So, after a cracking day saturday, yesterday just went totally wrong in general.
Started prep work on the wheels, and the blue paint seemed impossible to remove. After several hours, I had most of it off, and decided to just flat down the rest of the blue to key it up.
Then it started raining, so I had to empty the garage out and poor Mini got soaked.
Started applying primer in the garage with a heater on, but the paint just reacted where the blue was left around the corners,
Looks awful:
Pretty ****** off with it really, I spent ages cleaning them, but it's just reacted and put me back to square one.
So I got the hump with them, and stashed them back in the garage:
I've not got time to do these justice in the week before Combe, so I'm going to throw a can of satin black at them tonight, and be done with them for now.
So, after reading up on lots of engine failures, due to oil starvation, I decided to drop the sump, to clean it out and replace the oil pickup pipe, which most people say is very blocked after 100k+.
Dropped the sump, and to my surprise:
After 203 000 miles, the pickup looks like brand new!
the inside of the sump was equally clean too:
Just goes to show that regular maintenance with high quality oil really does keep engines in top form. I'm a bit gutted at spending 2 hours in the pouring rain doing this on a sunday when I could have been watching the BTCC instead, but I guess at least it's done now! even if it didn't need doing.
Stuck the new pickup in anyway as I had it, here's a comparison old V new, you can see how good the old one was. Impressive after 200k
Tickets and track passes also arrived for Combe yesterday care of a mate:
I know it's not a proper track day being session based, but I got 6 sessions for £125, so it'll be a nice first test for the car, on a track I know very well.
Brakes are bedding in nicely, and the new clutch seems perfect, no slipping now, and the feel is more positive with the new slave cylinder too.
Might try sticking a few orange vinyl stripes on the spokes of the wheels just to keep the theme going.
Is anyone else comming along to Combe? if so, please come say hello! We're on a club stand right next to where the pit lane exits up to folly, just up from the sound test area.
Club stand is called the ''RWD Car Club''
RWD obviously stands for 'Rong Wheel Drive
* FWD turbo charged shopping trolleys for the win!