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SOL Mates:
I thought I'd enter the worst bodge contest. Fortunately for me, and the
cars, LBC's are a hobby and I don't seem to find myself in the
distasteful position of having to bodge to get home. I can afford the
time to let a job sit unfinished rather than do it wrong. During these
periods of 'sitting' I'm on the hunt for wayward LBC's. A pal of mine
with a bent towards huge AMC products (and other bad habits) is an
accomplice in this and, in his wanderings, alerts me to anything that's
interesting. The police auction is fertile territory BTW.
The LBC in question was one I had seen very briefly 2 years ago. The
reason the sighting was brief was that the blue smoke completely
obscured it! Upon closer examination in the police lockup prior to
auction time I saw probably the worst collection of bodges imaginable:
196x Mini Van with 3' chopped out of the middle making a very SWB and
decidedly odd looking beast. The two halves were BRAZED together, and
very poorly at that. Most of the bodges were obscured by the pure
stupidity of the fuel system. With that much of the wheel base removed
there was either no room to put the fuel tank back in, or it had rusted
out and couldn't be used (I must admit that my vision was getting a
little woozy trying to comprehend the magnitude of it all). In any case
there was a 2.5 gallon lawn mower style fuel tank bolted to the inside
of the rear doors with clear plastic hose running across the floor to a
motor boat style priming pump (hand squeeze rubber thingy) located in
the drivers side door pocket! I assume this is what was used as a fuel
pump as there was nothing else in line to the carb.
At the same auction was a '73 Mini that someone had tried to turn into a
convertible. I remember seeing this car before it lost the roof. I remember
it was a rust bucket! A Mini gets all of its strength through the roof and
floor; severely rusted rockers compromises strength considerably, and
removing the roof just spells disaster. I had the chance to stand on the
floor tunnel and, with the doors open, bounced a little. The deflections
were enough to get my engineer's blood pumping with excitement.
My guess is that these two cars were impounded because they were unsafe.
*************** HEY HOW ABOUT A STOOOPID CONTEST? **********************
I'll nominate ME!
Qualifications: In 1975 (age 16) while working on my '68 Mini I
allofasudden had to have twin carbies and a header. Up popped a
non-functioning '61 Cooper advertised at $300, for which I duly paid $300.
Because it was JUST A 997 COOPER I threw out the brakes, perfect gold
brocade upholstery, rebuildable engine and perfectly restorable shell. I
did keep the carbs and header, although the Mini they went into never ran.
The Cooper, even at that point, had to be the oldest surviving Cooper in
Canada. These things fetch $5000 plus today. Restored very early ones
can make $10000 (that's somewhere around $1.25 US ;-).
The following sound will be my foot hitting my butt (yes even after
nearly 20 years): OOOF!
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*Marcel Chichak Certified Mini Nut | Go in deeper, come out *
*voice (403)466-6004 |harder and come from *
*Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |behind!, That's what it's*
*chichm@tibalt.supernet.ab.ca |like to race a Mini! *
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'69 Morris Cooper 39,999.9 Miles and counting!
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