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A little simpler that the full iPod controller, but having fitted a car amplifier I needed a way of controlling the volume and short of fitting a head unit I had to make one.

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Went for a nice little drive around, had some fin in a showy car park, laughed at some people trying to catch their dog and came home… Perfect.

As if by magic the leaky cooling system has sealed itself. It holds pressure for well over a week! I’m guessing a certain amount of crap from the system has filled up any holes and stopped up the leaks, can’t complain.

However, after the last show (Stanford Hall) the exhaust if knocking pretty badly.

Fun show, lots of minis to see and a well stocked auto jumble.

I tried to recored a walkthrough with my will P&S camera, rather shaky, but I think with a bit of weight hanging off the tripod mount it could be a good way to make a quick show tour video.

Having missed out on last years fun and games due to a dodgy belly I was looking forward to MITP this year, with a new company running it it turn out great, the arena fun and games was entertaining and made for a nice break between watching minis and various other cars going down the strip.

Yesterday I went to the great Gaydon museum, met up with a couple of guys from The Real Mini Company at their stand and general had a good time looking around, infact, I had such a nice time I went again today.

A super friendly atmosphere much like when MITP was at Cornbury Park.

Of course, something had to be bought, so Bertie now sports a rather nice 8 ball gear knob.

A very noisy bike.

Good fun was had in convoy from Beaconsfield to West Wycombe via some twisty back roads, then into the Hell Fire Caves.

After the last 2 days of painstaking cleaning and painting the new gasket arrived.

Spent quite a while putting it on, making sure everything was perfect and it worked!! No more oil leak.

There is however a coolant leak…

Pretty sure it’s coming up through the thermostat housing gasket, and of course, the housing is glued onto the studs and won’t budge at all.

I had the timing chain changed by local mini specialist The Real Mini Company, great bunch of guys, unfortunately Bertie sprung a leak loosing about a pint of oil over 50 miles…

So, I had the timing chain cover off and changed the oil seal and gasket, but still the oil leaked,

I’ve currently got the cover off again, and this time attacked it with a wire wheel and re painted it, fully cleaned up the mating surface and smoothed the mounting plate on the engine.

Bertie got to park on the banking!!

OK, so it was a bit of a walk to the main show, but still, awesome place to park…