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

I've been doing an engine bay refresh... lots of new bits going in:

Airtec intercooler (stock boots)
Canton tanks
An OCC (a fairly inexpensive one from Amazon, but it has an easy empty hole and a dipstick, my 2 requirements)
Silicone air intake piping
Cabrio braces

Here's an in-process shot. I've got the install done, but I'm slowly working around the engine bay for a deep clean.




Using my added coronavirus stay-at-home time, I'm in the middle of a very small detail mod... One of the things that folks on this board would notice, but few others would. I saw this mod once and thought it was the slickest thing I've seen, but I've only seen it once.

Here's an in-process shot. I've got a second coat of filler drying right now with plans to do more sanding tonight. It's all about the detail on this one and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it right, so I picked up some used side-scuttles cheap for the experiment.

 

I finally got the surface finish I was looking for with lots of sanding and high-fill primer. When I brought out the can of color, I found that it had leaked out all the pressure over the past few months. New can on order... more pics to follow, but I'm pretty happy with the look so far. Can't wait to see it in the blacked out scuttles and with a proper finish.

 

I got my new CR spray paint yesterday, so I got a few new project completed!

I painted the inside of the cold air intake... one more little pop of color:



Before:


After:

 

Yep. I chose my first alignment shop (2 years back) and knew I should have walked away. Apparently they had their primary alignment tech quit the day before and he walked off with a lot of their equipment. They outsourced my car to another shop that didn't have a full laser rig. I was desperate to get it done quickly, so I took it. I've since found a new race shop I'm going to go to for an alignment and corner balance once I get the tires mounted/balanced.

It's the fronts that corded the inside edge. I rotated 'em to the rear, but kept thinking about it and decided to suck it up and put a new pair on the car.

Speak of the devil... as I was typing the paragraph, above, the FedEx guy showed and dropped off my 2 new tires! TireRack.com is amazing... New tires arrived about 27 hours after ordering.

 

This just arrived! Nice quality... a soft brushed finish on the inside with a slightly satin finish on the outside. I need to figure out something to do for the antenna... it probably needs a grommet and some reinforcing there (I thought one was supposed to come w/ the cover, but that might have been another brand I was looking at when I ordered).

Edit: I’ve got some 3x5 iron on patches and a 1” plastic grommet coming from Amazon for the antenna hole. The cover also fits a bit better if you fold up the side mirrors first (photos show not folded)

 

I guess I did do some work on Rufus this past weekend. Someone over in the R53 Owners Club on facebook ordered up some knurled nuts that fit the PS tank mounting studs and had them anodized in several different colors. I had never seen anything like 'em before and they were relatively cheap, so I ordered up a set.

 

A few little projects this weekend:

1: I took Rufus out for the annual inspection last week. Unfortunately, both of his rear license plate bulbs were burnt out. Luckily the guy let me pass and I promised to fix 'em. I tried to install some LED replacements, but they didn't want to fit. Sigh... I got one bulb working by cleaning up the connections. The other was legit burnt out, so I've got a new one on order.

2. A quick check-over for a group drive coming up in mid-August. Everything looks good and one tire was down a few pounds of pressure, so I adjusted. I had 2 new ones mounted a few months back and I figure that they aren't as careful as I am about perfect matching pressures.

3. I've been dressing the engine bay and had 2 bits of non-red color in there... a Screamin' Deamon coil pack sticker with yellow text (yeah, I know... I'll go OEM when it needs replacing... the prev owner had it installed) and the bonnet safety latch that had a bright yellow coating. No more! Sticker has been peeled away and the yellow coating peeled off and plasti-dipped in red!

 

After a long COVID lock-down for Rufus, I'm getting him out on the road next weekend for the Upstate MINIs History Mystery tour. Looks like a great collection of motorcycle roads and a nice chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Upstate folks use a channel that I didn't have programmed into the VHF radio, so I had to wade through the mess of finding the right drivers on a Windows 10 laptop to be able to communicate w/ the radio and pull the old files / add a new file. Because the radio has been in service for 15 years or so and isn't a popular model anymore, it wasn't easy, but I finally got it connected and have the damn thing working!

I also spent several hours programming the stupid GPS. It's wonderful while you are on a drive, but teaching a Garmin to follow the fun, twisty roads instead of taking you to the highway requires laying in a metric crapload of waypoints.

 

Thanks!

I gave up on the LED bulbs as my trial and error installation process was mangling the bulb holders / electrical contacts. The LED bulbs did come, however, with very nice lense plates, so I kept those and ordered a pair of Bosch normal bulbs from Amazon.

I got out for the finishing touch before my club drive on Saturday. I bought a new Uniden R7 radar detector in the spring and then, well, COVID happened and I have only taken Rufus out for quick trips around town... no real mileage at all. The constant beeping of the factory settings (EVERYTHING turned on) was driving me nuts (I live in a fairly urban area, so it was to be expected), so I spent some time learning what radar was in use where I now live and where I plan to drive (NC / SC / TN) most and went through the settings to minimize the false positives. Lots of help on YouTube now, where you used to have to figure this all out yourself!



https://www.vortexradar.com/2019/04/how-to-set-up-configure-uniden-r7-radar-detector/

https://www.rdforum.org/threads/58040/

 

Rufus has been pretty quiet except for a nice long jaunt out with the SC MINI group... driving the apple orchard back roads of SC/NC and a nice chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just before that drive, I noticed that my boot handle would flex out oddly when I put any stress on it. When I got home, I found the cause... a long stress fracture along the inside, so the part is splitting in two.

Luckily it's not that expensive, so I've got a new one sitting out in the garage. Maybe I can get out there this weekend to start the repair (it's a 20 minute bolt-on project, but I need to wrap it in vinyl first). It's unfortunate that I mucked about with the rear license plate bulbs and lenses a month or two ago... I've got a completely new set on the new handle assembly. I'll strip the new-old parts off of the broken part when I've done the replacement and put 'em in my "bit box" where random MINI screws and parts go.

The radio worked wonderfully for the group drive and I was VERY happy with the new radar detector (Uniden R7). The settings changes linked above worked perfectly and, from the back of a 20 MINI caravan I called out radar contacts before the guy in the lead car a few times (don't know what equipment he was running).

 

I finally got out to putter a bit in the garage.

1) The plastic on my rear hatch handle had broken in 4-5 spots, making it very loosely attached. I also had rusting bulb holders and a fussy open button, so I just bought a completely new replacement part. I had to cover the new piece in vinyl, but it looks very nice now and everything works!



2) I got some switch covers from an aircraft parts supplier. With a bit of heat I was able to stretch them out and use 'em to cover the chubby switches in the center stack. Each red switch adds 2hp. Buy an extra one or two... I don't like the look of the one on the left and I'm going to remove it and try again.


https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/toggleswitchcvr.php?fbclid=IwAR2KsbBVKgkojpuv-IuoUXeZcVJgjVpgSMCObzvcKzvySpIGM-5gAkapLN8





Ugh... that photo reminds me that I need to get a new detailing brush. I sacrificed my 'interior' brush when working in the engine bay last spring and it's too grimy for interior work now.

 

Poor Rufus hasn't made it much farther than our local pizza place in the past 6 months or so, but it has been a few years (longer than I like to wait), so he got some love for the end of 2021 and the start of 2022. A new carbon air filter, fresh plugs (the old ones look remarkably good), an engine flush (LiquiMoly) for 15 minutes, a new filter (OEM) and some fresh oil (LiquiMoly). I've got a new serpentine belt to go on as well (3-4 years old + not many miles on the old one), but the weather looks bad for the weekend and I've got one Christmas wreath that I have to take down by climbing out on the roof, so I'm heading up to get that done before the rain hits.

It was very pleasant to get out and wrench on the car a bit in a nice, relaxed manner... I took 30-40 minutes and just puttered about with detailing spray and cleaned the windows. It was so nice to be working in the engine bay after the full deep-cleaning. It's remarkable how clean and tidy you can keep a car when you barely drive it (which is both a joy and a sadness at the same time)!

My new years resolution: More miles for Rufus in 2022 (plans for MOTD are made, COVID willing).

 

I bought the extenders from Colin when I bought the coil-overs. I can remember getting tired the day I put the rear suspension on (a long day, fighting several rusted/frozen bolts) and I knew that it was going to take more time/energy than I had at the moment to do the drilling for the extenders. That and I think I had MOTD coming up or some other time pressure, so I decided to delay the job. Unfortunately, it took me several years to get back around to doing the job. Honestly, I pre-set the rear dampers to about 1/3 down from full-stiff and it was good enough... I just saw someone on Facebook talking about doing this job at the very moment I was thinking "Man... I wish I had something fun to do this weekend." and it clicked. No time like the present!

A quick google search turned 'em up here: https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-555864-bc-racing-rear-damping-adjustment-extenders-br-type/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmPSSBhCNARIsAH3cYgaiJYIdZC6eVJFxoWrNrQF0WnvSOZQzBxFuU7SzMD7RzNcZvKe0GzkaAkkhEALw_wcB

I'd assume that the knob on the top is the same size, so these extenders should fit your BC coil-overs, but I don't know how far they need to reach for your car or where to drill... you will have to find another source of info if you want to drill top-down like I did, or completely remove the coil-overs so you can get a drill in there and drill up from the bottom of the car. To drill top down, I was able to remove the 2 bolts that hold the top of the shock tower to the car and then detach the drop link from the rear sway. This let me pull the coil-over down and pivot it to the rear, so I could get some clearance for the drill bit (just to be safe). It also gave me enough room to fish the extender cable up through the newly drilled hole (protected with a rubber grommet) and attach it to the damper knob on top of the coil-over before re-mounting. If you have to drill up to find the right location, you will probably need to remove the coil-over completely, just to get room to fit a drill in there and see what you are doing (to get the hole centered). You will also have to be careful, if drillling upwards, as there are several wiring harnesses in the area (at least there are on the R53), not to mention the side head airbag explosives (silver tube w/ yellow stickers in the top photo)... I wouldn't want to hit one of those things with a drill bit by mistake.

 

I also caught a video while leading the Sunrise Drive on Little River Road (north side of the Smoky Mountains). I flipped my phone camera on 'selfie mode' and held it up through the sunroof (while driving, but we had some slow traffic in front of us), so it's absolutely not pro-grade, but it's fun to see the snaking line of MINIs behind me

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=365267622289084

 

It's not for Rufus right now, but I just got a Garmin MINI 2 Dash cam. I'll put it in my wife's Audi A6, but may get 1 or 2 more to expand to my daily driver and to the MINI.

I wanted something simple and small. This one seems to suit the bill. I dropped a 256 GB card in there, so it should have plenty of storage room and, if it sits near my home wifi long enough, will upload any flagged recording to the cloud for a day (or longer if you pay a subscription charge). It will start recording when it gets power and will just start overwriting old files when it runs out of storage space. You can choose if you want interior audio recorded and even sync a pair of them to get forward/back facing cameras in one video (I'm just going to do forward view).

I've just got to get power supplied to it now...

 

I've been having this issue intermittently for the past year or two. I know that a good highway run in 5th gear solves the problem (higher revs for at least 10-15 minutes) after a restart. I figure that one of my O2 sensors is getting gummed up with something and it needs to burn off.

I was VERY happy when it went out after the restart. It was a 2+ hour long ordeal, but at least it's done for the next 12 months.

Now I just need to figure out the SES light!

 

Holy crap. My Facebook feed just reminded me: It was 5 years ago that I bought Rufus and started driving him home!

 

Rufus has had a pretty quiet year in 2024... My wife and I booked a big European trip during MOTD this year (I've got my calendar blocked for MOTD 2025). I did make it out to a few local drives, though!

A few weeks back there was a Cars and Coffee event hosted at the BMW SC factory and they had a MINI focus... cars judged and awards given for Gen 1, 2 and 3. My wife was visiting her mother, so I made the 1.5-2 hour drive out. Rufus came home with his first prize!