Steve,
em me from my profile with your contact info.
mike

Zack, yes I'm still working on minis every day. Daughter Liz started college last monday and son Alex begins classes today. I won't be buying anything much for awhile but thanks for the offer. Some one will be very happy. Steve (CTR)

cooper tune.  yea guys. want to sue restos shop all times.. first they run out of money.. and then when the resto is NOT finished .. and then they want to balance of work done for FREE.. later bc

Hi Steve, 

Wanted to check and see if you're still working on minis.  The wife and I are ready to sell and wanted to give you the first crack at it.  Let me know. 

Zack

Thanks.  The wife is very happy to get her Mini back.  Steve did a great job and was very easy to work with.  I was worried that the car would need more work than what I could tell and Steve found and fixed a lot of issues from a previous owner (I'm pretty sure it wasn't the guy I bought it from) who tried to his own work the cheapest way possible (i.e. installing a lawn mower choke switch).  It was a little hard on the pocket book but in the end, I probably saved more by doing everything at once instead of doing things multiple times (pulled the engine and had the subframes powder coated while that was out).  Safety and reliability were my main concerns and Steve was great. 

 

Next on the list is shaping up the interior.  Time to replace the navy blue door cards & torn headliner as well as recover the lower dash panel in vinyl instead of installing another lower dash pad.  Planning to replace the front seats with some tartan red Corbeau seats and recover the rear seat in tartan red as well.  Should look nice with a red/black combo interior. 

Looks like you are doing excellent work on their mini Steve. I for one would rather pay someone that knows what they are doing a bit more to get it right the first time than shop for bargain prices. Especially if it is something I don't have the know how or place to figure out how to do the work myself. That said, I might look into bringing Rudolph down to VA when I have build up applicable mini repair slush fund again. Especially seeing that Cosimo at Mad House minis is not doing mini this anymore here in New England.

Cheers, Svenster

Mini4zng congratulations on choosing Steve, as you can see the results are spectacular.  You now have a new family jewel.

Just goes to show. I kind of thought a thread about newbys asking for help on this board and some pictures of the kind of help one can get here would be better than the mess of the last month or so. This was a nice looking 72 MK3 1000 non Cooper. It came with a long list of issues. As a 40 plus year old car with 70,000 plus on the clock and little service it was tired. The solenoid and the starter were burned up. Don't ask how I'll never know, the radio was wired so when turned on it activated the starter. If running and the starter engages the RPM will throw the links out of the commentator. The vacuum advance was bad and the mechanical advance plate was frozen to the shaft. Each rear drum had a frozen piston per cyl. Front brakes, a leaking cyl or more per side. It would leave a 2 foot circle of oil over night. No heater control, a lawn mower throttle for a choke hid under the dash. A clutch that would not release and a huge exhaust leak. Coolest of all these things came with a single 1 1/4 SU. The radiator was falling apart, while not leaking it seemed only a matter of time. Since the engine had to come out foir reseal I rebushed the diff. side covers and installed a new diff pin and spider gears. One of the tappet cover gaskets had a little pucker. 20 long legal pages of notes and it should be fine for a long time to come. 

Yes BC, anyone wanting a first class repair done in a timely manner has to have some money. I was contacted earlier this year by a guy looking for help to sue a mini repair shop. He didn't tell and I did not ask. Seems after contacting everyone he could find who would work on a classic I was the only one charging less than $100 per hour. As long as I love what I do and I can do it everyday I will hold the line on prices. Steve (CTR) 

zippy. I do NOT work on minis that I did NOT import or sale..  way too busy importing cars for OTHER lic dealers..  

As opposed to what Bill? Just bending over for you?*

 

*-please note, this was said in the spirit of friendly banter between friends....

..

Last set #4

Set #3

Hopefully, these will show up.

Set #2

Well, this is the first batch. I would post more but the web site seems to have gone wobbly-bonkers.

This post showed up on the board awhile back. I replied to it and met a very nice young couple. They had a mini suffereing from several issues. I have ask Zip to post a few pictures. Steve (CTR)

Thanks for the feedback.  I've talked to Steve and it looks like I'll be taking the mini down there.  I'll check out the Capital Mini Register as well.  Thanks again.

mini as a daily driver? First thing I installed was a third brake light in 2002.  It was my son's daily driver as high school senior.

Coopertune (Steve (CTR)) replied about his mini shop in Newport News. I have known him since grade school.

He just did 2.5 days of work on that same car. Once every 25 yr stuff. Talk to Steve.

Harvey

Fill out your profile, and if you haven't yet, join up Capital Mini Register (I run a mailing list, and we have set up a facebook page). We are having a swap meet/bbq September 20th in Woodbridge, Va at Larry's. Lots of Classic Mini Owners for you to meet that are local, etc.

While a little south of you in tidewater VA. I do have a trailer and would like very much to work on your car. I have a 5500 sq ft shop doing classic minis only. I have owned and driven minis since 68 and have several of my own now. I built a MK3 in 2000 and have driven it as my only transportation since. If you'd like to talk about your needs give me a call. 7five7 88O 9two8three. We do rust repair, paint and body, engine and tranny, suspension and I have a retired phone company fellow helping me with electrical. He is installing three harneses now. Two are major builds and one is a short that burned the harness up. She was very lucky the car did not catch fire, it sure tried to. Look forward to hearing from you. I have picked up cars in upstate NY., Ohio, SC and FL. and had the owners fly in drive home. Steve (CTR)