My baby has doors!

I've missed you, blog! And I'd missed you too, mini! Fortunately, I went to visit the mini (about a month ago) and am only now finally getting around to visiting with the blog to report on the new and improved status of the car. And good news: the end is in site! We are actually getting dangerously close to being done with the body work (and moving on to such other exciting things as paint, engine work, interior, seats, etc... it's a long list still, but hey, progress!)

Last month, I went to see the car, and here's what I found:

The car has doors again! For the first time since Gunnar initially got his hands on her, just about a year ago!

There was a very good reason why he had removed the doors in the first place: a lot of rust. Now all re-skinned and black. Not quite matching the fluorescent yellow of the car, but we're working on that too...

Unfortunately, the next steps will involve sending the car to other mechanics to have some of the other work done, so it's something less than a straight line from here to victory, but baby steps! The stereo is one thing that Gunnar does specialize in, so the mini now features this bitchin' subwoofer in the back:


Also some lovely recessed speakers in the front and ... of course ... the good 'ol Lada stereo that I've brought with me from the depths of Siberia! After installing it myself at some point on the lonely post-Mongol Rally ride to the Pacific coast... The CD player apparently doesn't work anymore, and just looking at the Cyrillic characters on the back was more than enough to scare the people at CarToys away from even trying to open it up, but they did run the rest of the diagnostics, and the things I do care about all still work: AM/FM and the Auxiliary input. And, of course, more important than them all: the Lada logo on the front!


I would normally now move on to regale you with some exciting pictures from a recent trip or two - be they to exotic third world countries, or right back here in Washington State - but this time, we're going to have to wait. There are pictures and blog stories galore coming from a recent trip that featured the American Southwest, including stops in Las Vegas, Valley of Fire, the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Prescott, Arizona, Phoneix, and San Diego. And such luminaries along the way as Yuma, El Centro, and the fairest of them all: Dateland, AZ (home of the Cougars)! Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger like that, but stay tuned!