Finnally, something new.

It has been a long time since I posted and to be honest it has been a long time since I've actually made some progress on Percy. The last post was at the end of March. I didn't do much to the Mini over the summer, I guess the family and I were too busy enjoying doing summer things.

Anyway here's what I have been up to lately.

I finished up the boot lid. Put some primer on it:



And then I put on some flat OD Green:



Now, some of you might be asking, "OD Green???" The answer is YUP! Percy is probably never going to see a professional paint job so he's going to be somewhat of a rat. So I'm completely comfortable with painting him myself with rattle cans. Also, what would be freaking cooler than an OD green Mini? Nothing!

I have to add that giving cars a home paint job is in my blood anyway. My dad paid me 20 bucks when I was a kid to paint his 1975 Dodge truck red...with a brush. I remember my dad brush painting his Maverick changing the white with green vinyl top to a rust red. When I was little our family car was a 1975 Dodge van bought from an ARMY surplus auction. DRMO at its best! My dad also painted that a turd brown color with a brush. As a teenager I used to be embarrassed to ride in it but now I truly understand the awesomeness that was that van. That is why I will proudly paint Percy and eventually proudly drive Percy with his amateur paint job.

Okay!! On to the bonnet! Last year I tried to convert the original bonnet from an MKIII to an MKI bonnet. The difference is the early bonnets didn't have a trim piece on the front and were just cleaner looking. Well, I found out the original bonnet was full of rust and was being held together with Bondo. I cut out the bad metal and welded in new...and it looked like it was going to work. But...while surfing Craigslist I found that a guy in Colorado Springs had a bonnet for sale. It looked pretty decent in the pictures so I made the trek down there and scored it. It was in MUCH better condition than Percy's original.

Here is the new bonnet with its front lip removed and sanded down: (you can see the original in the background)



I had to bondo some low spots after hammering them out.



You can see that I filled in the holes for the badge. There will be no badges on this mini; no stinkin' badges!



Here the bonnet is with primer. Nice and smooth.



So far that is it. Soon I'll finish up the right hand floor and then start on the left side.

On another note...while cruising through the mountains with the family we spotted a red sportpack mini. It's always cool to see a mini on the road.