1st Gen JCW Most liked posts in thread: Refreshing Rufus - 2005 MCS JCW

Wow! I was digging around on my web server, looking for a place to post an image for my Mother-in-law and found a set of files for my old R53.

Did you ever look at your fully detailed / modded engine bay and hear your OCD say "Hey! Look at those freakin' ugly yellow and green safety stickers just over the radiator! Why yellow? Why green? Why not red, like everything else in there?"

Yes... I went there! I had a page or two of these stickers printed up for me years back. Looks like I'll need to have 'em done again. I dug through my file cabinet, but couldn't find the spare stickers. I seem to remember mailing a few sets out to some folks, so perhaps I just ran out.



Here's a link to the PDF file I had printed:

www.focusoa.com/sticker/Combined_white on red.pdf

 

Lol... no. I'm just multi-tasking too much today. He is RUFUS... and I'm not so bright. :blush2:

 

I gotta say that I did love the SOUND of the Alta Sportone exhaust that I had on Jango. The fit was poor and it rubbed all over the place and strained against every mounting bracket I used, but man it sounded GREAT!

OK... Back to Rufus!

I only get a little bit of time every work day to play out in the garage and I'm waiting for a load of parts for other projects, so I'm doing a few of the smaller 'detail' jobs.

I love the bang-for-your-buck of paint pens!

BEFORE:


AFTER: (still needs another coat or two, but it's 95% of the way there)


I've also got another small project going... It sure was nice of MINI to make these side scuttles in a way so that I can take 'em apart for painting instead of having to mask off the deep nooks and crannies.

The disassembly wasn't too bad. You use a body panel tool (thin plastic screwdriver) to pry out the leading edge of the scuttle from the hole in the body panel. Detatch the light wiring. Use a flat bladed jeweler's screwdriver to loosen the quick-nut on the back and then use that same driver to pry the black plastic grill off and (from the back) pry the edges of the 'S' loose... there is some glue in there holding everything together and you just need to break that bond. Then press on the stem where the quick-nut was attached and the 'S' pops off. Looks like I'll be running out for paint at lunch. Hmmm... I wonder if I can vinyl wrap the main chrome bit...

 

The answer: No. No, you can't vinyl wrap the side scuttle (or at least not with my skill). Unfortunately the part is deeper than the width of the two vanes that run down the length of it. If you cover the piece with vinyl and slit it right down the middle, you don't have enough material left to cover the chrome all the way down to the plastic backing piece.

Oh well. It was a nice, quick try and I learned that the 3M Di-Noc is a breeze to work with. It is amazing how rigid it becomes when it is at room temp and then how stretchy-floppy it becomes with just a few seconds of heat from a heat gun. Give it 20 seconds to cool and it goes rigid again. Wrinkles pop right out with a bit of heat. Very nice, forgiving stuff to work with! I also learned that it REALLY sticks to the surface that you apply the primer to and it leaves a sticky snot-like substance behind when you peel it away that takes 5-6 passes with goo-gone and IPA to make it go away.

 

Wow... this thread went dark quickly! :beer

 

A quick run to Autozone at lunch... paint and supplies for some weekend work in the garage. Maybe I can get those side-scuttles painted and back on the car.

I think my box from Aaron's team at Out Motoring with various bits and pieces arrives on Saturday.

- new tail-lights... so lots of work to do there
- beltline black-out kit (which should probably wait until I'm done polishing the paintwork)
- boot handle gasket (the handle is coming off for some vinyl treatment, so time for a new gasket)
- a new JCW badge for the interior
- a set of those cool puddle lights because, well, why not? Of course they are the JCW logo.
- A new set of torx bolts for the top of the supercharger... a few were missing and the 2 that are still there are mismatched colors / rusty.

Aw crap... I should have gotten some epoxy while I was at the parts store. Oh well.

 

Ok... I sprayed the side scuttles black with a coat of matte clear on top. Between coats of paint, I polished out the other plastic bits. I couldn't resist sneaking out a few hours later while taking the dogs out for the 10pm walk, assembling one and fitting it. My only question: Why in the hell doesn't everyone do this? These things are spectacular! I wish I had done this in PW for Jango years ago!

Photos to come soon.

 

Here's the results of a few hours of work this morning:

Side Scuttles!




Gas cap: wrapped in 3M Di-Noc


Uh oh... RUST on the rear hatch! I saw the bubbles under there, but was hoping it was bad touch-up paint work. Once I got the rear hatch handle off, it was pretty clear that I've got some rust going on under there. I'll need to figure out what to do there.



Wrapping the side-view mirror covers:

I had to d something with the mirror caps. The chrome was a bit much for me and they both had some pretty big dings on 'em. The vinyl is pretty forgiving, so I just sand d the dings down, cleaned everything well with IPA, applied a good coat of 3M primer and got wrapping.

I went on YouTube and found a great video on how to wrap complex shapes like our mirror caps. You stretch vinyl over a bucket, tape it on, apply a good bit of heat to soften the material and then press down into the vinyl. Go as far as you can, then let it cool and cut everything free, leaving as much excess vinyl as you can. Then you heat/stretch/heat to set the rest of the material smoothly.

[ame="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAmVzBL328"]Vinyl Wrap on Mini Cooper Mirrors Caps - YouTube[/ame]

Here's the bucket, set up and ready to go:


Here's the middle step, after pressing the mirror down into the vinyl.


And here's the end (well... I've gotta reinstall the cover and mirror, but I had to run, so it got set on for photographic purposes.

 

Nice! It's worth a shot!

 

A busy morning in the garage!

Puddle lights:
For $20 at Out Motoring, I couldn't resist. It took all of 5 minutes, at the most.


Tail Lights:
I had already painted my old interior lenses to remove the chrome, so I dremeled off the outer lenses of a new set of tail lights, removed the new inner lenses (that has the color/chrome on 'em), de-burred the housings (the dremel cut-off wheels really melt their way through the paint, not cut), cleaned everything up and used 2 part plastic epoxy to seal everything back up again.

The cut... this is deep enough to get the outer lens off but not so deep that you can't extract the inner lens from it once the housing is opened.

I strongly recommend using the dremmel cut-off technique instead of the bake/pry technique that I mentioned earlier in this thread. The bake/pry technique may be OK on newer lenses, but my old ones had spent 12 years in sunlight and TX heat, becoming more and more brittle. I got a few cracks in one of the old lenses (they were yellow and cloudy... was using them for practice more than anything) and I found the cut-off technique to be much safer... more involved and butcher feeling (nothing like taking a dremmel to a brand new $100 part), but safer to the outer lens in the end.



Lots of epoxy... 2 rounds, to be safe.


The ultimate before, middle and after shot. The rear lens is the before... a permanently yellowed/hazy lens. The new lens is show on the right and the finished, black-out lens is on the left.


Finished!


BEFORE:


AFTER:


Note the carbon fiber wrap on the boot handle cover. I spent almost an hour peeling/scrubbing away the old, deteriorating gasket between this bit and the boot (one side has adhesive - $14 at Out Motoring), but it really cleaned things up and allowed me to get the vinyl wrap up under the gasket, so the vinyl wraps under the piece on the top side for a 1/4-1/2", for a much better finished look and durability. I polished out the paintwork under and around the handle... much easier to do while it's off.