Yesterday's progress: Removed the rest of the beltline blackout, fixed the broken clips on the windshield cowl beltline, and swapped in non-blacked-out taillights. For a more GP OEM look. Also verified that I CAN actually lift the car using the OEM jack and OEM jack points, with the GP skirts. And verified that my donut spare will work over the rear JCW brakes, by adding 15mm of spacers. Which is fine because I have long studs. So now I know the jack and spare I carry around aren't useless. I also received a matching set of black nomex harness pads for the passenger side, so any ride-alongs won't be h8tn on the 3" harness (not t-shirt friendly without the pads).
Installed GP boot handle, removed some extra badges and stickers. Much cleaner. This is getting close to the final look of the tail, except for color, lower bumper inserts, and GP/CooperS badges. And new license plate. And in this light, the color even looks close. :cornut: That license frame is the ONLY Union Jack left on the car. Perhaps we should rename this "The DeUnionJackification Thread" :crazy:
You've done a incredible job. But I am wondering if we should hold a service for the departed GP 769?
Why? It's been reincarnated, as a roadster. :yesnod: Would be more appropriate to hold a service for the departed "Blimey"...
Reinstalled ValentineOne. Added Cherohala and Six Gap stickers from last year to my rear window sticker collection. Took three extra scan tools / cables out of the door pockets. :lol: Found my pack with radio gear and put it in the car.
MOTD is saved! Important stuff arrived! We haz video. Note that a handlebar/seatpost mount perfectly fits the Rennline tow hook. Still need to add a tether. And this may be the greatest Mini accessory of all time...
My awesome friends from 620 gave me a congratulatory gift for getting things running in time for MOTD: A real BMW roadster frame. NO MORE UNION JACKS!!!
So, people are going to ask, what makes this thing a GP? Well, it's clearly not a stock GP. And it doesn't have all the factory GP stuff (e.g. suspension). But, neither do a lot of actual GPs anymore. Many have modified suspensions, coilovers, aftermarket cams, exhaust, headers, heads... I'm not claiming it has a GP body VIN. Though I could remedy that by cutting and swapping a couple of strut towers... When you plug it up to diagnostics, it looks like a GP... But here's all the stuff that's currently on Locutus, that was originally on GP0769: transmission, clutch lines, pedal assembly, shifter ECU, EWS, gauges/KMB, ignition cylinder, keys intercooler brake master cylinder/reservoir dash trim Doors, mirrors, handles, windows, interior panels A-panels Cowl Side skirts front wheel well liners engine and transmission hard mounts various vacuum lines, brackets and hardware radiator hoses oil cooler hoses and lines oil filter housing / engine oil cooler air intake hose silver console trim rings Carpet Handbrake console mounting bracket rear JCW badge Side scuttles boot handle Right tail light Driver airbag And, later this year, I'll add: trailing arms front bumper grille / trim wheels dash cover And I'll add GP replacement parts: front bumper cover rear bumper inserts GP badge and decals GP slatted grille (The car already had GP rear black bumper trim.) And, eventually, I plan to have the original GP engine and head built by RMW into something special. Until then, they're sitting in my shop. Plus I have a ton of spares from the GP that may eventually end up on the car, as needed, including: power steering AC compressor supercharger steering column with all switches and stalks throttle body throttle pedal fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator DSC BC1 ABG So is it a GP? No. It's a GP Roadster. Just like every other GP Roadster. :devil:
The only part of the interior that looked "unfinished" was the area where the convertible top folds... (I usually had the tops of the cut-off uprights covered with black tape, but had removed it before I took this photo.) Of course, all this stuff is hidden behind the back seats... when you have them. My plan had been to have all this enclosed by custom canvas work including a tonneau-type cover. But haven't gotten that done yet, and now that I'm loving how the rear of the interior looks (otherwise), I may never cover it up. So I started thinking about different approaches to hide this. Decided to build a semi-rigid partition and cover it with the same Ozite carpet that I used in the rear seat area. This is all temporary for now - I'll pull it out later to get the crossbar welded properly. For the time being, I taped the crossbar in place with racer's tape, then used that as the top of the frame for the partition. I stiffened it with a piece of corrugated plastic sign board, attached the sides to the OEM rollbar uprights, and the bottom to the convertible top storage shelf. The result actually looks pretty good. Not perfect, I don't like the way the carpet folds around the ends... but it's good enough for now. Oh, and last night I tried Dave.O's secret sauce on the trim. Blimey's trim had been pretty well-cared-for. But the black trim on the GP skirts was in terrible condition. All gray and streaked from polishing or wax. I cleaned everything with acetone, let it dry, then applied the Penetrol sparingly with a sponge brush, just enough to wet the trim. After each section, while still wet, I rubbed off all the excess I could with Rags-in-a-Box towels, and made sure I got any Penetrol off adjacent paint. The results were amazing... The trim looked so good, I decided to test the Penetrol on one of my old rubber floor mats. Same process... and these looked much better. So I did it to the pair of better S mats that came in the GP. Hard to tell in this photo, but in person, they look almost new again. Oh yeah, and Methanol is my co-pilot.