rabbitstew

That's the one I have. Awesome bit of kit. Expensive initial investment but I got my moneys worth easily when I used it working on my Mini earlier in the year. They are very solid bits of kit. You just slide the ramp under each side of the car, connect its compressor to a car battery, hit the up button and the cars up in the air. On the Mini I could get under it and easily drop the exhaust out without anything being "in your face" like it would be on axle stands. I also dropped the front subframe and wheeled that out easily with loads of clearance. When I was setting the ride height up it was so handy. Adjust the ride height, drop it down to the ground and check, then back up in the air to adjust some more etc... so easy. They also have the benefit that they are portable, unlike a fixed 2 or 4 post ramp, so you can take them to track days etc easily. Also with a 2 or 4 post lift I believe you need to re-enforce the garage floor to handle the weight. The quickjack customer service is also good. I had an issue with a leaking valve once - gave them a call and they posted one out next day delivery for me without any questions. That costco price is very good.

I had mixed comments about my zed. In the main I had a lot more positive compliments. I very often had complete random strangers coming up to me and saying how nice the car was. People completely ignoring more expensive cars and staring at the zed. A lot of kids especially seemed to appreciate it. I assumed because they recognised the car from Gran Turismo or Fast & Furious etc.. However I did have few people making negative comments like shouting out "w@nker", or randomly sticking their finger up at me. Absolutely no idea why as it wasn't as if I was speeding or driving like an idiot. I just put it down to jealousy.

Woah for the double win!

Its time like these I am glad I live on a hill. Was thinking the other day, must be terrible to have to decide quickly what to grab and take with you. Guess it could be a good selling point for chopping the sports car in for a Transit van as you could get more in, in a time of emergency.

Brief update.. I managed to get the Mini in the garage over the weekend and up on the ramps. I checked over all the rear suspension and it was all torqued up correctly. hmmmm.. So then I took the rear shocks off - literally a 5 mins job if that - undo two 13mm bolts & one 21mm bolt. The top strut nut looked fine, but I tightened it up more until it wouldn't go any tighter. Reassembled and hey presto the very scary rear clunking noise has now gone. Hopefully it will stay like that!

I used to love the styling of corvettes, the early stingrays, through to mad 1970`s "hot wheels" style stingrays, then the C4, even liked the C5 & C6 when the styling seemed to get more aggressive, but in my opinion it seems to have gone down hill since. The C7 looked less like a corvette and now this C8... just looks really odd to me. Looks like someone has taken 3 or 4 different cars, chopped them up and welded them together.

Pretty mental really, when you think of what else you could get for a lot less money.

Yep, indeed, the bodywork is so thin you dent it polishing it. I did spend some time back in 2013 cutting out rotten sills/bumper mounts and welding in new stuff, and the metal was so thin it was silly. But that's why they were so quick, they weighed nothing! With the wheels, I needed new tyres for the original speedlines and because they were a strange size (195, 55x13), they weren't cheap, so it worked out cheaper for me to buy a 2nd hand set of TSW alloys with decent tyres instead. This was back in 1998(ish). You can still pick up the original wheels cheap enough, so I may get a set at some point, if I ever get the spare time to work on it!

See your from Peterborough? My 5 used to terrorise the streets of Peterborough for many years! They used to be really rare around that area, I only knew of a couple of other 5`s back in the late 90`s.

I still have my original one from "back in the day".... Fortunately I never ever saw the point of the whole "Max Power" thing, so spent a fortune on performance modifications rather than mad bodykits. I will get it back on the road again one day....

Well its been a good few weeks since the last update and I am happy to report that the mini is going really well. Its proving to be a good fun car, especially when I am wringing its neck down B-roads on the way to work & back. It has a surprising turn of speed, especially when overtaking. Only downside is the mpg, but then I knew that when I got it. For practically I maybe should have gone for a Cooper and not a Cooper S. A couple of extra spends... I had the rear window re-tinted as the old tint had bubbled up and looked horrendous. TBH I removed the old tint myself (nightmare) and did try to tint it myself after watching some youtube videos, to save some money, but I just couldn't do it. So, I took it to a local place who did a perfect job for £40. They made it look so easy too. There is a nasty clunking/banging noise from the rear over some bumps. It doesn't affect the cars performance or handling, but when you hit a pot hole it sounds quite nasty. I have had a look and I cant see anything obvious catching. I have raised the rear ride height up on the coil overs to see if it was just too low and causing something to foul, but that's not made any difference. Googling suggests a couple of things to check. Firstly the ARB bushes - cant be them as they are new, shocks (again new), rear ARB drop links... hmmm.. could well be them as I just re-used the old ones. Apparently if you don't put loctitie on the nuts they can work a bit loose and cause a clunk on bumps. That sounds feasible to me, so I have just ordered a replacement set (£15 the pair). In addition I will double check all the bolts/nuts I had off the rear end and loctite them just to make sure. Someone suggested the shock top nut can work loose and allow some movement. Again, I will check this. I also took it to a bodyshop to get a quote for repainting the bonnet (paint is all cracked) and having the rust cut out of the boot and that repainted... £500 minimum the bloke said. Which tbh is a fair price, but for that money (baring in mind what the cars worth) I will just leave it. I have got all the spraying gear at home & a compressor, so when I get time I will give it a go myself. Hopefully will get some time on the car over the weekend so will update you about the banging in the rear (ooer missus) once I know more.

Pretty amazing really! A few years back who would have thought.

Always the way though isnt it. At these sort of events spectators expect people to show off their cars a bit, and as a driver it can be very hard not to rev your engine or show off a bit. Bit like matey with his V8 the other day who did a rolling burnout into someones wall. That said, there is a difference between revving an engine and racing past the crowd like a nutter at break neck speed. You have to be a special kind of muppet to risk doing that, not only because of potentially hitting a spectator, but with everyone recording it all on their camera phones & posting to instagram with your number plate on show....

Exactly this. If I didnt know it was normal then I would immediately think that the car has some sort of oil consumption problem which to me would sound EXPENSIVE REPAIR and so I would run. So I would reword your advert and take that out. Focus on its good history/receipts/well looked after.

Back in the day there was a company doing kits so you could drop a Rover V8 into your Capri.

Hanging? Oh, you mean car wise?!

Thats very true, but it maybe because we have a much more diverse population these days. I know when I was at school there were only 2 black kids in the entire school and 2 Chinese kids. Even though it was a rough school, they didnt get bullied and were just accepted. I think older generations like our parents very often frowned upon a lot of stuff just because that's how they were bought up. With regards to the gender stuff, I've noticed my other half recently seeming to encourage my youngest lad to like "girly" stuff. It started with a pink scooter she got (apparently he picked it over a blue one - fair enough). Then a pink barbie bike (again he apparently picked it). Next she bought him a unicorn nightie to wear to bed, and then all these pink unicorn toys started to appear. When I made a comment that surely a boy doesnt wear a pink nightie, he can wear pyjamas like my eldest lad does, she replied "he can wear what he wants etc...". Then she wanted to decorate his bedroom pink and get a barbie castle bed for him (as he "apparently" likes it). That idea has now changed to a rainbow theme, which means his room will look like a gay pride march. The lad is actually very hench for his age, loves climbing, rugby, peppa pig, building things, hitting things, trains and all the usual boys stuff, so whether or not he actually likes pink stuff and barbie castles who knows, but I do feel my other half is trying to influence him. When ive spoken about it to her, she says "so what if he does turn out to be gay when he`s older?". It honestly makes no difference to me at all if he decides when he`s older he`s gay or not, but I feel at just 3 years old maybe a boy should be treated like a boy. Our eldest lad has always had boys clothes, boys pyjamas, a blue bedroom, boys bikes, scooters etc. so im not sure whats going on. Its not just me thinking "boys = blue and girls = pink", but maybe im reading into it more than it is?

I was wondering the same. Do they stick on okay, or will they come off with heat? Or do you have to lacquer over them?

Ah, but in this case, how did they bleed that corner if they snapped it off undoing it? They said new fluid was in. So they either snapped it off over tightening it afterwards, or haven't bled that whole corner of the car, so it has old fluid in still. Garages usually know things like this might happen, and take appropriate measures. Plusgas, heat, proper fitting spanner and a gently gently approach. I know I was very careful doing mine! Im guessing they were a bit heavy handed and trying to do the job as quickly as possible. You can use a sharp pointed dot punch and a hammer to undo it if you have time/patience, but the easiest way would be to swap the caliper out. TBH I wouldnt bother and I would wait until you need to change the brake fluid the next time.

Surely the garage should be fixing it if they broke it?

Insane colour!

Nursery fees are a killer. Its like a 2nd mortgage each month. Thats excluding school trips & events etc.

I miss my old oil drum incinerator. Once you got it going it was so hot inside you could burn anything in there. Awesome things. Great welding, and great job with the storage rack!

Nar you just need an angle grinder to cut to the sheet of metal to shape, then a drill & hack saw to cut the holes out and hole for the strut top to go through and bobs your Uncle. TBH working on a car in a garage is still a novelty to me. For most of my life I have always had to work under cars on axle stands on the drive. Not fun in winter etc. but you still can get the job done. I remember when I was at Uni, the suspension on my mini collapsed. I pinched some bricks off the building site opposite - jacked the mini up in the Uni carpark. Stuck it on the bricks, took the old suspension off, walked to the local scrap yard and bought a 2nd hand unit, came back and fitted it. Only had bare minimal tools at that stage too!

No problem, always happy to help. I looked at those protectors, and to be honest they are a bit over priced for what they are. I would just get some sheet steel and make my own. I didn't get them as the replacement top mounts I got (old one were broke) are huge adjustable ones, so they should offer similar protection. Also hopefully I will avoid pot holes which is what causes this. Some people add a strut brace but I am reading that it doesn't make any difference to handling on mini. But I can see it would offer more protection to the strut tower so I may get one at some point!