The good and bad of last weekend

[jeff10049]

 A great car show the Oregon Festival of Cars was last weekend. Everything from McLaren's, Ferrari's, American cars, and lots of British stuff too, even a Vespa car never seen one before and a way cool auto union anyway.

I took the mini last year they made it a featured car and ask me to come again if I could. Friday I get up early thinking I'll drive the car to the business so it'll be in Bend for Sat. morning but it's raining so I figure screw it, I'll Just leave early Saturday supposed to be sunny and 70. The show start's parking the cars on the field at 8:00 so I figure I'll leave at 6:00 go to the shop about 40 minutes away do a final polish and head to the show.

Get out to the garage just after 6:00 air compressor won't run and mini has low tire get the compressor plug fixed. Then car won't start, no fuel pump jack it up pull the cover touch the points and it starts going COOL. It 7:00 now I figure head right to the show it dosen't open to public until 10:00 so I can shine the car up at the show.

Hit the road get about 10 miles in and Freezeing fog rolls in to almost zero visabilty in a matter of about 30 seconds but there is no way it's safe to turn around so I keep on going hoping no one rear ends me. Get another few miles in and the hood blows open saftey did nothing just flew right open instantly right up to the windscreen slider window car cant even stick my head out to see! Get on the brakes and head for the shoulder cant see shit between fog and hood get just over the white line turned of the lights and get out to access the damage and realize the car is about 2" from a steep bank morons who don't slow down for anything are flying by at 60 mph. The front of the car has 1" of solid ice on it form the freezing fog.  The wipers are toast smashed into the cowl that is now dented and also sliced open where both the hindges hit it, side of hood is split hood is badly bent won't close without doing more damage.


Semi truck goes by wind blows the driver door open hard against the check strap and car following just misses it OK F this gotta move. Idle up the shoulder to a safer wider spot spend some time bending the hood to close without hitting the fenders as they have zero damage so far.   Get it closed and wired shut for safety. Still no way I'm turning around in the fog so I decide to go ahead to Bend and leave the car at the shop for repair the show if off in my mind at this point.

Get to Bend without further incident now sunny and nice get out look at car and decide to see if I can straighten it out some more and maybe get to the show and just leave the hood up as it blocks most the damage from view and it's hard to see how bad the hood is bent with it up.  Decide to go ahead and go after straightening shit out best I could.

Get to the show and parked it takes two people to finess the hood open without further damage and it stayed that way for the rest of the day. wife came to the show in the afternoon and heard them call my name to go to my car and let me know get to the car and a show offical said go park over on the end and wait for us to call your car up you're getting a Award I said give me a few to close the hood and I'll be there.

I get it closed one more time and drive up talk a little about the car and get a Best Of British Award. At a show with lots of British cars 71.gif  Made the rest of the day seem better.

A few pics Friends 66 Buick GS in Background of a few it's a very nice car Amazing to drive those nail head engines have loads of torque.

Second pic is the visiabilty on drive in.

[jeff10049]

Last pic it's always fun driving a mini and you just keep catching up to other cars in the twisties.

[MiniDave]

Wow, you can hardly see any damage in those pics, I expected it to be much worse from your description.....congrats on the win, it's a stunningly beautiful job you did on it!

[jeff10049]

Thanks Dave, The hood is high on the passenger side in the pics but not really noticeable and the cowl dent and paint chips don't show in the picture. but the real damage was/is bad requires welding and full hood and cowl repaint to fix. made it through the show without much notice thankfully.

Jim (Guy with GS) and I hung around after the show to get some good pics of our cars not every day you get to park on a golf course. I made a point of taking pics that don't show the damage. I got some really great pics of the car on my real camera the ones posted are just crappy cell phone ones.

Seems like it's always something back when I restored the car I said i'd do a video on paint I tried but it came out poor so I may use this repair as a chance to redo that and post something up. On solid color single stage painting.

[stan360]

I was upset to read of this Jeff.  I had looked through your build pics on the forum many times over the last year in awe ....and is apparent that so much time went into the car. I had this happen to me many years ago , with the hood opening up on the highway ,  breaking the windshield on an old VW rabbit.  That scared me and lucky the top speed on that thing was about 50 mph  ;D  ..I can only imagine this in the fog on a narrow road to boot.

Its just good that you didn't get hurt and that you have the skills to repair the car.

[BruceK]

Jeff, sorry to hear about that.   What a day you had! 

Long ago I also had a hood fly open at speed while driving my '62 Mini, and I remember how terrifying that was on a clear day.  You obviously had it much worse.    One thing to check is the wiring loom running under the cowl for damage - the Mk I hinges can really pinch the wires in that situation.

[John Gervais]

Congratulations on the award.  Scary stuff for sure, but still a stunning car and hopefully the repair won't be noticeable. 


I had my bonnet open up on the motorway last autumn.  Was cruising along at about 85 or 90 mph and hit a patch of rough-repaired asphalt and I noticed the bonnet sitting proud of the wing at the nose.  Thankfully I'd installed a pair of heavy leather bonnet straps and they did their job.

[jeff10049]

Thanks guys for the kind words, The repair will be good as new but it sucks to have to fix something that was done that and the cuts made by the hinges on the cowl pisses me off it was perfect for 56 years but I took care of that. Oh well nothing a welder can't fix I guess.
Bruce good point, I think the wires are just fine but I will check closer to be sure. Speaking of wires I'm 99% sure the wire loom running along the slam panel is what held the safety catch out enough it didn't do its job. Yet every time I ever opened the hood the damn thing worked I will be making sure it grabs hold of something really well and investigating the main latch as well I always close the hood and then pull up to make sure yet it still opened. I did modify a newer latch as I could not find a mk1 so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Jims5543]

Mine was popping open on me all the time until I finally got it aligned perfectly, it was a pita to get perfect too any variation and it popped again.

Maybe just for road trips you rig up a little chain and hook setup that will not let the hood go up more than a few inches? Just for piece of mind in the future.

Great pics and that car is so clean it looks amazing. Congrats on the trophy.

[94touring]

The latch on my bonnet needs to be forcefully pulled over the last about 1/8" to securely close.  When I first got the car it would occasionally jolt open but the safety catch saved me every time.  Tried lubing it a number of times but I'm just in the habit of double checking it's locked before driving away now.