A village called Siddington, its hall, surrounding field full of  Ford Zephyrs, Zodiacs, Consuls, the odd yank, Hot rod, Trike, Bike, array of tents, caravans and one angry weapon wielding farmer at 1:30am makes Carry on camping!!!
A weekend arranged by The 3 Graces North West, Bones and catered by The Guzzlers Car Club North Wales and their famous BBQ.
A truly awesome weekend and look forward to next years…
I think these will sum some of it up!!
Saturday 18/19th of June…Bus Stop Over 2011.
After an hour of driving and no camper or bus in sight, we had wondered if we were headed the right direction??
Turning right onto the A6006 “Wide Lane” the directions hadn’t let us down, in distance an abundance of buses, campers and the old show favourite, Flags!!
We rolled in at around 11am and setup the tent to changeable weather conditions, the wind was picking up and luckily the whole tent was up when the heavens opened…
Unfortunately for Hail Frank and the rest of the Latebay crew, a different story, they found solstice in their vehicles after their tent flew away??!!
Just like previous show this didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and the show went on.  There was a lovely bunch of buses on site and by Sunday the field next to the stand was densely populated with show and shine entries.
Our sponsored award went to best in show a Red and Black Splitty Samba, the chaps name escapes me but he’s owned it for a while and its full credit to him…
Just a big shout out to the Organisers of the Bus Stop Over, thank you for being so welcoming and accommodating.  The show was superb!!
Latebay for the kind offer of hanging out on saturday night (my fault that we didnt as I had to get back for a Stag party).
And to all the other people that made the show, came over to us and made our weekend interesting!! Â You know who you are!!
Until next year, some memories…
As Cherished Pete may have already announced whilst we were at the show, the weather wasn’t on anyone’s side this year but I hasten to add that this was the 1st wet and windy MCR show since 2002…All this didnt dampen spirits and it was a really good weekend with really cool people.
A big shout out goes to everyone that helped us by putting their car on the stand for show especially Dean and Jacqueline Cox and Peter Selby…
Some photos…
Well you can only imagine my joy when i pulled up outside Cherished Pete Towers last night to see a broken down Mini on its way to the body shop. After finding out it was out of Petrol we then had a long discussion about what colour scheme the said owner should go for (red with a black roof being the chosen) I retired to see Mrs Cherished and relax for the evening. It wasnt long before a knock at the door and a request to borrow some tools. That was it i could not see the man struggle anymore and I jump into action like a coiled spring.
Ok it was only a damp connection on the coil and a damp set of points but it did give me a good feeling, a bit like a boy showing his soccer skills to a new set of friends by scoring the winner in the last minute. As I walked back in waving  goodbye and wondering what the little Mini will look like in a week, I knew what it must feel like for a grandparent to have all the fun and then send the kiddies home, but is the fun driving a Classic Mini or is it keeping it on the road? Well thats one that could run and run.
It may be raining but the CVI team are loving all the great coopers at the MCR show. Come and see us
Car and Bike meets are an awesome thing!!
You get to meet up with like mates, share your stories and discover a wealth of information from other like minded people that may have been there and done that…
Wednesday 8th June was Greasy Wednesday.
The meet is every 2nd Wednesday of the month, at West One Bar, Hagley nr Stourbridge run by good friends Mick, Sharon and Duncan…
Greasy has something for everyone as its not just a meet in a car park.  Inside the West One bar you have the “Mouseriders” playin Crazy n Wild Rockin’ tunes set amongst a background of Hot Rod videos on big TV’s with food and drink also catered!!
A special mention has to go out to Mark and John from “The Originals Hot Rod Club” .  They made it to the meet even though it was a 120mile trip for them, hailing from Leeds a bit of a trek, they were well received and made very welcome!!
Some other photos of the turn out…
Yep, as you can see from the previous post I had a slight problem the engine wouldn’t quite fit…Clearance issues around sump at the crossmember and steering box.
Even with what gentle persuasion we have given the cross-member already, the bulkhead, transmission tunnel and the battery tray modified or cut out.  I still want the engine to sit lower and further back and this is not going to happen with a steering box in the way…
The solution?? Â A steering rack/rack and pinion conversion!!
With the cross-member pivot point centres 740mm centre to centre the steering rack knuckles or ball joints need to be parallel or fractionally wider than this measurement to avoid bump steer.  With a bit of research the perfect contender due to price and size is a mk3/4/5 Ford Cortina rack.
It was “Tina” my long suffering wife to be who managed to source a brand new Mk4 Cortina Rack from Kiley-Clinton Engineering in Digbeth, Birmingham…they also sorted me a brand new coupling and a couple of U/J’s.
I also sourced a Volvo 340 Throttle linkage…
Engine is here…
Logically the next task was to bolt on the Torqueflite 904 box to the back of the engine, shove the engine in the hole and mock up engine mounts…oh if everything was that easy!!
Before bolting the box up you need to install both a flex plate and torque converter…
This, the flange on the input shaft
Didn’t match the bolt pattern on the flex-plate i have!! Doh!!
So, a template later (thank you Mr. Kellogs!!)
Mismatched holes welded up
Use of a pillar drill for new holes and it bolts straight up!! Job done!! for now??
Whilst the engines out I decided to replace the Core Plugs and give the block a lick of paint a rather fetching shade of Smoothrite Green…
The valve covers look tatty but they’re okay for purpose until ive pretty much finished everything else and im gona get matching covers to the air cleaner i have…
So here it is, Box and Engine together for the first time!!
And a trial fit in the hole!!
But what’s that it wont go very far back or low…WHAT!! It dont fit??……..
Im back, after etch priming and hi-build priming the majority of the car I had to remedy one area on the passenger rear quarter. Â It was what looked like a right fiddly bit, a previous panel repair, right on the curve leading upto the wing tip…getting the contour correct proved to be a right pain in the proverbial rear end!!
I skimmed and built up the area in a bit of filler, left it over night ready for sanding the next day…
With a bit of elbow grease and getting the right feel, I finished sanding down the nearside rear quarter and pretty chuffed that i finally managed to get the right contour…
The car now fully etch primed, a few layers of hi-build priming and flatting off the bodywork has been left for the time being to concentrate on more mechanical stuff!!
After a lot of pondering (messing around and not getting much done!! Mick will know what I mean when he reads this?!!) ive set to work on the brakes…
Ive decided to stick with a single circuit brake system for the time being to get the car on the road.  Other cars ive had have been the same setup and I haven’t had a problem to date (touch wood).  I can always change it at a future date…Everything will be trial fitted before being taken out again to be painted such as axles and engine bay etc…
With the new axle “Volvo 240″ I installed the new Calipers,discs and pads from a Volvo 960, replaced the bleed nipples and installed the brake line across the axle connecting Caliper to Caliper and 3-way union.
As you can see, a little surface rust needs to be cleared up on the axle something I’ll do very soon…nothing to a wire brush and a lick of Rustoleum paint.
New Master Cylinder in Place, with brake line…
Servo bracket welded in, New Servo linked up…
and to top it all off ive got the correct 15 inch wheels sorted for the rear…After alot of trial and error (silly ill-educated Ebay purchases) I should have been to see Colin from C.P. Motors (Volvo Dealer in Polesworth, Tamworth) he knew what I needed and sorted me straight away.
Next up, engine in the hole!!!
I am getting very excited now about my favourute show of the year the Mini Cooper Register National Day at Beaulieu, and this year Cherished Vehicle Insurance has the honour of being the headline sponsor.
Not only is it a great show with lovely people and even nicer cars, it is also a chance for whole Cherished team to escape to the south coast on Saturday afternoon in preperation for the show (and maybe have a small beer each saturday night).
If your coming along come and say hello we have got some goodies to give away, and if you cant make it check out the blog on Monday for all the show news photos and gossip.
Lets hope the sun shines, and i keep off the Karoke!
Specialist insurance for your cherished vehicle
Cherished Vehicle Insurance is a trading name of K. Drewe Insurance Brokers Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Registered in England No. 743268, Registered Office: 14 Load Street, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 2AE