I have been working on confronting those little things that I’m just unsure about. Like confronting fears… and this project has definitely got me doing that. I’m still not going to deal with spiders, but I’m a little more confident about drawing, I still have lots of room to improve, but I am at least getting something done. The other part of the project deals with Mini Coopers, and my lack of knowledge about the car. I have learned a lot (with a lot more to learn), but in the past I have been scared to death to do even the most simple repair. While it isn’t much I did replace the turn indicators on Tink (the classic) yesterday and they worked. Baby steps, I’m not ready to replace a clutch or steering rack anything like that, but I’m a little more confident that I can do the simple things- of course I need to order parts and it might be helpful to have tools.
MINI United did help me on the parts front (at least I know where to go). When I first bought the classic the one thing that was annoying was that someone over the years had removed the headrests. I contacted a few parts suppliers in the US since then and basically received not much help. While a number of them do restorations of classic Minis most of them replied with a “Wha Huh?” response. I get to MINI United and the first person I speak to replies with “What’s your Trim Code?” This was my chance to do a “Wha Huh?” It seems that on a plate (that was removed around the same time as the headrests) is a code that tells you what the interior trim is so you can get a match. After some digging I have figured out that the trim in Tink is “Monaco” so now I just need to order the parts from England and install them. I have also discovered that some of the badging was removed so I’ve got a few little things to do. When it comes to mechanical stuff- Tink is running fine and once I plot out the trip (looking at about 200 miles a day) I’ll be off on the next adventure.