Marvin's miserable miniature motors

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marvinsmom
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Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by marvinsmom »

I thought that i had better start a tread detailing my miss adventures with the smol cars that are in the fleet.

longest suffering vehicle is Cocopop, a 1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport. This volcano orange car has been in mine since, i think 2008. or was it 2007? i don't know..... its been mine for a bit! you could argue that this car is the start of my midlife crisis, even though i was in (just) my thirties when i bought it! the colour and the leather trim swung me towards buying the car originally, the big daft wheels, and a comically large turning circle are not really my thing. but the car came with them from Longbridge. incidentally this car was registered on 23/12/97 so a christmas present for some one?
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the car is in pretty good nick, even for a mini, though there are bits on the body that want some attention, the passenger door wants something doing with it, i have got a new genuine MGR one to go on, and there some other bits that want doing too. problem i'm having is finding someone trustworthy to do the work as the fella we used to go to has given it up, and i've had several bad experiences with bodyshops charging top dollar, and then doing a shoddy job.
2015 Fiat 500 Heinz 57 - new car to me
2001 Rover 75 Estate - 220,000 miles & out
1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport - running again!
1989 Austin Metro - also running again.
1974 Morris Mini 1000 - older than me, and in better condition :D
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marvinsmom
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by marvinsmom »

Next car i bought was Marvin the Metro. I bought this as a cheap stop gap runabout back in 2011. i wasn't working at the time, and had just got rid of a Rover 25 with OMG-kettle series-SAAB valve foolishness going on, that i just didn't want to be doing with, or spending money on anymore. shame as them little Rover R3 bubbles are a nice little car to drive, apart from them crappy pez engines. So for £600, i think, i ended up buying this 2 owner and, at the time 30,000-odd thousand mile car. First owner was a lease company, who had it for a year or so, the second owner was a Mrs Doyle, who had it for like 19 years, so she must have loved it, even if she did chop in a Mini 1000 against it! third owner had bought it for their father who had several when they were new, but then found he couldn't get on with it. so, i bought it. and why Marvin? well i saw it in a dingy shed on a wet day in Sheffield, the car looked really sorry for itself, and we had watched The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, so the name Marvin stuck.
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the car oddly enough isn't Australian, and started life as a Metro City X. as such it is equipped with a 998 engine, and is one of the sweetest running units i have ever come across. in the time i have had the car, its ended up getting MG'd as i put on the pepper pots as metric tyres are NLA, then came a nice steering wheel, then a set of seats, a red carpet, red seatbelts, a nice grill........ well you know how these things go.

i'm cross with myself really about this car, it was mint, and i mean MINT when i got it, though now there are a number of bits on the body which are less than wonderful, though a lot of this can be attributed to an expensive, and very crappy paint job i had done a few years ago. the road to hell is paved with good intentions! in my defence when these were new, they were pretty much ready for turning into beans tins at 5 and 6 years old, and even now at 32 the car is solid in all the important places!

last year i got the hydragas cans regassed, and with pile of spare panels collected for the car, well i hope to keep the car going for a while yet.
2015 Fiat 500 Heinz 57 - new car to me
2001 Rover 75 Estate - 220,000 miles & out
1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport - running again!
1989 Austin Metro - also running again.
1974 Morris Mini 1000 - older than me, and in better condition :D
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by dean36014 »

Not sure where in the UK you are, but if you're anywhere near the Midlands try here.
https://m.facebook.com/252843944758289/
They do some top notch work, I'd highly recommend them.
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marvinsmom
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by marvinsmom »

finally in our little band of miscreants, we have Rodney Mini. this is, according to the log book, a Morris Mini 1000. now BL had dropped the Morris and Austin nameplates on the mini by this time, but often, depending on which dealer the car came from they were sit registered as an Austin or a Morris, as there were still separate dealer networks for both marques.
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anyhoo - Rodney Mini came to me from the son of an old friend of Kerry's, and i got it in around 2018. Ryan, the lad i got it off had bought it for the unbelievable price of £450 in i think 2011, running with an MOT but in shabby condition. his dad sorted out the crunchy door bottoms, and the small hole in the o/s A-panel and then repainted it all. in spite of everything though, the car has factory wings, sills and floor. Before Ryan bought the car, it belonged to an old boy who has one of the local, old school garages near Pickering. he actually reshelled the car back in 1983, using a fully painted body he bought direct from BL, for £50. yes that is right, £50. for a fully painted body..... how do i know this? well he told me, himself when i got the car mot'd there! he had built it up, and then taken it to the mini 25th event at Brands Hatch in 1984, then used it as a run about before a growing family and a need for a bigger car, laid it up in the back of the workshop until 2011, when we first saw it!
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Ryan had originally wanted to cooperise it, but his dad said "no - there aren't many standard cars left, it wants leaving be." like many things though, once the bodywork was done, the project stalled. Ryan discovered going to the pub, and dancing with girls, so the mini got left. that is until i bought it. Ryan didn't know his dad had actually sold it to me, until he was told to get the logbook found for it! at the time though, he needed the money, as he had a baby on the way, and there was no chance of him finishing the car.

so once i had it, we went though the brakes and replaced the lot, same with the balljoints, cv boots, the clutch and slave cylinder, the water pump and radiator, a cylinder head overhaul with hardened seats, all the usual things that need to replaced on a car that has been stood for decades! not long after i got the car back on the road, Ryan was killed in car crash. he never even got to drive it.

so its in as close to standard as possible, tiny wheels, a large friendly central speedo, a big steering wheel, and surprisingly comfortable little seats. this is the one car i'd want to keep, its the closest i'll ever get to owning a mini that was as Issigoinis intended, as mark 1s and 2s are really silly money now.
Last edited by marvinsmom on Wed Jun 15, 2022 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2015 Fiat 500 Heinz 57 - new car to me
2001 Rover 75 Estate - 220,000 miles & out
1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport - running again!
1989 Austin Metro - also running again.
1974 Morris Mini 1000 - older than me, and in better condition :D
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

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since the weather last weekend was very nice, well, it was on Saturday, Sunday was not that great.... but nevermind, it was decided that we should go off to Ripon Races for a classic car show,

as i hadn't bothered with Rodney Mini since the back end of April, i decided that it would be a good opportunity to use the car. last time out had not been all that successful. i managed to drive the car for several miles with the hand brake on, cos, well there isn't waning lamp on that car for that... i managed to make the brake smell, and also the odometer thing managed to stick! bugger. well after that, i just put the car in the garage and shut the door. but when i too the car out, the odometer had managed to fix itself! i wonder if there is some grit or something in speedo head, a legacy of the car been laid up for so long?

well it ran like a dream all the way there and back. and i really enjoyed driving it too, been as the kids say, it been a proper mr bean car.
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and we saw these too, the ropey Montego had covered 242,000 miles (so nearly into luna orbit) and never in my wildest dreams would i have thought that one day a mark 5 Escort would be a classic car...... just goes to show!!
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2015 Fiat 500 Heinz 57 - new car to me
2001 Rover 75 Estate - 220,000 miles & out
1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport - running again!
1989 Austin Metro - also running again.
1974 Morris Mini 1000 - older than me, and in better condition :D
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by Eddie Honda »

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Phwoooarr!
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by marvinsmom »

dean36014 wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:53 pm Not sure where in the UK you are, but if you're anywhere near the Midlands try here.
https://m.facebook.com/252843944758289/
They do some top notch work, I'd highly recommend them.
we are in the north east, in between York and Middlesbrough.

saying that, i think if needed to go to somewhere professional who will do a professional job than i my have to travel.

one guy local to us we have been recommended is chock full he says for something like 2 years, but he also admits that he has never worked on a Mini before, so maybe he doesn't fancy doing something small, and fiddly and did i say small? cos they are so very, very small....

thanks for the tip! suggestions are very welcome!
2015 Fiat 500 Heinz 57 - new car to me
2001 Rover 75 Estate - 220,000 miles & out
1997 Rover Mini Cooper Sport - running again!
1989 Austin Metro - also running again.
1974 Morris Mini 1000 - older than me, and in better condition :D
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by SiC »

What about Ben_O that's also on Autoshite? I believe his place is on the Isle of Wight. While quite a way for you to drop it there, it could be an excuse for a holiday.

Slark Engineering have a good rep around here too. Just I know they are incredibly busy.

Tbh anywhere decent seems to be pretty choco with work.
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by Eddie Honda »

Eddie Honda wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:41 pm 20220612_111752~2.jpg

Phwoooarr!
Although the newfangled tosh headlamps, lack of reflective plates and lack of GINGERCATORS anger is strong.
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Re: Marvin's miserable miniature motors

Post by angrydicky »

For the Mini, is Halifax too far?

I know the bloke who runs this, he only really does Minis and his work is top-notch.

https://m.facebook.com/LittleGarageClassics/
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