Sold the blue sportpack! Check is being put in the mailbox, so it must be true, right? ;D The red 82 was suppose to go to a guy in NYC, but he vanished on me after committing. Didn't get a check from him though. However, I will know tomorrow if another guy is coming up from ATL on Monday to buy it. What all this means is I'll be delivering the sportpack to Kansas City from NC, and probably hauling my pickup back out here to start on it. I may give a guy I know a quote on a restoration while I'm out there for his panel van, which I've seen before, and now he's getting ready to really start on it. If he's actually ready I'll haul it back and restore it rather than my pickup. Then when I deliver his van haul my pickup out then. And after I get back to NC I head to CT and pick up the other mini I just bought, and on my way there look at another mini in NJ that I may buy. Goodness gracious great balls of minis!
Glad to see your busy.
I really like that Black one. Trying to justify it right now. If business keeps going the way it is I will have no problem getting it. We are slammed busy.
...back to work..
Red one sold for the 2nd time this morning. The guy is coming from Atlanta to get it Monday. Then its off on my road trips to play haul as many minis as I can.
If the guy from Atlanta needs it he (or she) can borrow my flat-tow setup. Brad
94,
Where do you have to go to get your pickup? I thought you said that it was somewhere in Oklahoma. If you were coming anywhere near Wichita Ks. maybe we could get together to compare pickups.
My pickup is in Tulsa still. Love to come check out your pickup, but won't be headed back north to you after I get mine hooked up. I go from Tulsa east to NC.
Brad- I'll ask the guy if he needs that. Thanks.
Quote from: 94touring on June 25, 2009, 07:51:51 PM
My pickup is in Tulsa still.
That wouldn't be a red pickup would it? I had seen a red one in Tulsa about 2 years ago but it wasn't a true pickup. It was one that someone had cut up a clubman or a sedan to make it look like a pickup.
Mine is currently green with a black roof. I know the red one you are talking about though. It use to just sit in a shop downtown, but maybe the guy sold it or finally put it on the road.
In the process of buying the mini in New Jersey if the guy will answer his phone.
Couple pics of that car.
It looks like the steering wheel is in the middle, and there is a lot of guages. :D
Its an innocentia from Belgium. Pretty sure they are highly sought after. Also explains the cool dash.
Bought the Innocenti this morning while at that car show, lol.
Brad, I let that guy know about your offer. All he said was he was renting a trailer and would think about it.
Sounds good.
Dan are you hitting the road today? Make sure your ipod has plenty of tunes on it. A month or so ago you drove from Arizona now back to KC next NJ you should check into frequent driver miles LOL. Give me a ring when you get close to Tulsa.
No kidding! You forgot about the trip to CT in there too. Its like 3 weeks of solid driving. I hit the road tomorrow morning.
Quote from: Hayman9644 on June 29, 2009, 12:07:23 AM
Dan are you hitting the road today? Make sure your ipod has plenty of tunes on it. A month or so ago you drove from Arizona now back to KC next NJ you should check into frequent driver miles LOL. Give me a ring when you get close to Tulsa.
Oh and John....my keys for the pickup are still in the thing too right? I know its been 2 years, but I'm pretty sure I left them there. I hope.
I will check in the morning. and let you know. Im sure they are.
Back from the trip. Hauling the mini there was very uneventful, but hauling my pickup had its moments of events. Started off by blowing a tire , but that was a 10 minute fix. A fender flare was lost during the rubber explosion. Next I noticed the truck swaying around behind me so pulled over to investigate. My tow bar brackets seemed to loosen up, so retorqued and on my way. This kept happening throughout the trip. I finally concluded that the front valance where the brackets attach had some weak metal, as it would compress and change shape on me every time I took it all apart to look it over. Eventually the tow bar brackets weren't even facing straight because it had distorted so much. One side started to tear as well. I improvised with some thick metal spacers I had with me to support the metal, which kept the brackets fairly straight and helped with it compressing as much. I must have pulled over 7 or 8 times to retorque. But the best part was pulling into a rest area to double check things and had to make a U turn into the lot. The road was wet and I was only doing 5ish when I made the turn. I'm thinking now that it was a combination of the loose brackets and wet road, but the truck wanted to shift/go one way as I was turning the other and it pushed the rear end of the hauling car around and jack knifed on itself in a real hurry. Dented the Pt-cruiser I use to haul with, and the mini got all beat to hell. Busted the headlight, dented the wing, twisted and smashed the chrome bumper, cracked the seams on both wings where it attaches to the front end, bent the already crappy front end up more. Initially I was thinking I wouldn't replace the front end, but guess I will be now, lol. After the seams cracked I could see some rust in there anyways, and after the trip the front end valance was so torn up it needs replaced too. Ah fun.
Well damn. Now I understand why some of the towbars I have seen were made one peice that goes between the front mounts. Less torque to the front of the vehicle. May be worth looking into making one of those.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Its on my to do list.
Here's the blown tire. Impressive I thought.
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=432)
Well I'll be leaving in the morning to get the Inoccenti.
You must really be getting into this driving thing Dan. LOL
Hey Dan maybe you could bolt a bar across the tow bar that way its still adjustable in width but takes care of the torque on it. If you can picture what Im saying.
Quote from: Hayman9644 on July 08, 2009, 08:53:32 AM
Hey Dan maybe you could bolt a bar across the tow bar that way its still adjustable in width but takes care of the torque on it. If you can picture what Im saying.
Sure do, was probably going to fabricate that. Just got back from the Jersey trip with zero problems. Its amazing how much better they tow when the body is solid.
How strong/solid the front sub-frame mount is has a lot to do with it as well. I had a tow-bar failure problem on a later style Japanese-spec SPI Mini. After quite some analysis of the failure, I had several things I did wrong on it that I had done right on the Moke before it. The SPI had the rubber front sub-frame mounts which allowed flex in the tow-bar mounting along with having spaced the tow-bar mounts too far in front of the bodywork (in an attempt to leave the front bumper in place while towing). I also did not have the cross-brace that others have mentioned. Some folks use a cross-brace on their tow-bars and some don't. I did not need it with the Moke as it had the solid mounts and I used short spacers to have the tow-bar mounts barely in front of the valance (maybe 1/4 inch).
My failure was the 1/2" grade-8 bolts gave out (two sets). The first set badly bent, but did not break on the way to a show. On the way back, the replacement set (again 1/2" grade-8 bolts) had one bolt badly bend and the other broke where the threads met the smooth shaft. Damage to the towed Mini was fortunately minimal as I had decided to pull into a parking lot and double check the mountings. They failed as I was coming to a final stop. The tow bar bounced off the front valance and buckled under the Mini, bending the right front control rod.
Wow that would suck. Breaking 1/2 inch grade 8's is impressive though. My mpi had the rubber in there as well, and I had put washers/spacers in the middle of it all and torqued it down really good with 1/2 inch bolts and never had a problem with compression. My brackets on all these tows allowed for the tow bracket to be a quarter inch to half inch roughly from the front valance. Never had to take off the chrome bumper. Also the way I have the hitch on the towing vehicle setup allows it to be parallel to the ground so there are no major angles the tow bar is at while riding behind the car.
I had used longer spacers so the tow-bar bracket were about 2 to 3 inches in front of the valance. That added to the problem by allowing additional torque-flex of the bolts. I also had a small angle to the tow bar - probably not as parallel to the ground as it should have been. I was towing behind my 2002 MINI. I think the "killing" factor was the longer spacers as I had used the exact same tow bar and mounts to tow the Moke behind the MINI as well and had no issues with the Moke (short spacers like you described).