Gone

I sold my 2005 MINI Cooper S today.  Owned it for almost 12 years.  Vaya con dios el MINI.

Waiting in the dealer lot, January, 2005

Ready for the Craigslist ad, July 2016

Volkswagen Type 2 T1 Single Cab Pickup

Volkswagen Rabbit

Meow!

Volkswagen Beetle

MINI at 11

My 2005 MINI Cooper S is turning 11 years old this month.  I ordered it on 11/18/2004.

Here's a picture that the salesperson took of it on 1/11/2005, when it arrived at the dealer in Ohio.  Since there were no dealers on the west coast that were taking orders (or had a 9 month wait), I ordered it at a dealer in Ohio and had it shipped out to me in Seattle.  I wonder what happened to the MINI parked next to it.

Cars & Coffee

Turned out to be a nice morning for some cars and coffee.

BC visits Cars & Coffee Shoreline

I found out about a Cars & Coffee event that takes place every weekend from 8 to 10 at the Central Market in Shoreline.  I got up early this morning and fired up the GTV and headed over to Shoreline. The weather was perfect this morning.

I parked the GTV next to a '73 911 Targa.

This car belongs to the guy that runs the Seattle's Classics blog

That's a rubber chicken hanging off the bumper of the second Volvo.

It was a fun morning kicking tires with a bunch of like minded individuals.  Verdict:  I am going to make this a Saturday AM ritual.  Next time I think I will drive the NA...

Short takes: Amphicar

Normally I try to get multiple shots of a particular subject, but spotting one of these is so rare, I'm breaking my rule on this one.  We spotted it in Kenmore this morning.  I have not seen one in person since I was a kid.  In the small town I grew up in, we lived down the street from the owner of the Pepsi distributor and they had a blue one.  Pepsi had some sort of promotion program in the 70's where their could get an Amphicar to promote Pepsi.

Volkswagen Cabriolet

Mercedes 450SL

OT: Tales of the nitrile glove - MINI motor mount

The passenger motor mount on the MINI decided to puke out its oil a while back.

I had been keeping an eye on it - watching for signs that the inner rubber was collapsing.  I hadn't seen any evidence, but with the car 500 miles away from 100K, I decided not to tempt fate any longer and ordered a new mount from Pelican Parts.

First step was to get the car off the ground and onto jack stands.  Someday I will have a lift...

Next step was to disconnect the ground strap and a few other hoses and clips.  The bottom of the mount is held on with a TORX E10 torque to yield bolt that is one time use.  I thought I might be able to remove it with just a 10mm socket, but no joy so it was off to McKlendon's then O'rielly's for the special socket.  The second stop had it, but I had to buy a set and expand my tool collection.  Once I was sure I could losen that bolt I removed the top engine mount after supporting the engine with a trolley jack and a 2x4.

Here's the grubby old mount with dried oil running down the side.  Under it is the funky E10 bolt.

Assembly was the reverse of dis-assembly as they say.

The E10 torque to yield TORX bolt was interesting.  You torqued it to 41.5 ft-lbs and then tightened it an additional 90 degrees.

I'd like to say that the car doesn't vibrate as much (it wasn't vibrating to begin with) and shifting feel has improved (no shift issues before either), but I can't.  It wasn't a hard job or time consuming (except for the two store stop to find the TORX socket).  Hopefully it's good for anther 100K miles.

Porsche 911 SC

Update: Where is White Rabbit now?

A couple months ago I sold my 1984 Rabbit GTI on Bring a Trailer.  I would recommend using them if you have an interesting classic for sale.  The fees were reasonable as compared to EvilBay and you can avoid the fun of selling via Criagslist.  It was also good in that I knew the car was going to go to a good home where it's originality would be preserved.

My former car was bought by Ted in Newport Beach, CA.  Ted has continued the work we were doing to preserve the car.  He has fixed the deteriorating rear seat and had a dent wizard take out some of the dents.  Ted recently took the car to Cars and Coffee in Irvine, CA.  I always thought that would be a good venue to show it off.  Thanks Ted for sending these.

Porsche 944

Volkswagen Rabbit L

Beige, round headlights and GTI wheels...