Then I broke down (74 mini mild refurb)

[MiniDave]

 

I think I still have the pic somewhere!

[Jims5543]

Yikes, so they have nothing else to do then but look for some reason to hassle folks?

I never get tickets, just warnings, I am not the droid they are looking for.

My cousin is a police officer. We had a heated discussion about "Police harassment" with speed traps etc...

He told me they let a lot of people go with warnings, they are just trying to find the bad actors and get them put where they belong. Seems they find a lot of people with outstanding warrants via speed traps. Criminals tend to not be very bright and cannot lay low.

So, yes, I fully expect to be pulled over for no tag, and I fully expect to get off with a warning. 

One morning I got pulled over because a tail light on my work truck was out, I didn't know, the cop was cool and just told me to get it fixed, no warning ticket. Yes, he ran my license, he was making sure I was not a bad guy our really early in the morning doing bad guy things.

[Jims5543]

Got the race tires mounted on the Force rims, 2 of the tires needed a lot of weight in order to get them balanced.

Hope to have time Sunday to toss them on Blue and start wearing them in a little.

I should have cleaned them up before I had the new ties mounted. I will clean them up this weekend if I have time. We are meeting some friends in Miami this weekend. I hope to be home Sunday in the early afternoon.  (Missing another AX because we committed to this dammit!)

[MPlayle]

For that much weight in basically one spot, I would have thought they would try rotating the tire to another position on the wheel?

Don't most tire makers put a colored mark for where to align the valve stem to try to minimize the need for weights?

[MiniDave]

Yes, I think breaking the bead and rotating the tire 180* might help.....however - the modern tire machine we had at school would not balance 10" wheels/tires accurately. I had to change the settings to make the machine think I was only balancing a bare wheel.

[94touring]

The other 2 sets of tires I ran on those didn't require that many weights, so suspect it's just the tires. 

[Jims5543]

*For racing only, not for highway use*

LOL!

Yeah, I think it is the tires, when we took the Yoko's off there was minimal weight.  I suspect rotating the tire would not have helped here.

[94touring]

I put a lot of highway miles on those lol. 

[Jims5543]

Got to drive her around this past weekend some with the race tires on. I am going to have to relearn how it feels all over again.

The Yoko's have really stiff sidewalls, I was very used to that. These tires have very soft sidewalls and make the car much more lively as the sidewalls flex in turns. My first time taking a turn hard, I thought the back end was coming out, it was just the rear sidewalls flexing.

I also braked really hard once, and that makes the car feel unsettled, like it was waving from side to side as I was braking hard, it was a bit unnerving and will take some time to get used to and trust.






When I walked out of my office Friday, I laughed at this Bro Dozer parked next to me, I call this pic, compensating.

[Jims5543]

Met up with my surveyor friends at a Bar and Grill for beers last night. I was able to park the Mini right out front.

One of my friends stepped out front to take a phone call.  He came in and told me there were people around the car posing for pics with it. LOL!  He said they were being very respectful of it and not touching it.

I am getting a little more used to the feedback from the tires, my self preservation mode is settling down as I come to terms with the extra movement these race tires give off.

[94touring]

They felt softer to me but I never was bothered by any movements they had. I drove the absolute piss out of it with those tires compared to the regular tires.

[Jims5543]

I am going to put a camera on the outside of the car in hopes you can see this movement.  Maybe this evening when I tuck it back in storage.

I am taking it out Thursday evening for a car show at the Lowes up the road that just started meeting up.

I am considering some roll up windows for this so I can drive it in the summer and not die of heat exhaustion.

If anyone has a line on some doors with win up windows let me know.

OR

IIRC Dan was feeding me part numbers to build my own, I am open for that option too. I will start looking at Mini Spares and seeing what I need to make that happen, maybe even some lightweight doors? If that is possible.

Suggestions welcome. 

[MiniDave]

I'm pretty sure those doors are aluminium skinned, I don't think they make anything in a roll up window door that's lighter? Even Fiberglass ones are heavier, aren't they?

[94touring]

He'd use those doors for race days and regular doors the rest of the time. Those doors on there now are something like 50-60lbs lighter total than regular roll ups the way I modified them. 

I have the guts and glass in my car port storage area Jim. Saw them out there last week.

You can buy just the frame with no skin, then buy alloy skins and save 12lbs total or something.  The weight is in  the guts, the roller mechanism and glass.  Plus the whole center metal section which I removed from the modified doors.  It's baffling how much heavier a regular door is.

[MiniDave]

I agree, the wind up window doors are heavy brutes, and even worse in the late model cars with the intrusion beams!

[94touring]

Pretty much everything on those doors on it now can be transferred over to the new doors. Just need to send the winder and glass for them. And get another pair of hinges. Then to use the "race doors" you just need the door latches. Don't even need handles or the plexi at that point. Just reach in the handle holes and press the latche button to open the doors. 

[Jims5543]

I really do not want to put heavy doors on Blue. I am going to play with it this week and see how hard it is to just take off the chrome molding that holds the plexi windows in.  If I can just pop out the door windows and stow them behind the seat, that would be perfecto!

[Jims5543]

I almost broke down Sunday night. I was driving Blue back to storage to swap for my work truck when Blue started to run really bad.

As the engine was warming up I started to open the choke only to find her running really bad. It is less than 2 miles to my storage, I was able to limp there.

It was late, I just parked it in there and left to until I had time to dig in and look around, I would have bet money a vacuum line came loose.

I would have lost money.

I popped the hood and started looking for a vacuum line not where it should be, no problems, I looked down at the dizzy to see if the vacuum line was on it and it was, then I looked to the left of the dizzy and see this....



I am pretty sure it was probably arcing off, I am amazed the car was running.

I have not had time to re-mount the coil yet, I have a brand new spare as well, I am using it to fashion a bracket so it bolts to the bell housing better.

I hope to have some time this weekend to mess with it some more. I have a really busy weekend coming up.