My name is Dave, and I'm a Miniholic...
*Crowd answers "Hi, Dave"*
My first Mini was a '62 Cooper S originally from Germany (I think - the steering column lock said "Fahrt") that I completely stripped and overhauled over the years I had it. When I bought it in '68 it had been hit on the left side and sometime in the first year I owned it a guy gave me a shell that had been hit on the right front - so both cars went to my friendly body shop and $400 later the left side from the shell now graced my Cooper S and I had a nicely fitting door and windows!
Over the next several years I overhauled the motor, stripped it completely for paint, replaced the floorboards and so on, all in my little non-heated single car garage in KC.
My next car was a '64 MG 1100, as I now had a family and needed the extra room. I really liked that car but we soon added another child and I was Mini-less for a good long time after that.
When the new MINIs finally came to the states, I bought a used 2003 JCW, and later bought a 2009 Clubman new - which I still have.
All along I'd been wanting another classic and I've always been drawn to the wagons but prices have gotten silly lately, so I despaired of owning one, till I found a nice Clubman wagon and bought it last March. I know the Clubman is the red headed step child of Mini-dom, but it allowed me back into a Mini, and I'm OK with the odd looking front end on a wagon, the wagon's extra wheelbase balances the extra length on the front end nicely. IMHO of course.
So this will be the story of my 1980 Clubman Estate:
Home and dry after the drive from Baltimore, one of my miniature poodles (aka the Mini-poopers) inspects the new ride.
(http://forums.kcminiclub.com/download/file.php?id=711)
I saw an ad on Mini Mania and emailed the owner, a stack of emails later I made arrangements to go to Baltimore from KC to see the car, made the deal to buy it and to the owner's surprised, got in to drive it home to KC. It might have been a questionable idea, but I figured I could fix anything that came up along the road - Ha! ;D
The first day I drove it to Columbus, Ohio, where I have friends and contacts from the MINI world, spent the night there and the next morning after breakfast took a little time to do a valve adjustment and tune the carb a bit, then onward to KC, arriving late that night and all in one piece!
This is me leaving Columbus....
(http://forums.kcminiclub.com/download/file.php?id=720)
If you want to learn all about your "new" car, just take a trip cross country in it! I learned that while it got up to speed eventually, it didn't have quite the power I was expecting from it's supposedly rebuilt 1275 motor, and that at 65 mph it was turning about 4500 rpm. It also leaked oil prodigiously rattled horribly and the driver's seat was miserably uncomfortable. In fact, while trying to talk to my wife on my cell on the drive home to KC, the noise was so loud she immediately christened it "Buzz"!
So I knew I'd have a few projects to take care of once I got home.....with a large and sarcastic emphasis on the "few"!
So I'll start a new thread with all the work I've done so far and my plans for Buzz in the next few months......Oh, I also own a Jaguar XK-E that I brought back from the dead.
I've spent most of my life in the car bidness doing everything from lot boy, tech, parts and service manager, sales manager and general manager - all at high line import stores. I'm now officially retired, but I teach at a local college part time - automotive courses of course!
I do all my own work and always have and hopefully always will, I hold shop days in my shop at home for the KC MINI club - I hope I can be a help to some of the members here too.
I also organize Classic Mini Fun Runs in the Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma area, and in fact am setting one up for this coming March - I'll start a thread on that too in a bit.
Happy to be here and to meet you all!
Dave Craven
Overland Park, Ks.
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your introduction! I've bought many minis sight unseen and then drove them across the country. What a thrill!
Well, certainly a challenge! 77.gif
The day after I started the engine in my '62 Cooper S for the first time, I moved to Colorado from KC - and yes, I drove it there!
BTW, I'm a friend of Dean's, and we drove together to Milwaukee and back this summer.
Oh ok, have we met? I flew in the last day for the awards ceremony.
Welcome welcome. Love the mini.
94touring, I don't know if we have or not - I was at the awards ceremony......but come on my classic fun run in March and we'll meet for sure! 4.gif
MtyMous, I've seen you around the forums too! Thanks for the welcome....
I'm MiniDave on all the other MINI/Mini forums that I requent too, FWIW.
Yeah. I do the same for most. Glad to see you on here. Love that this place is finally growing. New members all the time now.
Yeah we probably have. I was hanging out with Dean there.
Cool car and great story!! 4.gif
Welcome aboard!
Pat
Welcome here. I am more of a car guy than a Mini expert but I am here to learn. Dan and I go back many years to our RX7 days.
I joined to keep in touch with an old "E" friend and ended up with a Mini in my garage.
I road tripped a car from Columbus before! Quite a boring drive back to Kansas City! Did get drunk in St Louis and ended up in a hotel in East St Louis. Noone ever told me that I shouldn't stay there until I got back...
I will definitely have to join you on the cruise in 2016... This year is not shaping up too well.
Welcome, nice car thanks for taking the time to write up the rebuild.
Jeff