Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

Couple cool MINI's for sale at MINI of Kennesaw

 

Repaired a small crack in my bumper today after pulling in too close to the snow blower.

Also stripped, polished and Gyeon Prime coated the bumper twice. Looks like nothing happened.

 

My poor MINI is at DFW, in the covered section of their Express parking. It is 19F degrees right now where it is parked. It is also VERY dirty from the sand/dirt TXDOT spread on the road. I promise I will get it washed when I get home.

Here in Scottsdale, I went to the WW auction today, and they asked me to shoot some video of a "special" car going across the block. It is a 1939 Mercedes-Benz... and it was Hitler's "parade car." Wow, what a piece of infamous history. Below is a frame capture from the video. It is completely RAW, and it is a video cap, so the quality of this posted image is not great.

I had my still camera with me, but I got mobbed by people wanting to take pictures of the car, and they bumped into me, and my tripod, so all my efforts went into trying to get a good video, to the point where I was just trying to hold my f-ing video camera somewhat still. My plan was to lock the video camera down for most of the time, and snap some still shots. That plan got vetoed by the crowd.
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CD

 

Looked at mine. When this started they were calling for ~1". Ended up with 9. By then it was too late to put it in the storage building. Amazing how much snow can fall during a long nap.

 

Finally got around to swapping out the old ScangaugeII and setting up an old phone with OBD Fusion app.
I like it...

 

I decided today that I have done pretty much everything to my MINI that I am going to do. The mileage is just too low to mod the car in the way I would like too after learning about MINIs in the last couple of years. So, I will continue to drive and enjoy Peppurr the next couple of years...while I build my next one. It will be a R53,6 speed, with a decent body, good vin and title...and that's about all of my criteria. I am going to buy a car for a little bit above scrap (which is about $400/ $500.00) I don't even care if it has wheels and tires till I can get it to the shop to do the work. I will pick and choose what parts I pick based on the information that I can glean right here. It is the one site that I can trust the information that is furnished. Like I say...great site and greater people.

PS I plan to start this in the spring but if anyone knows of a candidate, please let me know. I do offer 'finder's Fees'.

 

Installed colder plugs and loaded my new ByteTronik tune. The part that took the longest was regressing back to my distant Windows OS past. I've used nothing but Apple since my first PowerBook. With some long distance tutoring everything went relatively smoothly and a lot faster than I was expecting. The car was quick with the JCW tuning kit and NM piggyback, but now it's a whole different critter. I'm happy with the results and curious what the dyno will show. All that's left is the catless DP, and that should be done next month.

 

Changed the fuel filter, and gave it a wash.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Well, not an annual kind of thing. It has been raining here like I've never seen before. I was doing a week long photoshoot, and my MINI was parked in a mud parking lot, and I was storing all kinds of extra gear in the car, in 100-percent humidity. Every time I got into the car, I was standing in muddy water before I got in, so the floor mats are disgusting.

I am home now, and the MINI is in the garage, with the windows and hatch open. I am going to have it thoroughly cleaned tomorrow.

CD

 

Drove it to the "park n ride" in the morning, then home this evening.

Also, finalized things to potentially pick up a second vehicle in the next couple of weeks. My Dad recently got a bug up his @$$ for a new vehicle. So, I'm going to buy his truck off of him. A 2008 F150. He just got done putting a lot of work into it... so, I'm getting a solid truck, for a wholesale price.

Just waiting for them to finalize the deal on his new Honda Pilot.

 

In other news, if you're on the facebooks check out Detroit Tuned-s MINI build. He picked a teal color that I tend to hate most of the time, but it looks good on an R53- https://www.facebook.com/DetroitTuned/

 

IIRC, don't you have some kind of fancy floor in your garage? Maybe carpet? Or was that just a gag?

The guy with the LaFerrari has white marble tiles on his garage floor. The garage holds (I'm guessing) six or seven cars with room to walk around them. He is building a "lounge" off to one side (you can see it in the LaFerrari photo) with a glass wall so he and his guests can kick back and look at the cars.



I want a garage like that. My MINI deserves a garage like that. Time to go to 7-Eleven and buy a lottery ticket.

CD

 

Drove it (to work) for the first time in a week. No, I haven't sidelined the MINI in favor of the truck. That pig is way to hungry for a move like that with my 60+mi commute each day. It was mostly due to taking some time off and staying home to get Jäger acclimated to "our" new routine.

It involves short bursts of puppy play and back-talk...


Followed by lots of Dave.0's favorite pastime...



But he's adorable and has some time before his serious training starts...


Oh, and he was as unamused with the spring nor'easter as I was...

 

Made plans to take the MINI on a 4 day road trip. This will be the test drive before the Dragon. If I have time, I'm going to stop at Helix to see their shop.

 

Replaced OEM Sport Suspension + NM springs with BC Racing coil overs. Replaced stock down pipe with the Cat-Less version from Milltek. Installed new lower engine mount with the yellow Powerflex version with black inserts. Reconnected my blue tooth control for the exhaust because it's just too loud to run all the time with catless DP and straight pipe. Installed a Cravenspeed E-Brake handle to match my S4S shift knob. It was a long day, even though my Son in Law and an old USAF buddy did 99.9% of the labor.

 

Dropped it off at Helix for the last time. It’s off to new ownership.

 

First proper car wash of the year. Still snow in the yard, but 54F and overcast, so perfect for a wash without water spots. Out came the hose, the foam sprayer, and microfiber glove. I even did the black on the plastics and vacuumed the inside. Weathertech mats are out, Mini carpet floor mats are in. It's officially spring for the car now.

 

So today I finally had the guts to push the "Execute Job" button in NCS Expert to code out the LED flicker in various light positions on my Electric Blue R53.

I changed various bulb monitoring settings to not active. Up next is a quick LED high beam install (using my son's $$$ bulbs he hasn't installed yet), so I can determine if I want to buy some myself. I can tell from the front parking light position where I have LEDs that the coding change does work, plus the LED in my rear boot area also hasn't flicked on ignition-on, so that one won't bug me ever again.

Will report in my Daily Driver build thread how the LED testing goes from here.

 

Sorry haven't been on much of late. Been out motoring. Especially to Costco or across the border to the US for gas. In the Vancouver BC area, gas is approaching $1.60 CDN a liter. That's about $4.50 a gallon USD.

On another note, the other day, car got washed, and dried and covered in pollen. Brushed off pollen, waxed and buffed and it got covered in pollen again.

 

Got the MINI washed and ran some errands for todays project around the house. It may not be a truck but it still has utility.



So shiny now...