Got him all washed up and ready for his adventure to VA on Tuesday.

Stops to be made:

College of New Jersey
U of Richmond
College of William & Mary
U of Virginia
James Madison University
Skyline Drive
University of Mary Washington

If you see the Kid coming, don't worry about making room for him - he finds a way!

 

Oooo, Albie, swing through Frederick, Md and visit me at work! We LOVE Skyline Drive, and so will Kid! Giggles has done it once, so far. Safe travels!

 

[QUOTE=RJKimbell;3478781]Thats a fact! My MINI has officially stolen my wallet and I dont care

 

Awesome! Another Harley/MINI owner

 

Ordered a GoBadge and holder on Sunday and ordered my Intake from Way Motor Works today.

 

Butters just hit 100,000!!




So he got a spa day. Wash from top to bottom - Inside & Out.

He's such a happy boy & still going strong

 

That is just AWESOME!!!! I added AT LEAST 10HP to Giggles by putting on her Mini in the States 10 Years window cling!!

 

That's Trenton State's new name, innit? I went there briefly, before I got *the call* from the GF back home....

C ya,
Dutch

 

Got the grill back on (yesterday) after applying some matte vinyl.

 

Today I passed the point of no return with doing the prep work for new paint on my car. I wetsanded out the driver door to see how the car is going to look in Matte Dark Silver. I love it, it's got the perfect look for what I am doing with the car.

More can be found in my build thread.

 

You're a brave guy ****.

 

I find if I don't wash my silver car I can achieve a nice matte look without the work.

Looks good though. Can't wait to see the rest done.

 

Our local school district's spring break was last week.
We filled all four seats (2 adults, two in the low teens area), packed 4 overnight bags and headed to a (nearly full) indoor waterpark about 150 miles away.

Pulled up to the entrance: minivan, SUV, minivan,

MINI

minivan, SUV, minivan

If you'd told me a year ago that 4 plus overnight luggage would fit in one, I may not have believed it, and I'm not entirely sure everyone else in line did.
:-)

 

Well since i was "On Call" for work this weekend, and figured it was best i didn't leave the house, it was no time then ever to fabricate my light bar.

Not that i'm cheap, but i feel it little more accomplished if i do it myself. So here it is. Haven't gotten the lights hooked up yet, because i need to get a couple wire terminals to connect them to the stock fog light control inside the car.

 

Looks great!

If I was doing one for mine, I'd consider a single one in the center on top of the bar, and I'd have the other two slightly "crosseyed" for seeing around corners.... I wonder if the bar was that low, if the middle light(s) would be out of the airflow stream for the intercooler intake scoop in the hood on the old R53.

C ya,
Dutch

 

Springs settled a bit, will probably do a small spacer in the rear to push the wheels out a little bit.

 

Its all just part of the prep anyhow, so if I where to screw it up or not like the look, it really wouldnt matter. The whole car is getting resprayed anyhow.

The only part I am keeping glossy is the black roof, and the CHALLENGE graphics that I will have cut are going to be gloss as well as reflective.

Going to buzz the paint off the roof tonight and maby fill the 4 little dings that all MINIs that are driven HARD seem to get.

 

Thanks for your take. That's fine. It is human nature to support and defend a fellow tech. I've been a licensed driver and auto enthusiast for over 3 decades and am ALL too familiar with book priced labor.

What you may have glossed over is that Waylen talked up his tight relationship with the local shop -- that he's been there (in Rockville MD), trained them in MINI and works closely with them. If ANYONE would be expected to be aware that they may have a different rate than he quoted the job, it would be him. Why would I imagine they'd quote nearly 3x the hours after he went on about his close relationship?

If he had not said anything about this particular relationship, of course I'd have called one or two shops BEFORE ordering the parts. I bought the parts both on his accolades for the parts and his quote of 2 1/2 to 3 hours to do the job. Clearly he knew full well that the labor wouldn't be as quoted ( you say I should have)but chose to push the sale rather than look out for a customer.
I returned the goods of course. His terms policy , before changing it what it is now, said 20% restock fee under the section Damaged, Mis-Packaged, or Missing goods: not applicable to me.
We fit under

Returns/Refunds: There was no fee noted under this section.



He has since changed it, but I have an image of the original entire terms section. I knew he would change it once we started battling. His lack of concern for cleaning up the 'mess' he made shows me he is hardly a nice guy or a wonderful business man.
A decent and fair solution would have been for him to refund the full amount . The parts came back to him unopened and unmolested. Worse still? I paid for shipping both ways. Oh, worse still??? he started by refunding 73% of the fee, not the 80%! As if we'd just say 'oh well'. Yeah, he's a fine dude.

This is hardly about the money... which won't change either of our lives one nick. For me, this about being jacked around and not sitting down for it.
If he was so smart and a decent guy, he'd have said sorry, and thank you for paying the shipping, here's your full refund for the parts. But he chose to do the wrong thing... and why? For a few bucks? I mean he has lost me and my lady's cars as consumables...and anyone I know who has a MINI.


I don't wish anything bad on anyone. But I don't mind sharing the experience one bit. Just as I don't mind blathering accolades upon a business that serves me well. I've posted innumerable compliments to businesses on yelp and the like. But fair is fair;0)
At this point I'm sick of talking about it. Sorry to have taken up so much space.


Now on to all things fun about MINI... !

 

Beautiful ryde! I had 2 just like it--dark silver under white. Still my favorite color combo.

 

Custom badges arrived today! I like the prancing moose gag on Volvos, and wanted to create a Mini version. First I tried to do a prancing bulldog but it ended up looking like a wombat having a seizure. Went with the Bavarian lion instead.

 

Wow you seem to be the only one who feels this way about one of the best guys EVER that i have dealt with when buying parts and getting advice. It isn't HIS fault they priced you high over labor costs, he ONLY TRAINS THEIR MECHANICS! That alone should tell you about his reputation. I am sure your demeamor MIGHT have contributed to the way you were dealt with after reading your posts an your placing blame just saying... he is going to install my Rear Sway bars at the Dragon as well as many others because he is bringing the parts to help those who want to improve their experience ( try that out without your shop ) and I think it shows his love of Mini owners and not just the $ !

 

 

Attitude does go a long ways.
There have even been folks out here willing to do
this guys install for free and he still returned the parts.
Go figure.

Some people you just can't make happy. He's probably
not even happy with himself.

 

I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, two!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I just ordered a bunch of stuff with Way over the weekend, and even made a mistake ordering the wrong part. I emailed him once I noticed my error and he got back to me almost right away, taking care of it. I am all for sharing your experience - you should have a voice here. But I think you are blaming the wrong person. Way cannot guarantee rates that he doesn't control. You may not have thought of that, but you can't blame Way for providing his input. That said, I couldn't be happier with his service.

I ordered parts from Madness Motorworks and Outmotoring and in both cases there were back orders not listed on their sites. One is 2+ weeks and the other will be 6+ weeks total. That to me is worse C.S. than expecting a guy to have control over shop labor rates for a place that's out of his home state.

Train them or not, he's not the business owner there. He's just not going to have the control you think he should...