Bits!

I work overnights and have been trying to convince my employer (since they changed our schedule around eight months ago) that they need to give me my 4-day week back. I put through a proposal this week outlining all the benefits of not making me work 5 nights a week - added coverage for vacations and emergencies etc - unfortunately, the quick and polite reply was, "No."

This seriously screws with my plans for working on the Mini this summer; with only 2 days off a week, it makes it difficult to adjust my sleeping patterns to not only accomodate getting stuff done during daylight hours (appts, socializing), but also to allow enough time for me to drive the 5 hours (there and back) it takes to get to my dad's workshop.

So, while I try and figure out another way to convince the soulless capitalists it's worth their while to appease my 4-day work-week needs - here are some (blurry) pictures of the parts, panels and bits that my dad picked up last month at Mr Mini:

Driver's side front panel


Right floor panel


Gas A Just


Less blur, more bits!


Rad, totally.


Canuck bumper holder things


The support braces for the Canadian front bumper were an amazing find - these are original late 70s parts, still in the packaging. Although they didn't have a price marked on them, my father tossed them in with all the other stuff he was purchasing knowing that I'm dead set on keeping the car as Canadian as possible (even though he thinks the original bumpers are ugly and very un-mini).

When he took everything up to the counter to pay, the owner saw the bumper supports and told my dad he was one of only two people that had ever bothered to look at them. Apparently, over the last few years a man has come into the shop several times; every time he picks up the two supports and debates out loud whether they're worth the price, trying to elicit a discount. The owner has never waivered and the man always puts them back on the shelf and leaves without making a purchase.

Now that the store is going out of business, the man-who-wants-a-discount is sure to be back to finally buy the supports at the price he wants. So, just to have the pleasure of telling the man that they're gone - the owner gave them to my dad for free.