TGGRRR (Ali)

I park in a parking garage under the NSF building in Ballston and occasionally see a hot orange MINI down there. I tagged it once about a month ago. tonight I came down and it was parked right next to Tigger. I couldn't resist one more tag and a nice little note. This one has a dark blue top instead of the black. Such a pretty color Ali

sigh..... Since I have the stuff I'll still try, but I won't expect much. :banghead: Really you can't even see the ghosting till you stand right in front of it. Ali

That's what my husband keeps telling me, but I have to at least try and see if I can make a difference. I spoke to the guy at Prima who told me to use the Prima finish and a white polish pad with the random orbital buffer. The ghosting isn't really bad, I just want to see if I can minimize it. What is the difference between paint oxidizing vs fading or is that the same thing? Ali

Ok so it's Audrey, Quitta and me so far? Did I miss anyone? What time should we head out, 8:00? Ali

That works fine for me. So who's going to caravan and what time should we leave in order to make it to Towson on time? Ali

That should work, do you know a specific place where we can meet. Do they have a shopping center or Starbucks or something? I always get lost on the other side of the river. Ali

I'm coming from Alexandria, is there someplace along the beltway that we could all meet? Maybe right along where we would start heading over to Baltimore?

So are some of us going to meet in DC and caravan to Towson? What time? Where should we meet? Ali

OK sounds like a plan I am so excited to see an improvement in the gas mileage

We reserved a Magnolia cabin for 6 of us. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I think it will make the weekend so much better. Especially for my husband who's not into the MINI thing as much as I am. He can relax in the cabin and enjoy hiking and nature stuff while I'm out playing with Tigger. Ali

I just made our reservations for 2011. We have a cabin in Fontana They opened up registration this morning at 9:00 for people that weren't there this year. I was on the phone first thing. They sound like they still have a fair amount of cabins left. Ali

Last week Craig showed me how to put the Seafoam in Tigger. There was no smoke, we both found this odd and figured next time we'll let it sit a few mins in the engine before starting the car up. He put about half in the engine and the rest in the gas tank. The next day I noticed that Tigger was driving just a bit smoother and I was surprised. I have a tendency to check my average speed and gas mileage fairly regularly so I know what it normally is for mid week driving. Gas mileage for city is usually just under my average speed so if I average 20 mph I get like 18 mpg. After a few days I noticed it climbing a bit. I'm now averaging 22 mpg with an average speed of 20 mph. I'm in shock! I have never seen my city mileage this high. Even when we drove all highways to MOTD it just barely made it to 30mpg. I don't think the new pulley would give me better gas mileage and that's the only other thing I've done. Can't wait to try it again and see if we get some smoke and any other changes. Ali

I was googling and found some site where a sign shop was talking about removing the ghosting after taking lettering off of a truck. They said I need a good polisher and not to use a compound. So I wrote Prima customer service and asked for a recommendation on a product. If I can't get rid of them, maybe I can at least make it less obvious. In the meantime, Tigger has an amazing shine from the Epic. My husband did his Silver 99 Acura and it looks amazing. I must buy myself a random orbital buffer, I love power tools!

Not what I wanted to hear When I had my Celica it was red and got really faded. I took it to a detailer and they compounded it so that the paint looked brighter and almost new. I figured I could do something like that again, but maybe the paint will never match back up. Or maybe I can just blur the edges a bit so the old stripes aren't so obvious.

I'll go look

After the old bonnet stripes were removed from Tigger I had some ghosting where the paint is not faded where the stripes were. I just finished washing and waxing with Prima's Epic, I used Craig's random orbital buffer and the car looks amazing, but the ghosting is still there. I think I need something grittier to get rid if it and maybe a professional. What do you guys think? If I need a pro, who would you recommend? Ali

I just read this on the Motoring Alliance site http://blog.roadandtrack.com/u-s-interstate-129-dragon-tamer/ Ali

Laura (club president) has a ton of them, she can send them to you. I've literally stalked people in a parking lot so that I could hand them a card in person and tell them about the club. So far everyone has been very friendly but I have no idea if any of them have actually joined. I love tagging MINI's!:itsme: Now to just get more of them to wave

You're so grrrr baby!! Can't wait to see them

I said the same thing, then I drove Craig's Kooper. Oy! now I am planning my next engine mods, and I thought I would just decorate him.

Did you see photographers when you were out? Maybe they don't have all of their pics up yet. I hate the interface on all of the sites, it's very cumbersome and was making me nuts. Ali

Brian some of the pics I bought have shots of you in them. It's from the run with You, me, Craig and Marty

I ordered some electronic pics and the CD came fast. I've already uploaded them to Facebook. I love the quality of the pics, very sharp and in focus and great color. Ali

ahhh that's good to know. OK, so are we going to caravan from VA to Towson?

Isn't Towson north of Baltimore? I was hoping maybe we could get a group to run from down here. Ali