Did a few bits to the Mini over the past few weeks:
Firstly put an upper strut brace on - Fletcher one piece aluminium one. Managed to get it second hand for £30 delivered - so not too bad. All it needed was a it of polish up with some Autosol and looks almost good as new!
Secondly I decided to reblacken my plastic trim bits around the car with some Aerospace 303. They had gone grey and the trim at the front had spots of oil all over it from where a Sierra Cosworth's diff exploded on track in front of me last time I was out. Came up quite nicely, but would probably need doing again to make it 100%.
Thirdly - I sorted the alignment. I used Kwik Fit and the same guy who did my M3 because he was great and super helpful. All the other BMW Specialists I took my M3 too did it wrong, and completely rushed it.
The guy @ Kwik Fit was equally as helpful when doing the Mini and spent at least two hours on it. We weighted it properly then took weights out/moved them around a few times to see how it effected the readouts. Really great guy. By the end of it the machine was starting to give some slightly odd results for the cambers and they were changing every time we put it back on, so we decided to just correct the toe at the front and then I'd go back another day once everything had settled a bit before looking at the camber. This was the last readout I got and like I said, it was giving some really weird readings by the end of it. We had been messing around with it quite a lot tbf including having to jack it up to get the seized track rod free.
Got a day booked for the 19th April so I'll hopefully be able to get it all sorted before then - but tbh, it now feels absolutely planted around corners. I'm running about 2deg50mins at the rear and about 1deg20mins at the front