Hey guys,
So as most of you probably now know, Ive bought Jim's (bigjim) R52 One Convertible off of him. He's a gent and has done me a good deal on it, even travelling down here tomorrow to drop it off which Im most grateful for.
A few months back, found myself losing my job due to CoVid having been furloughed for a number of months. Head won over heart and led to me selling my R53 which I genuinely thought id never end up selling....was a shame but I needed the money more than the car and thankfully it did end up going to a good home for a price I was happy with so wasnt all bad.
In the time being by good fortune found another job...income whilst far from terrible is nothing like it was so simply I dont have the play money for now to do what I was doing with the S....which lets face it was quickly becoming a restoration project 😂😂
With my new job (eventually) being mainly office based with a short daily commute vs being home based as I was before I could foresee having just the one car would eventually become problematic so started considering options.......really I just wanted something reasonably priced that would make the commute easy and I wouldnt be bothered about parking on the street all day long.
I first considered buying a 2010 Golf 1.6 TDi SE off a mate who was selling it on behalf of someone else.... didnt want an awful lot for it but it had done 100k, concious it had a few nasty knocks and bangs, quite a few advisories at its last MOT and would no doubt experience DPF and/or EGR issues at some point.....also monumentally boring so despite not being a bad deal all in I fucked it off.
I then deliberated buying a few year old Mokka off my brother, again far from my ideal car but seemingly quite a bit of car for the money and would be cheap and easy for me to get it looked after. However I didnt much fancy piling a big chunk of my redundancy into it or taking a loan for the rest so quickly the idea tailed off.
I then realised Jim was selling his R52, to me it just made sense. Cheap, interesting and fun to drive (as all Minis are), well cared for with some nice spec improvements like the full leather and wheels. I have also rather always liked the idea of having a convertible as have never had one......so it all came together! Ironically it'll be the first car Ive ever purchased thats had more than 100k miles on the clock!
A very different prospect this time as whilst I do really rather like it, its more of a means to an end than the last one (needs to be cheap!). Not to say I wont do anything at all to it but it will mostly be just things to tidy it and get it as I want it.
When I get it I plan initially just to give it a good clean inside and out, treat the bumper/sideskirts with C4 restorer. Ive also bought a set of Bosch Aerotwins from Euro Car Sharks for it (boy Im pissed with them, 2nd or 3rd time now Ive gone DHL next day delivery and the actual date will be about 3 or 4 working days probably last time I fucking use them!).
Hopefully Jim wont hate me for it but I will probably also remove the bonnet stripes and Union Jack bits and bobs as I'll be going for the sleeper OEM look. In two minds about whether I'll keep the spots or not as I cant deny they are probably quite handy (particularly as it doesnt have Xenons)....we shall see on that!
Other plans are to try to fix the passenger backrest tilt mechanism (if its even possible) and I wont lie if I can pick up a good wheel and airbag cheap enough I would like to put a 3 spoke wheel in it.....im not a hater of the two spoke but I do prefer the 3...we shall see.
Anyway, as soon as it lands and Ive had a chance to give it a spruce i'll whack up some pics 👍
So as most of you probably now know, Ive bought Jim's (bigjim) R52 One Convertible off of him. He's a gent and has done me a good deal on it, even travelling down here tomorrow to drop it off which Im most grateful for.
A few months back, found myself losing my job due to CoVid having been furloughed for a number of months. Head won over heart and led to me selling my R53 which I genuinely thought id never end up selling....was a shame but I needed the money more than the car and thankfully it did end up going to a good home for a price I was happy with so wasnt all bad.
In the time being by good fortune found another job...income whilst far from terrible is nothing like it was so simply I dont have the play money for now to do what I was doing with the S....which lets face it was quickly becoming a restoration project 😂😂
With my new job (eventually) being mainly office based with a short daily commute vs being home based as I was before I could foresee having just the one car would eventually become problematic so started considering options.......really I just wanted something reasonably priced that would make the commute easy and I wouldnt be bothered about parking on the street all day long.
I first considered buying a 2010 Golf 1.6 TDi SE off a mate who was selling it on behalf of someone else.... didnt want an awful lot for it but it had done 100k, concious it had a few nasty knocks and bangs, quite a few advisories at its last MOT and would no doubt experience DPF and/or EGR issues at some point.....also monumentally boring so despite not being a bad deal all in I fucked it off.
I then deliberated buying a few year old Mokka off my brother, again far from my ideal car but seemingly quite a bit of car for the money and would be cheap and easy for me to get it looked after. However I didnt much fancy piling a big chunk of my redundancy into it or taking a loan for the rest so quickly the idea tailed off.
I then realised Jim was selling his R52, to me it just made sense. Cheap, interesting and fun to drive (as all Minis are), well cared for with some nice spec improvements like the full leather and wheels. I have also rather always liked the idea of having a convertible as have never had one......so it all came together! Ironically it'll be the first car Ive ever purchased thats had more than 100k miles on the clock!
A very different prospect this time as whilst I do really rather like it, its more of a means to an end than the last one (needs to be cheap!). Not to say I wont do anything at all to it but it will mostly be just things to tidy it and get it as I want it.
When I get it I plan initially just to give it a good clean inside and out, treat the bumper/sideskirts with C4 restorer. Ive also bought a set of Bosch Aerotwins from Euro Car Sharks for it (boy Im pissed with them, 2nd or 3rd time now Ive gone DHL next day delivery and the actual date will be about 3 or 4 working days probably last time I fucking use them!).
Hopefully Jim wont hate me for it but I will probably also remove the bonnet stripes and Union Jack bits and bobs as I'll be going for the sleeper OEM look. In two minds about whether I'll keep the spots or not as I cant deny they are probably quite handy (particularly as it doesnt have Xenons)....we shall see on that!
Other plans are to try to fix the passenger backrest tilt mechanism (if its even possible) and I wont lie if I can pick up a good wheel and airbag cheap enough I would like to put a 3 spoke wheel in it.....im not a hater of the two spoke but I do prefer the 3...we shall see.
Anyway, as soon as it lands and Ive had a chance to give it a spruce i'll whack up some pics 👍