THE MONEY PIT
Status: New built
Date: 10-Mar-2017
Comments: 12
Okay, it is midnight, the only time I can seem to type without getting interrupted in my very erratic brain waves and blond hair.
Time for you all to go brew some tea and set a spell while I tell you 'bout a Mini named Desire. :D
As I sit here with my bag of Goldfish and cup of milk, I am putting all the details into my head about this little thing called a Mini. Beautiful in its simplicity, sure makes me wish we had more imported to the USA of this old type versus the BMW type, I realize it might not be as easy to own as say a Honda from the mid 80's to mid 90's, but this has a bit more style IMHO.
Now, onto the Tamiya build, it started of simple enough, get hands on M01 chassis bits, as many as I can find unbroken and build this thing. I can't recall what the impetus was, but I did know that I wanted to build ONE of each of the M chassis, so might as well build as many Minis as I can, more coming, but this one, well this one is THE NUMBER ONE, I mean, it actually is number 149, but who is keeping track right??
I have TWO TC members to blame for this, I don't want all the heat for this money pit called the M01/02 mess, so it is easier to spread the blame. I blame Incredible Serious for his many different types of cars he builds and had some spares and I blame OCD for having the mini body and then painting it. It all started somewhere early in 2014. I had some bits and pieces of an M01 and I was hoping to make an original Mini one day, well, I found out quickly just how expensive original M01 chassis parts were, they are not that easy to come by NIP and they are EXPENSIVE. I am sure I must have won about 4 different chassis auctions with several state of cracked and broken parts, the start to this was actually a SM-X lowdown, but no body came with it and the wheels were sent over to Pinto Power from that project and then I started finding bits and pieces here and then Alex chimed in that he had bits and pieces and then Steve offered up the body and then I asked him if he would paint it up and then I began a poll on what the actual color should be as the instruction manual doesn't state it so. DEEP BREATH.
I am getting a little off track and on track. So, suffice it to say, I started to build this little Mini, then it snowballed, like a recent post by ILUVMUD, I started finding the hop up options, sometimes they were NIP, other times lightly used, other times attached to a chassis. OCD also offered to sell me one of his M Special motors, so that was going to add up with the body painting, but I know his caliber of work is just high rate, so, it was just money down the drain, WHY NOT buy EVERY single hop up I could find. SO I did.
It was early 2015 before Steve and I figured out what color this was going to be, I wanted it to be box art/post card art and we seem to have agreed on PS17 Metallic Green according to Tamiya, I believe that is the same color as the Top Force, but don't quote me. Mid 2015, Steve told me in a post on this showroom that he had most everything in place to start the tedious painting he does, and late 2015, it was a master freaking piece of art. Due to health issues with BOTH our backs, Steve's work didn't show up til April 1, 2016, but it was well worth the wait, then it became up to me to get this chassis perfected the way I wanted it to be.
THAT was my FIRST mistake, as any one of you know, OLD plastic doesn't like it here in Houston I guess as I just have things cracking and snapping and falling into pieces, with no fault of mine???!!! I can't figure it out. I was doing well and found that the cobbling together of several chassis was doing okay, had sorted out a proper M02L for a Beetle, then a M01M for that CR-X project, then it was supposed to be simple for a hopped up M01, well, it didn't work out that well, but spares were here and sporadic and I found that I almost had all the parts, then I tried to put it together again, CRACK here, CRACK there, UUUUUGGGGHHH. Well, thankfully late 2016 found me buying a Rally version Mini on the M01 chassis, so there was another chance at redemption. I just tore into that and have been looking to see if there is any part I need to use from it to make the best of the situation, but I can't see cannibalizing it for the sake of this original Mini, so I think I will just stop playing with the M01/02 series after this and put them on the shelf to crack until they disintegrate into piles of black plastic powder, at this rate, that ought to happen by 2020.
So, now that I have bored you with all that woe of cracked plastic, enjoy the hopped up Mini as I have tried to, I have put everything on it that was shown in the Hop up parts and perhaps a few more?? I just have to add here, THESE PHOTOS DO NO JUSTICE TO THE ACTUAL COLOR Steve painted this thing, it is deep and shiny and green and just.......awesome.
Internally, you can't see the 53237 Carbon gear shafts, but since I pulled them out of a project teardown tonight, I can attest to them being there, I do like the bit where you can service the gearbox somewhat simply from pulling the cover off one side, but you can't work with the diff as easily. DOH. It got teflon shielded bearings throughout, it got a 53070 Manta Ray ball diff.
Let's move onto what you CAN see, just barely. I added the 53056 pin type wheel adapter, 53155 Low Friction Aluminum Damper set ,the 53205 Universal Shaft set, the 53234 Aluminum screws(4mmx65mm), 53235 Stainless Steel suspension shaft set, 53236 bushing set, 53238 QR Battery holder, 53239 Frt and Rear Stabilizer set, 53241 Aluminum Motor Heat Sink, 53246 Turnbuckle Steering rod set attached to a Hi torque steering servo saver, 53251 Acto-Tuned M-Special motor, 53253 Aluminum Racing steering set. WHEW, that just about does it for all the bits I had found and added. I did get VERY lucky and for a reasonable price, won the correct kit box and manual.
I played around with some tires and wheels and we all know that some of the BEST alu wheels Tamiya has made is from the M series. YES, I broke down and bought some, but this car looks pretty darn good in the chrome plated Minilites stolen from the '94 Monte Carlo Mini, so that is what it is riding on at the moment.
As is a newer tradition with me, seems I am getting either some inspiration from Hot Wheels/Matchbox or if I can find a similar casting, I am making a matching MINI ME from a HW or Matchbox car. I did find this HW a few years back, always liked it, learned in the last few years how to hack into a HW car and thus, made this one up as the folks at HW didn't mate chrome minilites up to a Mini, go figure???!!!
I figure you have finished your tea, gone to sleep and hoping that in the morning you might have time to read more, or I have posted photos, so only 2 hours after I started this process, here they are.
ENJOY, comments welcome.
Chris
If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
Can^t believe I haven^t seen this one built more
Comments
yogi-bear
love the mini, its one of my favourites. That paint job on the roof looks awesome!
pininy
It turn out quite well!
Crash Cramer
Thank you guys, the roof is a decal, Tamiya made them, they seem to be rare as rocking horse poo.
Scanox
This became extremely good mate
The green color fits very well
Incredible_Serious
Not bad mate.... not bad at all! But... I still have all this junk I put aside for you! Did I say junk? I mean, quality plastic parts....
Crash Cramer
Yes Alex and I am NOW in a position to get them off you. All that JUNK will have to be unbroken though.
Incredible_Serious
I can unbreak it, just for you mate!
scollins
We need to make a hood scoop for this mini to match the one shown on the Hot Wheels car. Sculpt in clay and cast in plaster?
Crash Cramer
That might be a bit much Steve. I gave in, tore it all down to put all the best pieces I own together for this to be near perfect, began last night after midnight and stopped around 3 am, nearly done now.
mackerb03
Very cool 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
koenc
Yes, the do cost ALOT of money. Years ago I did the same. All parts are built for NIP(. Took a year to find them. [Click here]
I love your mini!!!
Tamiyamandan
Man that looks FANTASTIC !!!
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