Most liked posts in thread: Late Nights at TyrolSport

Well its been a while! Last time I posted in my thread I was living in Florida. I am now in the cold state of PA making slow progress - but still progress nonetheless. As seen below, I have my 6th windshield installed, and an R56 JCW brembo kit installed. The R112's are temporary, as they were the only wheels I had (with tires mounted) that fit. On the sidelines are a set of OZ Alleggeritas which will get better weather tires installed in a few months. Or if I sell these wheels before that happens, I do have my eyes on picking up a set of OZ Leggendas. As always, there is more to come (eventually).

 

MINI is all back together. I finally got to installing my gauge pod radio delete, a quaife LSD I have had for almost a year now, and a facelift 05/06 transmission. Other items - I modified a Tyrolsport rear brace from a VW to fit in the R53 body, and made a replica Monte Carlo style roof basket with two R90s and snow tires (just in case, it could have snowed during my trip!)

So far it has about 3k miles on the rebuild, and no complaints.

I already have plans on making a new roof basket that aesthetically looks slimmer, I think it can be tweaked a bit to take away some visual bulk. More stuff coming soon. Instead of following along with periodic bulk uploads, my instagram account has more frequent updates, see @Cone_Assassin .

 

Some updates from paint this morning. Coming along :beer

 

The tightening at ride height is an Audi procedure. If you think about it, tightening at full droop (in the air) will clamp the bushings, which will in turn apply a rotational torque once the car is dropped. It might be on the books at MINI somewhere, although I have never known any negative result from doing otherwise. Probably me being crazy :crazy:

Not sure if you're serious, but I hope you will enjoy TIG welding Aluminum and SS :smile5:

 

Episode 3,
My new gauge pod.

Blank radio plate, Mini OEM part:


Stock (on an MC40) aux gauge harness and oil temp/volt indicators relocated to center harness:



Added an oil pressure gauge to the mix:



Center console install is in place. I am still waiting on the pressure sensor for the oil pressure, and will be swapping out the volt meter for cylinder head temp (my car has two volt meters :blush2. I bought the coolant temp gauge years ago and lost it :mad2:

If anyone knows where I can get a matching oil pressure/coolant temp gauge with the grey background, please let me know! Otherwise I will be replacing the oil temp with the next closest match.

I also banged out my clutch Thursday night, will get some pics up, but nothing overly exciting to report.

Stay tuned!

 

UPDATE

Spent the entire winter working on my GTI. Seam welded some bodywork, replaced the entire floorpan, and got the motor in. Needed lots of fuel system work on top of that to actually get fuel pressure and hear it run. Added a different rear beam with disc brake conversion as well.

The Clubman S needed some unexpected work this winter. Hit a block of ice on the interstate, took out the bumper, and aux water pump.

Also, just moved to Jacksonville FL about two months ago. My MC40 has progressed only slightly, with the addition of a euro parcel shelf in place of my glove box, and a new set of MC40 floor mats which I currently did not have. I installed a new windshield two days before moving down, so that's new as well.

Unfortunately, the current focus is going to be on the cosmetics, as:
A) I have no real tools here
B) I need my car to get me to work every day
C) I have limited work space

SO, with that said, I will be back on board!

On deck is the re-spray of my hatch, which I am trying to get MINI to cover as there is some rust working its way around the handle trim. At the same time, I am going to have the hood re-sprayed. Also in search of a good set of facelift projectors. I can refinish them with the tools I have, so they can be glazed over like an old dog with cataracts. No prob for me.

Wheels - I am currently working on getting my R90s back on.

Brakes - Working on swinging a factory JCW brake kit (4 piston Brembo brakes up front with Red R56 rear calipers and larger rear rotors). Of course, I need 17" tires to mount the wheels. Looking into Pilot Super Sports for street use.

 

More updates

Installed coil overs in the spring, now in the process of rebuilding the engine after developing a knock. This is how it looks. Currently waiting for a few odds and ends before reassembly.






:drool

 

Agree on the radio, it never played anything that great anyway :frown5:

I mounted it with custom rectangular stainless nuts that slide into the track of the mini cross bars. They are made from stainless steel bar and threaded to 1/4"x20, and bolted down 4 on each side (4 front, 4 back).


I built the whole thing backwards - my mounting solution is more crude yet effective since I made the basket before I mounted the cross bars, not knowing other than a ballpark estimate of how much spacing there was in between. In the above pic you can see how I had to make it about 1.5" wider to fit on top of the bars. Now knowing how the install kit is made, I could also have made it bolt directly to the roof and skip the Mini base support cross bars entirely. I may do that in my revision as I would also like the basket to sit more forward of center (for aesthetics :crazy than it does now.

I mounted the basket east/west for the classic Mini monte carlo look:



......I have a few ideas of making another basket to look less bulky and still accommodate two wheels in the same east/west layout. If I had the capability to fit R50 Holies, the size of those with tires mounted would be ideal.

The wheels are attached via a threaded aluminum boss welded to the basket. A stainless threaded rod goes through the center of the wheel and is held down with a wing nut (like what you would expect to find in the trunk of any car).

 

The driving lights were one of those late night projects where you should really stop and trim the next morning...They look good from that angle, now that I am looking at it. I guess I am my hardest critic. Looking to replace the bumper with an aero, but probably won't flush mount them unless I find a bumper to cut on the cheap.

I still have my original pump, it was rebuilt. I do have the invoices for all the parts. We will see if that crosses our border.

It is really sad to see people get sticker shocked when the drive in with a bad pump. Some sell their cars after they've had enough. On the flip side, it creates a market for the DIYers or potential project cars. Same for the CVT cars as well. Cars depreciate, part prices don't.

Episode two is in the works ...

 

Episode Two:



Picked up my R56 rear trailing arms. Open the box, and to my surprise included the hubs, control arms, wheel speed sensors, bolts, and the coilover assembly. I will call that a win.

We all know that assembly is the reverse of disassembly, so I won't put you through the removal of stock parts.
Some parts had to be transferred. Here is the old headlight level sensor going onto the new arm:




With the sensor in place, the upper arms were all set. Next is to install the trailing arms:



Trailing arms with control arms:



A little extra rigidity for the upper arms:



All bolts get anti-seized



Starting to look like a car:



Special shout out to Way @ WayMotorWorks for the bushings below, which you will need when doing the trailing arm swap, as well as the M14 to M12 wheel studs:





Unfortunately, the onset of a nasty migraine meant I had to speed up the process (which meant less photos, more work).

With a new alignment, the car rides great (also set the front toe to 0 degrees). The weight difference is very noticable in the trailing arms alone, which is about 10 lb per corner. I needed some assistance removing the stock ones, and could install the aluminum ones without help. I set all bolts to final torque at ride height while on the alignment ramps.
The R56 control arms weigh slightly less as well, although reinforcing the uppers probably cancelled that effect. On the upside, I now have a rear camber adjustment :smile5:
R56 wheel speed sensors plug right into the body harness and are plug-n-play. My parts came from a Clubman, so you are not limited in the search if sourcing used parts.

Special thanks:

Chan for the assistance with install :beer
Way @WayMotorWorks for the bushings and wheel studs :beer
WeberBrosAuto for being thorough in the parts supplied :beer

 

Monday morning!





Im surprised how much of a stealth mod this is. You really have to look for it!