June 6, 1999

Whew! I finally have my Mini, and it sort of runs! Last Thursday I got my Mini safety checked and boy was it a pain. When I first got the car, it ran okay. The clutch was really sticky. It was like trying to kick the pedal through molasses. But that's a little better now. I didn't do anything except drive it but the rebound is nice and crisp but pushing the pedal in is still a pain. Other than that, the carburetor needed adjusting and the whole engine was in dire need of an oil change.

A neat thing about the changing the oil is that the drain plug has a magnet on it and it collects all sorts of little metal shavings that somehow make it through the oil filter. Oh, the filter is another story. It's a cartridge type filter with the filter element inside a metal tub. Well, auto stores around here don't carry replacement filters so I had to call around and finally found a guy in New Hampshire that stocks all sorts of Mini parts. Once I got the car running I had to have it pass the safety inspection.

Last Thursday was the deadline to get inspected, so on Wednesday afternoon I had to figure out why the wipers, high beam flashers, blinkers, fuel gauge, brake lights, and heater fan didn't work. At first, I suspected that it was a blown fuse, and sure enough, one out of the only two fuses in the car was blown. I replaced it, but still nothing happened. So I spent a while studying the electrical layout of the Mini I found in a book and figured out that all the things not working on the car connected to the same fuse-the one that blew. I guessed that the problem was either after everything went through the fuse, or the fuse assembly itself. Since all the wires were separate from each other, and nothing on the fuse worked, it must have been the fuse box. I noticed after a long while of staring into the engine that all the electrical contacts were rusty, so I got a wire brush and after about an hour of brushing and cleaning, the damn thing worked!

I turned on the car and all of a sudden the wipers started going. I checked the blinkers and high beams, but when I turned the heater fan on, everything went off. Damn fuse again-there's probably a short somewhere but I'm not going to look for it now. Replaced the fuse and everything was back to normal, except that I couldn't turn the wipers off. At that point I was so fed up with the whole thing I just unplugged the wiper motor and drove the car around for a while. When I got back I took apart the dash and discovered that the wiper switch was broken-a plastic piece that held the metal contact against the switch had broken off. So I just pulled the whole thing out and left it dangling next to the steering wheel and headed to the gas station.

The first time I got there, they turned me back because I had to have both plates permanently attached to the car. I only had the rear one in the rear windshield so I had to go back home and use plastic lock-ties to anchor the American plates in the European sized holes. Went back to the station only to fail the headlight and brake light test. Checked the fuses and found out that it was loose. Pushed it back in and tried a third time, and this time I passed! When the guy asked me to turn my wipers on, I just reached under the dash and pushed the switch in with my finger. But now one of my headlights is out and I suspect that it's just loose so tomorrow I'll go take a look at it.

Driving the car is a blast! It's not very fast, and nothing is power assisted, but it handles great and the breaks work well when I stomp on them. Plus, I'm famous now in Waltham because EVERYBODY wants to know about the Mini. It didn't take very long to get used to driving on the right side of the car and the only problem I had was getting over the habit of taking my right hand off the wheel to shift while in a turn. The car is so small that there's no blind spot and I get a great view in every direction. Sometimes it's a little intimidating to be next to a truck or semi with their wheels at my eye level, but since the car is only 4 feet wide, I've got plenty of lane space. A highway car, however, the Mini is not. I can get it up to about 60 to 65, but the engine is already revving pretty high in it's not so tall top fourth gear. Seeing as how this car is older than I am by many years, I don't feel like pushing it.

Now all that's left for me to do is cleaning up the body. The chrome trim parts all have lots of little rust spots but a little wax and a lot of rubbing goes a long way. I now find myself sitting in front of the t.v. with a bottle of wax and a car bumper...There's still a lot of surface rust around the body, but that I can't do anything about and will probably go to a professional to remedy. Yay! This is a dream come true!