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

Fantastic couple of days, with Wellzy's wrenching help, remote technical support from Colin, and remote tuning from Jan.

Manual Blimey LIVES

Wellzy helped me get it buttoned up this morning



Got everything hooked back up, got the fluids in, turned the key, and ZILCH.
Lights on the dash, but no crank. No starter click. No nothing.

The car started and ran with the auto in it last week, with the GP electronics.
So... it should be working...

We confirmed that the starter would turn when jumped manually. Acted like immobilizer, maybe looking for clutch pedal switch... but this wasn't a problem last week.

A tense hour or two with diagnosis, checking coding, trying to break it down one possible problem at a time.


Then Colin chimed in, "Do you have 12 volts on pin 10 on the body connector? The EWS should be sending that."

How DAFUQ do you know these things?

Tested, and no voltage on that pin. Jumped 12v to it, turned the key, and LIFE!

Drove it around the neighborhood... clutch and gears worked. Brakes were spongy. Came back, re-bled brakes. Drove several miles.

BLISS :lol::cornut::lol:

It just works. Awesomely.

Got the rest of the interior swapped over and the doors hung. Only cabrio with GP doors and dash, I bet...



Still need to hang the A-panels and bumper bits, sort out a few coding issues, reset steering angle sensor, etc. I don't have "reverse" lights, which is an issue, but I'll get that sorted. I know how to do it by brute force if necessary.

I'll hang the GP side skirts after I install the rear suspension arms and get an alignment.

Oh yeah, and I pushed the "top up" button, and the top worked, after being down for MONTHS because it didn't work the last time I tried. WTF? I'm not complaining.

But it's soooooo good right now. I know I can work through the other piddly stuff. It's running, it's solid, it will light up the tires... it's gonna be a beast at MOTD.

 

DISCLAIMER

A few weeks ago, when I first announced I was doing the swap, I posted this:

I stand by that quote, for most people. This has NOT been a trivial endeavor. It has taken a ton of research, probably 100 man-hours of actual work (so far), a team of MINI experts offering ideas on how to make it work, electrical troubleshooting / custom wiring, and deep work with advanced scanning and coding tools (AutoEnginuity, INPA, NCS Expert).

No rational person should attempt this, really. But, sometimes, you just gotta flex your GPness. As Wellzy said, no sane person attempts to rebuild their own automatic transmission. :frown2:

I was pretty confident it would work, but ONLY because I had access to some brilliant MINI mechanics, access to the right software tools, 8 years of MINI DIY experience on this car, and the time and tenacity to make it work.

When I'm done, there will be a reasonably complete body of knowledge about it on my blog. But I do not intend this to be a "cookbook" for folks to apply as if this were an easy thing to do. It's the MINI equivalent of a major organ transplant, brain transplant, neurosurgery, circulatory system reconstruction, and psychotherapy, all rolled into one project. It hasn't required the fabrication or engine building skills of some other advanced MINI projects (like turbo / twin-charging), but the addition of all the electronics and coding changes, and the many differences between the MCS Auto and Manual config, have made it one of the most advanced projects I've encountered. (Jan still wins with his Racecar-In-A-Box project ).

Even with this now figured out and documented, it still won't be easy. You have been warned. Now go put your hand on that hot stove, anyway. But don't come crying to me when it burns. :devil:

 

Got my new set of Star Specs installed today, and a more aggressive alignment.

And received the rest of the parts, decals, and badges I need for my repaint.

Also received a ton of trim clips... for trim...

And these custom decals, from my awesome friend N2MINI...


Silver reflective vinyl...

 

Abuzavi's first ride...

A little fear...


A little bliss...


A little awe...

 

Getting ready to take things up a notch...


Ordered the MaxJax a couple of months ago, they were on backorder and had to wait for a new shipment to come across the pond. Arrived today like this:


I ordered from Scott Matthews at Big Boys Garage Toys. He had a great price and great service and communications. I ordered online on a Sunday. He called me within 10 minutes (on Sunday) to let me know the unit was on backorder, gave me an ETA, and made sure that was OK. The shipment arrived when he said it would, it shipped immediately from the distributor, Scott notified me that it had shipped and provided a tracking number. The unit made it cross country in only three days via Con-Way freight. Delivered to my driveway in perfect condition. Couldn't ask for more.

Really brilliant packaging, actually.

15 seconds to cut off the plastic and one plastic strap, and move one box, and you have this:


One minute to cut three steel straps, move the arms, a couple of boxes, a few other large parts and some cardboard, and you have this:



A few minutes to put on 4 wheels, remove 10 bolts connecting the end frames, stand things up and roll into the garage. Done with unpacking. Total time to unpack from the shipping frame: about 10 minutes. Easy Peasy. Helps to use a floor jack to lift under the uprights a bit to remove the ends.

When you're done, this is all that's left over - these end frames, three steel straps, one plastic strap, 10 bolts, some cardboard and some plastic wrap turn the MaxJax system into a single shippable, stackable unit. Pretty smart.


My new hammer drill won't be here until Tuesday, and I'm traveling next week, so it won't get installed until Saturday 7/18. Then I can get wrenching on Locutus again. I did enough measuring before ordering to know it would fit in the garage, but I still need to do detailed layout to decide exactly where I want to put it. I'll play around with that this weekend and get the floor marked, so I'm ready to drill.

I also need to finish stripping the GP this weekend, so I can roll it out of the garage to make room for the lift install...

 

Farewell old friend... you have served me well for 160k miles. But time to move on.

 

Lots of progress in the last few days...

Finished getting the engine hooked up.
Installed Greene Performance uprated clutch slave while things were apart. Old OEM slave was starting to seep. This one is a bit stiffer and has much more "feel".


Did the first oil fill - this is just for the initial firing and warm-up. Non-detergent lawn mower oil. Replaced with Rotella T for break-in, after the first warm-up.


Used my Schwaben cooling system evacuation tool to fill the cooling system. This thing is awesome, draws a vacuum on the cooling system and then fills, so it doesn't need bleeding.


Pulled the plugs, pulled the fuel pump fuse, and ran the starter a couple of long cycles to prime the new motor with oil.
Then reinstall plugs, intercooler and fuel pump fuse. Loaded new RMW tune to support 550cc injectors.

Ready to Fire!!!



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62yBqKDuXWc"]Firing the RMW Stroker - YouTube[/ame]

 

The MaxJax is a mid-rise lift, 48".


Perfect height for rolling around on one of these:


I always thought I wanted a 6' lift... but after having this, there's really no reason to have a taller lift unless you're going to store another car underneath. Rolling around on the stool is better than standing / walking under the car - faster and more cozy.

 

Drank a pint of Dunkel and cleaned the carpets for the wifey.

 

First look at the donor shell - these plus many other pics, plus lots of Q&A with the owner sealed the deal. HUGE shout out to Markus Richard and Doug Lavigne for helping me find this. Social media works.

BTW, if you need any cabrio parts (or interchangeable parts), this guy currently has THREE parts cars. PM me and I can point you his direction.



This was an Ohio salvage vehicle, now in South Carolina. Very little rust for a snow belt car. I'll remove rust and repaint, use better parts from my wreck, or buy new parts and hardware as needed to make the rebuild as close to "like new" as practical.



The car took a direct hit to the left front wheel, broke the strut, damaged hood, headlight, radiator surround, bumper, fog light, wheel... otherwise, everything looks OK. Strut tower and frame rail look fine. It doesn't take a lot to total one of these cars... that short list of parts, plus labor and paint, is all it took for this one. The rest of the body looks very clean. Will be mostly stripped when I get it, but will include the taillight and rear left side window that I need. I have most everything else.

I'll go down on 8/22 with my engine crane and a set of wheels, and help the owner pull the engine and strip anything else he wants to keep. Pop my wheels on it, drag it onto a Uhaul dolly, and drag it home.

First order of business will be to complete stripping the engine bay and trim, for a full Thunder Blue repaint, OEM quality or better, including a new bonnet, GP front bumper, and my GP side skirts. I'll probably shoot the mirror caps and small GP trim parts myself later.

Already started ordering needed aftermarket suspension stuff last night. This gives me an opportunity to refresh my suspension and take it up a notch. While I loved the Bilstein + Swift + Vorshlag combo, it had become a little too low when on 15" wheels. Greene Performance coilovers will remedy that. I was still running the original 19mm H-sport swaybar I installed as one of my first mods in probably 2007. Time to upgrade to the H-sport Comp bar. Broke at least one of my several-year-old Powergrid end links, time for a new set of Whitelines from Greene Performance. And some fresh Powerflex Race LCA bushings and steering rack bushing from Detroit Tuned. Already have a set of the new Greene Performance camber/caster plates on order, hopefully they will materialize before I need them.

 

Dead MINI #3... 2006 Dark Silver cabrio, full toggle panel of options, HK audio, DSC, manual transmission, manual climate control. The PERFECT shell for Locutus Mk2.




Have a bit more stuff to strip today or tomorrow, to ready for the cage fab.

Hauled my gear to SC, to help the previous owner pull the engine.


While there, also moved his latest salvage MINI from his apartment, to his storage unit. Lovely 2005 Purple Haze cabrio, that was well-loved by someone, before it hit something. Salvage MINIs make me sad.


The car pulled well on the UHaul dolly... but those things do NOT back up worth a crap, with the bed pivot built into them...

Pulled it home between 11PM and 5AM, with a nap in the middle. Heard most of Coast-to-Coast AM...