Bought my first Mini - doing it all wrong

[CooperD]

I just bought my first mini, and I'm doing everything "wrong" from the perspective of car buying. I bought the first mini I test drove. It's heavily modified, owned by a young kid, and has almost no doc'd history. All these things were screaming "mistake!" at me as I was making my decision, but it just felt right. The funny thing is that my wife and I almost bought a 1966 Austin Healey 3000 (all original, fully doc'd california car) about a month ago, but talked ourselves out of it after lots of waffling. I knew if I didn't strike on this car, I was going to talk myself out of it again. I had a 1979 MG Midget years ago which I drove all over California, and I've been really itching for a Little British Car again lately, so cheers to risky emotional decisions!

Some of the things I did right - I insisted on a thorough pre-inspection at Heritage Garage, and feel confident that I know the cars issues - and overall, it appears to be a strong little car. I'm having some mechanical freshening done at Heritage now, and a little rust repair and paint work as well. Then I promptly signed up to join MOALA - hope I will get to meet some of you soon.

About the car - itIt is registered as a 1961 Austin Cooper, and has yellow / black plates, but has a TPI 1.3L engine in it. Apparently the car was featured in Mini Magazine a few years back - I'm still researching to find the issue.

While I realize this isn't a "true and original" classic, the combination of (comparatively) modern mechanics and vintage styling appeals to me. I plan to use it as a daily driver (my commute is only 8 miles round trip), and a weekend fun car with the family. I've started to research it's history, and so far I know it was in Washington state prior to 2004, in San Diego from 2004-2008, and I bought it from the owner that had it in Los Angeles from 2008 until now.

As for myself - my first real car (I don't count the Chevy Sprint I owned in high-school) was a 1979 MG Midget which I bought restored from a guy who (ironically) raced vintage Mini's in San Diego. I drove it all over California for about 2 years before I moved to London for work. While I was there for a couple of years, I gave the MG to my dad (title and all). I loved that car, but mechanically it was terribly unreliable, so when I moved to Los Angeles, I bought a new 1994 Miata for a daily driver. I've had great times in that car, and still use it as my daily driver. In the last couple of years, I began modifying my Miata and taking it out for track days on the occasional club weekend.

I've always wanted to get another vintage car again, and had been looking at MG's, Healey's, and Mini's (by looking, I mean wistfully browsing the internet). I thought of getting my old MG back as a project car, only to find my father had sold it and hadn't told me So after a few near misses on other cars, when I found this Mini, I knew I had to press the go button before I talked myself out of it again, so here I am ...


A few pics from the previous owner (note that I'm having the roof repainted pepper white at Heritage):







Thanks for reading my novel, and hope to meet some of you soon!

[whitebuffalo]

Glad to have a new member. Good thing you didn't get the '79 MG back, the motors in those are terrible and you would have to smog it. Good looking Mini.

[Sideache]

Nice car - I saw that listed and it looked really good in the ad. Congrats, and welcome to MOALA

[Outback Mini]

Welcome, I love your "Novel"! Great looking Mini!

[LAMINI]

Great car....glad it went to a good home.

[woodymini]

BTW -- There is no "wrong way" to buy a classic Mini ---- Uncle Bob

[CooperD]

Thanks for the warm welcome - I have the car back from Heritage now and have been enjoying it a ton for the last couple of days. I love that the car gets looks wherever I go - but even better, are the smiles it provokes - and of course my own serious case of permagrin

I'm going to be returning the car to Heritage for some rust repair while our family takes a northern california road trip. We debated actually taking the Mini on the trip, but that's a serious commitment with 2 young children in tow, and I think its best that we decided not to lock ourselves into it for 12 days together. So far, the rest of the family seems to enjoy it as much as I do, but best not to overdo it.

As I get to know the car, I find little things that the previous owner did that weren't great, but nothing that a little TLC and good taste cant fix .

[LAMINI]

You can take up north next year for http://www.minimeetwest2011.com/lodging.htm

[CooperD]

Thanks for the link!