1st Gen R53 Cooper S My 2005 R53 Daily Driver build thread

I had no idea how much shine could come from abut an ounce of fluid, of which most got wiped off within seconds of application.

 

I think the big issue with the coating is that you need to prep the paint with a full correction, so there's an additional cost/effort involved that people can safely ignore when they slap a wax on the car. I've been able to get away with 2 wax coats a season (car garaged, driven a few times a month), but even parked indoors, the wax would more or less evaporate off the car. Still felt better than to just leave the car untreated. It clearly was an inferior process to this stuff, but it was quicker - a round with the clay bar and then you hit the wax, buff, done. Good for a while.

Coatings cost more, prep is much more serious, and you need some additional chemicals (a bottle of Prep at least, although I always wonder about stuff that smells like lavender skin care and is supposed to be a better degreaser than dish soap. I wasn't gonna question it, plus it seems to go a long way and it clearly does its job). Once done with a coating, you do get the rewards with better and longer lasting protection. As for shine, I am not the guy who could rate this as I have never seen that car with wax on its paint. I will do my dark silver next year, and then I will be able to say what looks better, as that car has been waxed many times over the years I've had it. I just need to figure out how to fix that damn scratch on the hatch... too deep for sanding and buffing.

 

That sounds like a great process. Where does the clearcoat come in? I am guessing as soon as the base color is established, first or second application, I'll just keep dabbing clear on it? That way it should blend the best with the rest of the surface.


And well, I just drove the first few miles since I bought it and the next project is already on the planning board: The car will need a new clutch. Exactly the same ache sound I hear on the other cars at first start up the hill here, but the other two cars only do that once. This one does it for many starts from stopped before it finally quiets down (warms up). I guess you should always test drive a car stone cold before you buy it.

The whole clutch/flywheel conversion kit isn't that expensive, but dang is it a time consuming job... I'll have to wait till spring before I tackle it, unless I get some help over the holidays. Need to re-watch the Mod Mini video on youtube to see what is involved (beyond an engine support bar I don't have)

 

drove it quite a bit today. No more clutch complaints. Could the long time sitting have caused this? I'm just guessing that maybe the crank seal isn't great and oil leaked in there? We'll see tomorrow when I start it up again stone cold. Not a huge deal as long as it lasts in easy driving through winter (e.g. 500 miles max)

went to a great local muffler shop today. the guys looked at it, 2 minutes later showed me a replacement part that fit very closely. Then it was 15 minutes of sawsall and welding, and I had a fresh resonator in that Megan system.

cutting it off...



the new part with a sleeve they used to make it fit the 60mm oddball tubing





not going to win any races or welding contests with this, but heck, the car still pops and burbles like crazy, no drone detected up to 70mph and the pipe doesn't wobble from side to side as badly as before. $140 installed in less than 30 minutes.

I will need to check my coolant levels again and maybe burp it a little more, but temps are pretty stable (not as stable as in the other two cars, very strange, given new thermostat and waterpump).

Tomorrow I may take it out on a larger test drive to Minnesota and back, but only if our overnight snow disappears before noon.

 

back to electric blue - drove it from Madison to Winona MN and back today. Mostly at 70-75mph on the freeway. First positive observation: No clutch slippage or even noise at get go or later. It is as if yesterday's clutch issues never happened. The new resonator never droned, and the fun pops and burbles out of that exhaust are sooo much better than what my one-ball-modded on the dark silver car. Chili red is still bone stock back there. No rattles either, something that the muffler guy said may still happen.

Engine temp much more stable compared to when I bought the car, but it never went totally rock solid on a temp like the other cars. It just went up and down 5 degrees constantly, yo-yo style ever 20 seconds or so.

New tires are nice, ride is comfortable with stock suspension, heated seats with cloth rule compared to the vinyl version. Sound damping the car seems to help, but now I hear noises from the back I never heard before. Seems to be brake related, as brake application makes it go away. Need to take a good look at caliper and pads.

The car shifts like butter compared to the other two. I put lots of Teflon dry lube on the linkage at the gearbox. Maybe that's what did it, but maybe it's just different in other respects. Like it.

My new fog light housings are pointing into the ground. Need to adjust them higher. Just ballparking the aim based on the old housing clearances clearly wasn't the way to get them aimed in the generally correct direction.

And I got salt on the car already - Mississippi valley was already white pavement... guess I got that out of the way on this first trip as well.

 

The next big project on the car will be the engine damper. The one thing that was a bit odd on the drive last weekend was a vibration I felt in the parking brake. Nothing on the shifter, nothing unusual anywhere else, but when I touched the parking brake handle at cruise speed, there was an odd resonance that I don't think I ever felt in the other Minis. My first guess is that junk yard damper...

I will put an ATI on it, but first I need to have a clear plan how to remove that thing:


how to pull this thing?

the little holes are threaded, but I think those are at the most M5. Really tiny screws would go in there, and I know my plate puller already buckled with the OEM screw size.

I've been thinking of a large (expensive) jaw puller to just grab on the outside back, but it may be too small of a gap. Another option I saw was some rigging of nylon straps through those openings around the center, then hitting that with a slide hammer. Not sure if that is effective and the youtube video that suggested that didn't really show the method in action. I could drill larger holes where the current holes are and try to tap larger threads - it may destabilize the whole thing, although if it does brake off the hub, the rest should come off easily with a smaller puller.

Anyone got a better idea?

 

I've tried every bolt I have in those holes and none fit. My thinking is "not metric $#@^%!!" but then it may also just be rust. None of the taps I have seem to fit to chase through these holes. One is too tight, the next is too lose, or the pitch is wrong. Good excuse to buy a new tap set with more metric sizes. And like I said, I could just chase the holes with a drill that's slightly larger, then cut the thread I want. I'm sure an M5 will not weaken the structure too much.

First I'll try to find the right bolts, then, even if I cut M5 threads, I will need to make some sort of strong custom washers to go on the puller plate as normal washers aren't going to cut it with such small screws. I am pretty sure the screw heads will fit right through that puller plate as it is designed for much larger bolts. Even the OEM bolts were already small for it and bent the triple layer washers to hell when I pulled the damper off the dark silver car.

In the next few days I'm taking off the bumper and the wheel well liners again, since I need to re-adjust the fog lights and swap out turn signal bulbs. At that time I'll take another close look at the damper. I'll try another slew of sampler screws to ID the type of thread I am dealing with. Once all sorted out, I'll set up the puller. Sounds like a good Thanksgiving project to bond with my son in the garage - time to order that damper.

 

Rufus isn't the only R53 getting some attention. I just ordered the ATI damper, bolt and crank seal for my daily driver. Hope to me this a Thanksgiving project - definitely by end of next week.

I have to do some Volvo brakes this weekend - can't have friends be fleeced by local shops.

And what's up with premium gas pricing? On the way to work I saw a station asking $1.10 over regular. $0.70 markup is the going average (still huge compared to 10 years ago when $0.20 was the normal difference), but I have seen anyone venture well beyond the 33% markup. So much for driving a fuel efficient engine.

 

Package arrived...


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