I joined the forum awhile back and have been basically lurking but figured I'd post a formal introduction. I currently own two saloons; a Canadian Mk III & a RHD English Mk IV.
Purchased the III (my first Mini) over four years ago with the intent of it being a running project. Something I could fix up while I continue to drive. Shortly after buying it discovered the engine was shot with trashed thrust washers among other things. I pulled the front subframe to clean it up, rebuild suspension & do something with the engine. Having never rebuilt an engine before I didn't know how to proceed. That lead me to dragging my feet and work on little bits here & there. Ultimately I discovered Jet Motors four hours North of me who I had rebuild the motor, which turned out to be a genuine thin flange Cooper S motor. The guy I bought the car from indicated it was but a lot of sellers will tell you anything you want to hear so I didn't take it to heart.
In the mean time I bought my Mk IV to have a Mini I could actually drive. It is very clean and original with 20k miles. I've got MOT certs from new as a little old lady owned it up till 2004 when a servicemen bought it & brought it back to the states.
I continued to tinker with the Mk III but the body has some rust so I decided to swap engine/trans & brakes/suspension from my Mk IV to the III and ultimately sell it. The rebuilt Cooper S motor and new suspension are going into my Mk IV.
Fast forward to today where I just got the Mk III on the road with the 998 from my Mk IV. I will be posting it for sale soon.
The Mk IV is just about ready for the rebuilt Cooper S motor after I clean up the engine compartment. I had the front subframe powder coated and have already cleaned up all the front suspension goodies so I hope to have it road worthy in the next couple months. Ultimately it'll be a fair weather driver and autocross car.
I live in Southern Oregon and met Minicop (a few years ago) & have helped him a bit with his car. I'm always on the look out for other Mini's but there just aren't that many around my area.
[edit]Here's an album (https://picasaweb.google.com/pgtguy/Mini?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIuzsP_sh_b9fw&feat=directlink) with pics of my Mk IV[/edit]
Trenton
Welcome on and thanks for sharing. I've seen you lurking for some time.
Welcome, Shrimps. Always cool to have another familiar face on here. Car looks good, too.
Thanks guys. The car will look a little different when I get it back on the road. Nothing outrageous, but just not as plain jane. The car hadn't been changed much from new but there's nothing special about it (being a simple ole Mini 1000 and all) so I didn't mind tearing into it.
Cool story, welcome here.
Great group of guys.
Welcome aboard Shrimps!
Pat
I'm back, well at least I hope to be more active in the coming months I've been distracted with life since early spring after selling my MkIII. I'm quickly coming up on a year of taking my MkIV off the road. Hoping to get back into it & get it back on the road over the next couple months. Frankly it should go pretty quick but I don't seem to spend too much time at any one time working on car stuff. And/or I have the tendency to over think things which stalls my progress as I try to think of every possible scenario when dealing with something that doesn't go right before making a decision on how to proceed. It's a curse really.
Anyway, nice to see things have picked up around here.