Tiz's Minis

The Story So Far

About 15 months ago my wife Tracy and I brought a little red 1987 mayfair. It had got a long MOT and had been well serviced so seemed a good idea. The car was only meant to be a cheap run around town kind of car. We didn't do much to it in the first few months just fitted new seat belts, red to match the car and left it at that.

Then the dreaded MOT date drew near, I gave it a quick service and put it in, it failed. It failed quite badly and I had to do the following jobs. I had to do them myself as the garage had quoted over £500!

• Rear Trailing Arm
• Wheel Bearings
• Ball joint
• Exhaust
• Welding (I let a local garage do this)
• Steering Arm Gaiters
• Track Rod Ends

I discovered several things whilst getting to know my mini

1. The MOT garage failed components that on inspection didn't need replacing. I replaced them anyway, the bits were out of the car by then.
2. I actually enjoyed working on the car.
3. If we wanted to rely on the mini as a form of transport we needed a spare mini to swap out when repairs are needed.

Enter Mini number 2, we managed to pick up a MOT failure for £80. My wife saw the colour and announced that this was to become the main mini, it's MoonRaker Blue which is a bit more interesting than red.

I guess you get what you pay for, there's quite a bit of work to do on the car, mainly rust and some work on the suspension before it will pass the MOT. It will be a fun project and I intend to get the car on the road before the end of the summer.

posted by Andy Tyrrell @ 11:35 PM