Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

Working on street legal odds and ends today. Installed my Longacre rear view mirror (required fabricating some brackets). Got all four corner lights working. Installed one of my Hella Supertone horns. Bolted in my seats. Installed harnesses.

The horn was one of the more challenging things, actually. my steering wheel was missing the horn wiring harness (got removed by me after the crash). After I replaced that, the horn still wouldn't work when I pressed on the airbag. But It would if I shorted the steering wheel spring plate with a screwdriver. Finally figured out that the spring plate had gotten bent when the airbag deployed. Replaced it with a spare and all was well.

Car is just waiting on the exhaust now. And some legal mumbo jumbo to get the title.

 

My TVS FMIC shipped today.

Spent the whole day grinding toward a drivable car.

Finished up the door armrest pad mods, and epoxied the broken driver's door handle tube.

Realized that, if I want the key remotes to work, I needed the receiver from the OEM rearview mirror. So I worked on that for an hour.

Removed this, carefully pushed the small white plugs through the base of the mirror.


Plugged it in and tested it. Yep, works.


Wrapped in tape and reinstalled. Done! I haz remote locking.



Disabled daytime running lights, reviewed other coding with NCSexpert. Reviewed and cleared all codes. Wished I had printed it all out... all the codes from the crash and the aftermath were there... it was A LOT of stuff, on almost every module.

Did the ABS air bleed procedure.

Added some front camber. Dropped the struts and maxed out camber on the BC plates, reinstalled the struts. Since I haven't cut the strut towers for camber adjustment access (at least not yet).

Went to the exhaust shop, supervised having my hangers installed.


Brought the exhaust mid pipe assembly home. Decided that now's the time to move my oil pressure sensor onto a remote line, to protect it from engine vibration. Fittings to do that came yesterday. Determined that I was going to have to drop the header partially to reach it. So had to disconnect 2 O2 sensors and the EGT sensor. Made a AN line and routed it into the right cowl.


Installed exhaust! It fits! And sounds great!


[ame=""]Locutus Mk2 haz exhaust! And runs! - YouTube[/ame]

Still need to get the rear section repaired, I'll take the car to the exhaust shop for that. Lots of rubbing and rattling in the rear where it's been bent. I have a plan to make this even more special when rebuilt.


But this is a terrific sight, idling in the garage. I'll drive it tomorrow, if the rain lets up.

 

Thanks!

So, I haven't updated in a few days...

Sunday, I went for a spectacular drive. Car was fantastic. And looked fantastic.


Drives like a dream.

Remember, the last time I built a car, the new motor was in it for THREE DAYS before I tore it up.

Well, we have a new record. ONE DAY. :eek6:


Greek Tragedy of Epic Fail. Short version, do not attempt to pull your car by the tow hook if the crush tubes aren't installed to support the bumper frame. I already knew that. But now it's been reinforced a bit. :mad2:

Destroyed the brand new bumper frame, brand new radiator frame, and brand new right wheel liner. Scuffed up the brand new bumper cover and broke some clips that hold in the grille. Broke a couple of tabs off the grill trim strip and the grill base, and tweaked a little corner of the new bonnet. Pretty much destroyed the bumper mount bracket on the right engine rail.


Anyway, after going home, drinking a beer, and curling up in a fetal position to sleep it off, I got up the next day and pretty much fixed it. Or at least got it drivable again.



It looks meaner that way, anyway. I have the grilles back on it now, and from 30 feet away, you don't notice anything. Only flesh wounds, replacement parts are already purchased, I'll get the paint and body fixed in January and it'll be good as new.

Just a speed bump in the build. And builds character, or something.

I chose to re-use the original bumper frame from GP0769 (MOAR GPness) and, at Art's request, wrote a little epitaph on it.


My RMW front mount intercooler for the TVS system arrived direct from Bell. Being in an, uh, INTERESTING mood, I had my daughter snap a pic.


Bluetooth kit arrived, so I installed it. Now the CDless GPness haz bluetooth.


Radio is all back together and looks totally stock.


Fixed the fubar passenger seat slider, and also wired my driver's seat heater. Not possible to control it with the OEM button, the circuit is very different, but it IS wired into the proper switched and fused seat heater circuit. I'll find the OEM GP mirror control pod and add the new heater button to that. I think it's at the bottom of my parts mountain.


Good news is, I drove the car enough to get all the OBD emissions stuff "green". So the car is ready to pass inspection, whenever I can get all the paperwork issues resolved.


Today, decided to install the GP underbody panels. Figured out how to mod them to coexist with the cabrio subframe (which is different). Done.


More replacement parts will arrive tomorrow. Also bought some vinyl upholstery fabric to prototype the tonneau cover. Still waiting on the last of the paint to arrive, to repaint my roll cage. Will work on that stuff over the holidays, when I'm not traveling. And might drive some more, if the monsoon here ever ends.

 

Back to business.

As my intrepid readers may recall, I had beautiful Pure Silver base+clear paint on the cage. Alas, such beautiful things do not last.



I'm pretty sure the VHT self-etching primer, didn't. Followed all the directions, and it was great for a little while, but eventually the paint came off in sheets.

So, time to pull the interior out AGAIN, and strip and repaint the cage.

Time to get out my trusty 90 degree die grinder, with 4" brass brush.



As luck would have it, only about half the paint was loose. The other half was pretty well adhered. But it all needed to come off... That took probably 6 hours spread over a week and a half. It SUCKED.

But, finally, was done.



Then time to prep and paint. This time, I decided to try the POR (Paint Over Rust) system.



All this is serious stuff. Use gloves, goggles and respirator for the cleaner/degreaser and the metal prep. Put down good heavy plastic drop cloths to catch the excess stuff. Remove anything you're worried about getting it on, first. Sprayed on the degreaser (diluted about 2 parts water / 1 part solvent), then scrubbed and rinsed with water and wiped down with wet shop towels until towels came off clean.

Let it air dry, then used the Metal Prep. This stuff is phosphoric acid and zinc phosphate. It etches the steel, and leaves behind a zinc phosphate coating. You spray on the metal prep full strength, and need to keep the steel wet with it for 20-30 minutes. For something like a roll cage, that means you're pretty much spraying it continuously; by the time you get the whole thing sprayed, you need to go back and start over again, to keep it wet. Then rinse with water (also from a spray bottle, in my case) and let it dry. When it dries, it leaves behind a dull gray zinc coating, almost looks galvanized. This step is critical; the POR will not adhere well to clean, unrusted steel unless it's properly prepped.



Let it dry overnight (until "bone dry" per the instructions) then apply the POR-15. This stuff is pretty awesome. The silver color is a nice bright metallic silver, and dries to a high gloss, almost looks like it has a clear coat on it, but doesn't. When fully cured, it is VERY hard, almost like powder coat, but maybe harder. Unfortunately, it's UV sensitive, and will dull if exposed to sunlight. So for anything that's going to get much sun, you need to cover the POR-15 with the POR Top Coat, which is less pretty.

When applying the POR-15, follow some rules:

• Always wear disposable gloves
• Never wear nice clothing, watches, eyeglasses, or anything else you don't want to get the stuff on, because it will NEVER come off, once dry.
• Never get it on anything you don't want it on. If you do, remove it immediately while wet, using a solvent to clean up. Because, once dry, it will NEVER COME OFF.

Stirred the POR-15 well, then brushed it on using a cheap synthetic bristle brush. Don't bother trying to clean the brush. Just use ones you can throw away, and start each coat with a fresh brush. Applied two coats, about 2 hours apart. The stuff flows out very nicely, but it also tends to run and sag if you don't use very thin coats. I put it on a bit heavy, and have some sags, but don't really care. It's a roll cage, and most of it will be covered with pads, harnesses, etc.

After about 4 hours, the second coat was dry to the touch, and pretty hard. Then applied first coat of Top Coat, waited about an hour, and applied a second coat. The Top Coat has more of a satin silver finish, which I like. Again, used a fresh bristle brush for each coat. With both paints, pour about 4-8 oz in a cup and use that to paint, don't paint from the can, and don't put unused paint back in the can. You need to clean the rim of the can thoroughly before putting the lid back on, or it will be cemented in place when dry.



I'll let it cure for a few days, then will refit the interior. Hopefully for the last time for a while.

 

Any time you can drive the car home from the track, vs. call the wife to come get you 3 hours away, it's a WIN. :lol:

But anyone thinking about taking their daily driver or their show car to the track should first answer the question: If I crash it, will that be OK?

If not... you're probably not doing something rational. Luck will only take you so far.

 

That is, in fact, the plan. With appropriate skirts, bumpers, wheels, interior, trim, decals... It's going to be a complete and epic 2006 GP Roadster. Except with better seats. Will debut in that form at MOTD 2016... the 10th anniversary of the GP.

 

To make it legal:


I absolutely love driving again. It's bliss.

 

This weekend's project: complete the interior transformation.

Primary objective was to get rid of the remaining blue stuff, and add more GPness to the interior. My cabrio had a blue interior originally - which meant the door panels, door sills, and rear side panels were all blue plastic. Also blue carpet. When I originally did the rear seat delete last year, I had carpeted the rear with blue Ozite carpet. All that blue needed to go, to get to a "proper" black GP interior.

Yesterday I pulled the black carpet out of GP0769. That was a chore, especially since it was the first time I had ever done it.


I also painted the rear cabrio interior side panels. New ones of these are kinda pricey, so I had hunted around for a salvage cabrio with black interior. But hadn't been able to find one nearby. I decided I'd paint the panels, but then spent a couple of weeks looking for the best color match plastic paint for the Panther Black trim. Bought a lot of cans of paint and sprayed test pieces, until I found what I was looking for.

Eventually settled on Duplicator Vinyl & Fabric black, with Rustoleum Fusion Satin Burgundy for accents. The black is a little "blacker" than the Panther black... but there are like 4 different shades of "Panther Black" in my car, so it doesn't really matter. The hue is right, and the texture / level of gloss is right.


I wanted to do some highlights to match the red rear trim in the GP, that also worked with the natural contours of the cabrio side panels. I played around with designs for a while, then masked and painted.



I think they look fantastic. The color is almost perfect.


Today, I turned my attention to the carpet in the cabrio. Well, pretty much everything has to come out.


While I was at it, I got rid of the (now) useless plastic duct that feeds air/heat under the seats. I taped up the little duct that fed this, so now I'll get better flow in the front. Like that matters. I also got rid of more obsolete wiring, from my former under-seat LEDs, and my former air horn. Wiring is closer to stock now, than it has been in probably 7 years.


I already knew the cabrio carpet and the coupe carpet are a little different. The coupe has about 1.5" more leg room in the rear. They had to move the rear seat forward in the cabrio to accommodate the folding top. Here's a comparison that shows the difference. It's not much.


I found that if you remove the foam backing starting a couple of inches forward from the back edge of the footwell, and all the way to the rear edge of the carpet, it will fit in the cabrio just fine with no cutting. So that's what I did.

Installing OEM carpet in a MINI is like wrestling a 300 pound man. It's intense. The carpet fits TIGHTLY under the AC unit in the center stack, and there's no good way to "push" carpet into this position. Eventually I decided I could make it easier by removing most of the foam off the back of that area of the carpet, since I don't really care about sound insulation, etc. anymore. That made it easier, but it was still a chore.


Hot-glued my new Redline black microsuede boots to the frames, and installed them while I was at it.


Refitted the pedals and trim in the front. I bought new Panther Black sill trim, and the required clips.


Then got to work on the rear. It's a zillion times easier carpeting something like this when you've already done it once, and can use the old piece as a template. Plus the padding was already installed. Took about 1/5 as much work as the first time.



Put the seats and harnesses back in, washed the nearly-new rubber mats that came in the GP, and put it all back together. Looks as it should, IMO. I love it.



For anyone who worries about such things: no, I'm not relying on the net to hold the spare in. There's a hidden steel spare tie-down inside the bag, doing its thing.

 

Decoded the VIN... the shell is just about perfect
11/2005 build, had DSC, Xenons, HK, cold weather package, multi-function wheel, just like my car. So the body / audio harness will be correct for the swap.
Manual, so I'll now have a manual body harness and the goodness that goes with that.
Fixes an "unfixable" issue with my old car.

 

After a couple of days off to ride coasters at Cedar Point (yes, with a concussion!) and visit Wellzy... I'm back home and back to work.

Today's task: More engine diagnosis. Pull remnants of bumper and put car in service mode so I can further inspect engine and sensors. Do compression and leak down tests (using new tools that arrived yesterday). If OK, let it run a bit to burn oil out of cylinders, see how it runs, and let the bearings work a bit. Pull oil sample to test for bearing damage.

First, took an opportunity to look at my left GP skirt which got removed WITH MALICE by the ditch. Sadly, it sheared off EVERY SINGLE MOUNT in the painted part of the skirt, and also ground it up pretty well. Also cracked up the GP sill plate.

I'm gonna see if I can get replacements; I DO own a GP, after all. If not, I'll fabricate replacement mounts and epoxy them in, and fix the other problems.

Then time to get started on the motor...


Took about an hour to get the remains of the front bumper off. The left crush tube was CRUSHED, and bent with the bumper frame in such a way that the only hope (without cutting) was to get the tube and frame off together. That worked.

First, I had to fight for awhile to get the M7 air diverter plate off. The bolt holding it was also quite twisted. Sadly, the nice CF plate is history.

I'm not sure if I can use one anyway with the RMW dual pass radiator I'll be installing. If I decide to use the plate, I'll get a new fiberglass one and paint it to match the GP bumper.

Took a minute to appreciate the carnage that is my left front suspension, wheel and tire...


And the left front frame arm...


My custom red stainless intercooler diverter plate was mangled, and the corner of the ultra-expensive GP intercooler cover was busted, but it's fixable and usable, I think. Soon I plan to have the RMW FMIC anyway.

Once I got the covers off, I saw this. What's wrong with this picture?


Uh, the intercooler really shouldn't sit at an angle like that...


Right intercooler mount bent, and intercooler pushed back a bit, but otherwise OK. But the horn between the IC and the intake manifold is broken.

Oh well, I have a spare. And that will go away with the RMW front mount and custom manifold, anyway.

Also, my TMAP sensor was squished. That's probably one reason it was "chugging" when I ran it for a few seconds last week. I have an old spare TMAP in a box... put it on.

Pulled off my strut bar. It seems fine.

But the strut towers... not so much.


And looks like this Vorschlag plate may have some issues also. Won't know for sure until I get it out.


Ready to pull the coil, wires and plugs for testing.


Plugs were super fouled with oil (shocker... the car was upside down for an hour or two).


Once the plugs were out, I pulled the fuel pump fuse and did compression testing. Results:
1: 190 psi
2: 190 psi
3: 190 psi
4: 200 psi

That looks good.

Then did leak down tests, at 80psi. All cylinders held at 75-78psi, cold (you're really supposed to warm up the engine first). That's only 5-6% leak down, which is quite good for a cold engine. The oily cylinders & rings probably helped that a bit.

Since compression and leak down seemed OK, decided to top up the cooling system with water, replace the crushed TMAP sensor, and try to run it...

[ame=""]The Stroker LIVES - YouTube[/ame]

It's amazing how well the motor runs, considering how broken the rest of the car is, and what it's been through.

I pulled an oil sample for analysis. If it shows high lead, that's an indicator that I may have bearing damage. If it doesn't... I'm probably good to go with the motor as-is.

A friend sent me this oil analysis kit, he had extras. He gets them from the local Caterpillar equipment dealer... only $15 per test. I've used Blackstone and BobIsTheOilGuy previously... but will be using this service from now on, the price is RIGHT. Comes with a great little pump for filling the sample bottle from the dipstick tube.


And the oil lab they use is right here in town... so I expect to have results this week. Then can make a go/no-go decision on whether I'll run the engine as-is, or send back to RMW for rework.

 

... only if you hit something hard enough to deploy the airbags. So, for anyone planning to try this, do NOT attempt it with a ramp. You definitely need to violently hit an immovable object, and be sure to crush one of the front (or rear) frame rails enough to trigger the airbag sensor. But not both fronts... because then you'll crush everything on the front of the engine. But if the bags don't deploy and the engine runs upside down for any significant time... it'll kill itself permanently.

That's why I made sure I just clipped that embankment with the left nose, and then brought it down hard on that rear corner. So if the first hit didn't trigger the bags and battery cut-off, the second would.

Destroying a car like this requires finesse. It's all in the details.

I'm an ARTIST.




And, I'm SO under appreciated in my time, I might add.

 

Good day.

Swapped my DW fuel pump and new-ish fuel filter from the wreck to the new shell. Much easier without a cage in the way. Hopefully did it right and reconnected everything, so I won't have to fiddle with it more.

Then loaded up the shell and drug it across town to my cage fab guy.


I REALLY LOVE IT, when you have a kinda crazy vision for a one-off thing, and you explain it to a craftsman, and they completely "get it" and agree that they can do it.

I pretty much knew that I wanted the rear of the cage to be very similar to my old roll bar, just wider and with a better brace mounting location. But the front... that had to be designed.

I want a relatively open top (no braces across the top), relatively unobstructed entry and exit from the car, retain all front factory trim, as little obstruction of view as possible, look as clean as possible. But also be very stiff and safe. I'm not going to race this car wheel-to-wheel, so I don't need to comply with racing side impact rules. While I do need to pass time trial rules, just the roll bar was sufficient for that. But... if at some point I take this car airborne at 100+ MPH on track, or slide it down the side of a mountain... I want to have a fighting chance.

I've looked at hundreds of photos of caged MINIs. Out of all those, I found one example that really clicked with me.

HPA Motorsports "Gokart"



Front pillar hugs the A-pillar and goes through the dash, fitting between the door speakers and the fusebox / BCM. Knee bar under the steering column, goes behind where the stereo head unit would normally be. Single door bars bow out into the space between the door handle and the door painted trim. This design is really clean, and retains the factory trim (though some things will need some trimming, obviously). Will probably have an open halo top, but we'll figure that out for sure after the main hoop is built and tacked in.

It will probably force me to remove or reposition the stereo headunit, as there's not enough depth in there with the knee bar in place. But the structure won't be stiff enough without a crossbar, and I think putting one on top of the dash is hideous. I really don't need the headunit... I could just add a simple amp with an aux input and a volume control, and I'd be fine.... that may be where I'm headed.

My cage guy also was fine with cutting out the extra stuff in the rear.

My current thought is to paint the entire cage Pure Silver with clear coat. So it matches the GP interior and exterior trim, as a GP roof would....

 

Spent much of the day looking for Teddy's brakes. Still haven't found them, but I will prevail. That's what happens when your garage is packed with parts off three MINIs.

Meanwhile, cage dude is at work. We sent a bunch of pics back and forth, mocking up the proper height, width, etc. so he can start bending steel.

It will be about an inch shorter than this... which will still be about an inch taller than the old one, and about convertible roof height...


He's already cut out a bunch of nasty vestigial sheet metal, including the "humps" that the OEM front shoulder belts attached to. He'll remove the piece adjacent to the tube in this photo, so the main hoop can go all the way out to the yellow tape...


The main body harness on both sides of the footwell was going to be too close to where he would be welding the footwell plates for the front pillars. So he had to remove the ENTIRE rear portion of the harness, so he could get it up out of the way. I get to put all this back.... FUN.....


But now, no chance that he'll melt any wires while welding things in. Ultimately better. This is a seriously stripped MINI.



Also ordered Pure Silver paint for the roll cage and GP trim, and Chili Red paint for the mirror caps today. I'll paint all that stuff myself.

I bought a new hood over the phone from my local MINI dealer yesterday, need to go pick that up, maybe tomorrow.

I'm going to work hard this weekend to get the wreck stripped. And hopefully will get it rolled out and get the GP back on the lift, to finish it up. I'd like to get both of them out of here before the caged shell comes back., if possible.

 

OK, my groovy babies. It has BEGUN.

Worked on it 7 hours today. My strategy is to (a) try to do things in a planned order, so I can minimize rework and (b) try to shrink the pile of parts as quickly as practical, to make space to work in the garage and (c) do some pretty stuff first, because I'll be more motivated to do grunge work (like the wiring harness) on a car that already looks pretty good.


So, today's accomplishments include:

• vacuumed crap out of it
• Cleaned grunge and paint off windshield and windshield header
• removed rear heat shields and bumper frame
• Drilled and installed nutserts and bulkhead fittings for meth
• Installed MiniFini hitch, bumper frame and bumper cover
• Installed boot handle
• Installed GP rear trim
• Installed badges front and rear
• Installed rear hoop from convertible top and accompanying latch hardware. Determined it's pretty bent, worked on straightening it for a while, gotta play with it some more.
• Assembled and installed hood grille and scoop.
• Put turn signals, corner lights, grille and splitter on the new bumper.
• Installed bumper frame and bumper.
• Installed new headlight rings and glued in new headlight washer covers.
• Installed headlights and tail lights and side scuttles.
• Installed A-pillar covers and most of the beltline.

Business end of meth system is installed...


Yeah, when you land a flying MINI cabrio on the left rear corner, it bends stuff. this is the rear hoop for the roof, that I'm going to use as the rear frame for my tonneau cover.



It's gonna need some work to get back in shape. It's a dang strong, stiff extrusion. My initial efforts to straighten it didn't do much, I'm going to have to get creative. But it can wait a while.

Tomorrow: Wiring harness, door handles / hardware, windows, mirrors, door panels. Weather strips. Right hood latch, hood latch cables, parking brake cables, brake and clutch lines, maybe some other stuff.