Ramblings at Random

“A DREAM FINALLY REALIZED”

BY DEAN SPRAGUE

I have been attending car shows with my oldest son, Jason, for as long as I can remember. We have gone to car shows of all type; new cars, American, European, truck/tractor, motorcycle and lots of British. My younger son Chris and daughter Britany enjoy this sometimes but never with the passion of Jason. He has phased in and out of various vehicles over the years ranging from Mustangs, Camaros, Hondas, Miatas and others but has always pined over the infamous Classic Mini. He has wanted one of these little creatures for over a decade. Meanwhile, the market prices for classic Minis are steadily going vertical. Undeterred however he kept looking for that “really” good deal. About once a month (for years now) he would send me an Email with pictures of the one he wanted. Then recently on a Wednesday morning about 9:30 my phone rang.

The call was from Jason and began with: “Dad what are you doing right now?” He was at work and unable to leave but he’d found a Mini for sale. The seller had been trying to sell it on one of the Mini sites for some time in the $5500 range. Then 2 days earlier he dropped the price to $2800, right in Jason’s price range. Jason emailed him about the condition of the car. It seems it hadn’t been started in 3-4 years, had some body rust but it was all there. The owner was a stunt show driver on his way back to China (where he worked) and was running out of time. During the email discussion with Jason he dropped his advertised price to $2200. The owner immediately received about 15 email inquiries but since Jason was the first to respond he gave him a first come first serve window of about 6-8 hours. Jason thought he was located in Albemarle, NC. That was about 2 hours from my home so no problem. My son’s next question: “Dad can you go look at it, bring a trailer and oh, can you loan me the cash if it’s good? Since he had been looking for so long I acquiesced and immediately called my car buddy David to see if he and his trailer were available. He said: “It’s waiting for you, where are we going - road trip?” I jumped in my truck, stopped by the bank and the fuel station and headed for David’s place. Meanwhile Jason contacted the Mini owner again to get the address. It seems the address was Aberdeen not Albemarle, NC. That was about 3 ½ hours away oh well, “in for a penny in for a pound”. I think we took every back road in North Carolina to get there but thanks to Garman’s GPS we finally found it.

There we were at 3:45 PM sitting in front of an abandoned junkyard with what looked like a large Quonset / hanger building sitting up front. We were in the middle of nowhere. Jason called him again and they arrived, owner and father in about 10 minutes. I put my Super Duty Diesel in 4-wheel drive and we crawled, trailer in tow onto the sand lot drive to the back of the building. The owner and his dad were at the back door with a power drill to unscrew the wood panels securing the door. When they rolled the door back letting the sun stream in and there sat a 1980 classic Mini Cooper sitting quietly in the corner and by the look of things for quite some time. The battery was missing but aside from that the car looked to be complete. It was a UK car with right hand drive. When we opened the driver’s door it dropped in our hands (“A” pillar rusted though). You could see the concrete building floor under the brake and clutch pedals, the hood latch was rusted away and there was a small oil puddle under the engine but all in all not ‘toooo’ bad. The owner assured us that it ran great several years ago when he parked it here. Yeah, right! I called Jason, gave him the prognosis and handed the phone to the owner. Several minutes passed and a deal was consummated. I give him $2000.00 and we loaded her up. We pushed it up on the trailer (with lots of room to spare), tied the car and hood down, exchanged an open title for the money and we were off. The really good news; it already had a North Carolina title. Getting a UK car registered in the USA let alone North Carolina can be a daunting task at best. Just ask those who have tried.

We got back on the road heading for Jason’s house in Huntersville, NC. We stopped at a restaurant along the way. Everyone that saw the car stopped to look at it or give us thumbs up. I have to admit it was cute. I think David said it: “Every time you look at it you just want give it a hug”. Needless to say, when we arrived at Jason’s he was excited. I backed the trailer up his driveway and we got it unloaded just before dark. I think after he got my grandkids in bed he spent the rest of the night in his garage sitting in his new acquisition, planning multiple restoration strategies or just fantasizing. That next Saturday he wanted me to come down and help him get it started. We bought a battery, flushed the oil, added water, then we Sea Foamed the fuel line and the SU carburetor. We removed the fuel tank sloshed it out and found a spring and remnants of an old fuel cap. We put fresh fuel in it, filled the float bowl, fixed a few electrical grounds and ticked her over. She sprang to life and once we burned out the Sea Foam she ran beautifully, so well in fact we drove it around the block. This was scary because the tires were so dry rotted I was amazed they still held air. On a positive note however, even the brakes and clutch hydraulics still worked (can you believe it!), the transmission was smooth and quiet and the engine pulled strongly while holding 65# of oil pressure. Unbelievable, the kid (owner) was right it does run great! I think the Mini gods were shinning on Jason. Even the body rust looks better in the light of day-especially if you back up a little, ok a lot. Well, in a year or so after we probably end up spending several hundred hours throwing on new sheet metal, paint and upholstery while chasing undefined mechanical gremlins, it will be a long overdue but beautiful dream realized for my son. I wonder what color red we are going to paint it? Together now say after me CMF (classic Minis forever)!