PastyDynamite

The bike is a 700cc Kawasaki. The image isn't great, but car and bike are the same size physically and despite slightly smaller engine on the Kawasaki, it has much more hrs prs apparently, which is adorable and hilarious. Next things planned: - Fix rust spots and paint job (when I'm rich enough for a paint booth) - Put on the chunky arch and get a phat wheel - Get some of that white paint so I can highlight the word "TRAILER" on the wheels. Better than a white wall.

Hullo fam, I'd like to introduce Sarnie, the 1972 classic Mini Clubman. Allow me to explain: Sarnie = English slang for sandwich, and Clubman = club = club sarnie. Quality name. Good job, me. I've always wanted a Clubman. I thought they were the cutest of all the adorable classic mini line-up, and I'm sure you can agree. Apparently (no sauce for this other than other forum intel I've gathered) the Clubman was supposed to be the "aggressive" front. I find this info to be fucking adorable, much like the Daihatsu Rocky being named after Sylvester Stallone just to make it more bad-ass and increase sales. <3 Cute. AAAAAaaany way, I agreed to buy Sarnie sight-unseen because he came from a lovely lady down South who told me she "didn't just want it going to anyone who wouldn't "appreciate it." Cue me flying down to the deep south and then having a few awkward phone calls from said lovely lady while I was staying in a charmingly seedy joint: "Oh, you're already in our city! You can't wait a while? My son may need to do "_insert random thing that made no sense at all_" I tried to get her to pass details of the son to me to discuss what 'needed doing', but to no avail, and had a night of very little sleep before going to see the little gem. Sarnie gave me the impression of being a tidy little creature, hidden away while people occasionally did a few bits when time arose. Half of the roof is scuffed and I understand that this is because one of the owners decided to pursue a repaint, then decided it needed more work before that was a good investment. After working on a lovely project car in the UK, the rust really didn't seem at all bad to me (foot on brake didn't result in me putting my foot through the floor = win) and while I was pretty sure that the brakes were fucked and the teeny engine was running on possibly not all cylinders? it seemed like an absolute win, so I agreed to buy it. I had a mad drive from Invercargill to Dunedin, then headed off to Timaru, where we stopped and did not make any headway. I screwed this up royally. I had a day to get to the classic mini meet in Chch and it was a long weekend when I headed out, so I was literally inviting gremlins and holding the tiny door open for them. We then had an awfully stressful time the next morning when it went from running on probs 3 cylinders, to 2, then 1, then none. I pulled the plugs and found that they were sooty. Tidied them, put them back in and still no life. I called the AA in true damsel-in-distress mode and then had a shitty time arguing with the mechanic (honestly, I was delightful but he was insistent that it was the dizzy cap, and wouldn't explain to me why he felt that was the issue and wouldn't look at anything else). It ended with heated words and I took a "basic bitch" trip to Repco the next day, bought new plugs, leads, coil, cap and points, and other basic things only the most basic of bitches like. I replaced the leads and found that (after @DAD's recommendation [honestly, @admin why would you make me type that?!?!] that I check the leads with the multi-meter) 1 of the leads was a little fucked and needed a replacement. Old mate Bob,a neighbour from down the road who'd been watching my struggle, arrived and was an absolute GC. He pulled the coolest thing out of his pocket - a plug gauge complete with teeny tiny cleaning tools - better than a full set of makeup brushes. He checked my points and plugs with me and said they were some of the cleanest and tidiest he'd ever seen (why thank you Bob). SO, coil was changed, plugs were again cleaned and new leads were put in (I couldn't change the cap as some ^%&$ had returned the box to Repco prior to my purchase after taking the little things that hold the leads in place out of the box). Mr @kyteler was an absolute GC (cheers bro!), and talked me through the issues via instagram and we actually got the car running that evening! (more than the AA could manage after 3 hours and some verbal abuse). This was delightful after I'd given up hope and was certain I was destined to walk the rest of the way home and was destined to purchase only Priuses for the end of time. The next day I got it going, but it was so unhappy. I cleaned the carb in-situ including the float bowl, re-cleaned the spark plugs and still things weren't good, so I sent it to a local Timaru mechanic after getting a recommendation from a great Palmerston North mechanic I trust. Turns out (BIG surprise, fam) that the car was flooding. The mechanic's old man happened to be in the shop that day and he had spent his time cutting his teeth on SU carbs, so he swizzled the underside knob which leaned it down a tad (I couldn't do it - for shame, I didn't have an appropriate tool or the strength to do it with my hand...). We ended up back on the road (minus air filter as it wouldn't run with that and I had a hard time getting one that would fit) and made it the rest of the way to Masterton. Sarnie is a fucking DREAM. We can't do more than 70 comfortably, but we like to do 50. Everywhere. Seriously, stay out of our way when we do the roundabout, bitches. If anyone happens to know what that little spark plug multitool/gauge is or where to get one, please let me know! I've been looking for the past few months, but can't find one. It folded away like a swiss-army knife and had everything a spark plug could want, including a teeny bottle brush. MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS?/MODS?IMPROVEMENTS? - @DAD astutely determined that the brake shoes were on back to front. Resolving this mismatch, and replacing the rears with fresh shoes (along with replacing the slave cylinders in the back which were pissing fluid) things have really improved at intersections and stop signs! - New brake master cylinder just to be sure (actually we fucked up and did that because we couldn't work out why still no brakes after the above - there is a cute rear-end stop valve so if you don't bleed painfully slowly, it shuts off and doesn't do the bleed - primordial ABS). - @DAD made a tidy washer bottle for the dinky windscreen with his 3D printing, because I'm a stingy bitch and didn't want to spring $50 for a proper one. - Services. - FLUFFY DICE, BITCHES. - I've somehow become cooler. - My driving has become worse. Notable things: Some teen kids approached me while I was stuck on the roadside "Oh, my grandad has a car like that!" Me: "Really!?! Awesome!" Kid: "yea, it's a Fiat Bambina!" :E Photo upload hates me, so I'm uploading jpegzies separately. Happy St Paddies fam!