild crab, we have them wandering around here.

[94touring]

I eat blue crabs in Baltimore whenever I'm up there. Very good, just a lot of work.  When I was a kid living along the intercostal in NC, I had crab pots and would catch and eat them all the time.

[Jims5543]

in the road in front of my house a while back.

[94touring]

The blue crab I'm referring to look like this and aren't land dwellers.

[MiniDave]

I found some titles to cars I used to own, this one in particular is one I would like to have back, in any condition.....

I don't think I have any pics of it tho I might have one pic I found years ago on Vignale's website - as they did the rebody. It was based on a Fiat 600 chassis, with an Abarth 750 engine, and a bunch of Nardi accessories....obviously the steering wheel as that's what they're known for but it also had a finned alloy oil pan instead of the steel one and a finned alloy valve cover. I never got to drive it as it had dropped a valve when I got it and I couldn't find another head. I tried to swap in a 903 engine and gearbox from an 850 Spyder but the gearbox was larger and wouldn't fit between the rear lower control arms.