My old wheels are a little rough around the edges and don't do much to enhance the looks of the Mini. I decided to do something about that by dipping the wheels. Dipping is a term that has become popular when talking about spray painting items with PlastiDip. PlastiDip is a rubberized coating that comes in a spray can. It is available in a variety of colors, but satin black is the most common. It has become hugely popular because of it's ease of removal. Once you're tired of the color, just peel it off. I wrote up a quick tutorial which can be found here.
I started by giving my wheels a good clean to remove any dirt or grease that may still be on the wheels. After that, it was just a case of layering on the paint. I'm very pleased with the results and think it gives the Mini a nice custom touch until I can put the wide wheels back on.
Unfortunately, even though this process only took me about 2 hours, it was about 1pm by the time we were ready to go to Fallfest. This was going to put me outside of judging time, but we decided to go anyway.
The 30 mile drive took us about 45 minutes but it was mostly smooth sailing. I tweaked my air/fuel ratio again before we left and it seems like it's almost spot on. The Mini accelerated well and I did't have any issues with power. The bigger issue was the exhaust leak. I've long suspected that the exhaust is much louder than it should be and this pretty much confirms that it's leaking from somewhere. The smell was bad and we could just tell we were getting CO2 into the cabin. I'm going to need to address this before I do anymore long drives.
Fallfest had a nice assortment of the typical classics. The supercharged TR6 from Touch of England in Ho-Ho-Kus made an appearance. That car still impresses me. There was also a very nice MG with a V8 conversion. There was only one other Mini and I had seen it before at a show in Clinton. At the end of the day, we had a great drive and got to see some nice cars at Fallfest. We didn't die from CO2 poisoning and with the old wheels fitting, I can probably start driving the Mini a bit more!