A fortnight of Maxi-ing

Today marks exactly two weeks since the Maxi arrived in its new home, so this is a good time for a quick progress update. My dad has spent almost all of his spare time since then on the car so a lot of little jobs have been done and it is continually getting better, not that it was at all bad to start with. The postman, himself a classic car enthusiast who took a keen interest in our new purchase, has been kept busy with regular deliveries of Maxi parts, which have so far proved surprisingly easy to obtain as many are shared with the Mini. It has now done more than the previous owner's entire annual mileage in just ten days and is in fine fettle mechanically, so confidence is growing with each journey and it is proving itself to have been an excellent purchase, despite breaking the golden rule of never buying a car in the rain!

The first show, three days after collection

The Maxi has so far attended three shows in Northamptonshire and attracted a great deal of attention, the aim being to catch some of the local end-of-season events before the winter sets in. Its debut as planned was at the Whittlebury Country Fair on 3rd September, and on the following Wednesday my dad took it a bit further afield to the large show at Earls Barton, where it was the one and only Maxi in a field of several hundred cars. On Friday it went to the car night at Jacks Hill Cafe in Towcester, and its next scheduled outing will be the big BL Autumn Rally at Milton Keynes Museum on 25th September, where it will hopefully enjoy the company of many other Maxis.

Keeping varied company at Jacks Hill on Friday night

In typical elderly owner fashion, the glovebox was full of paperwork. This included MoT certificates, old tax discs that showed he taxed it continuously but only ever for six months at a time, and a lot of receipts for parts and fuel - he never filled the tank, buying just enough petrol to get where he was going, and occasionally ran out and had to refill it from a can. The crowning glory is an old diary in which everything that happened to the car is recorded in neat handwriting, including the times when he ran out of fuel and even one occasion when the windscreen wipers stopped working. He was an engineer by trade and used to do all his own maintenance on his cars, but advancing age and declining health have sadly left him less able to do this and reluctantly forced him to reduce his collection.

Welcome to the Hotel Maxi. Sleep well!

Apart from further cleaning, the biggest cosmetic change is the fitment of a more authentic grille badge to replace the rectangular Maxi 2 version that really didn't look right. The Maxi 2 grille is actually the same part with a different finish and the mounting holes for the older badge are still present, so it was easy to fit the one the previous owner had left in the boot. It still isn't strictly correct as the basic 1750 had an entirely chromed grille and gold badge, and only the HL had the black trim and red badge, but looks much better than before and I quite like the black-and-chrome finish. It was a very simple change but one that has made a huge difference.

That badge looks so much better

The bodywork is excellent but not quite perfect. There is a small rust blister appearing on the offside rear door (this panel apparently always rusts first but no one knows why!) and the nearside rear door contains some filler. It seems sound though and there is no sign of any rust breaking through so it is best left alone. Apart from those small areas, it is remarkably solid and rust-free considering it has never seen a welding torch and had lived outside for the last eight years, and was clearly well cared for by both previous owners, something we intend to continue.

All very solid under there

This was one of the last Maxis to be fitted with the manual windscreen washer pump, but the previous owner had converted it to electric operation. While it worked and the wiring was safe enough, it wasn't very pretty with a tangle of random wires, tape and chocolate blocks hanging down below the dashboard, so this has all been removed and rewired with the correct green wire from my dad's large box of salvaged wiring looms. The radio is of the right period but not original, being branded Datsun, and doesn't work for two reasons: firstly the aerial is broken (a replacement was in the boot but hasn't been fitted yet), and secondly the windscreen washer switch was wired to its power feed so it is now disconnected. A correct Unipart radio is on order and should arrive shortly.

Those seat covers really were hideous and quickly disposed of. Good riddance to them!

The car had never been fitted with rear seat belts as these were not a legal requirement when it was built, but for increased safety it has now been equipped with them. Mounting points are provided but only for three-point static belts so it was necessary to create a fourth point to install inertia-reel belts. This took some careful thought to mount the reels where they wouldn't interfere with folding the seat into bed form, but a suitable location was identified and with FIA-approved mounting plates the belts should be perfectly safe. The parcel shelf won't now fit around the belts, but in typical Maxi fashion it is warped and in poor condition anyway so it has been left out for now. 

The rear seat belt mounting. The seats can still fold into a bed.

That's a brief summary of the most significant jobs that have been done over the last two weeks and there have also been various other minor improvements. There are still a few more to do but nothing major and nothing that should require taking it off the road, so if anything this Maxi has exceeded our expectations of how good it would be and was a great purchase that is already providing a lot of enjoyment. If you're going to the BL Autumn Rally, look out for YDU 590S and come and say hello.