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

Cheers guys, that's a great idea Metalman! To be fair I don't have anything like that, I did it on top of an outdoor freezer haha! Was planning to do another tonight but I've had to pick up some Stuttgart wheels for the other halfs corsa...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well, today was a busy one. Added a couple more things.

These...



The blue one...



Couple of these grey ones...



Bad picture of the adjustable rear control arms.



This shows the new rear brakes, spring, swaybar, stainless lines, and end links.



Front brakes were installed with NM stainless brake lines. I was worried for a moment that the wheels wouldn't fit over these rotors. Things are huge!



Brakes with wheels installed...




Topped it all off with a strut brace by NM.



Only downside of this work is I lost all the coding I had done at the Dragon. Software has to be updated for the JCW brakes and once the program starts to run it updates everything. Small price to pay for these brakes though.

The springs closed the wheel well gap nicely too.

Before...




After...




All this work was done by my friend Chris at G3 Automotive. Can't recommend him highly enough for anyone in the Raleigh, NC area.
This is one of his toys. If you were at the Dragon you probably saw him on Vendors Alley.

 

Excellent....

 

Got to show the boss that the 86 aint got **** on the MINI on the way in today Then parked so she could be viewed by said boss all day

 

went out for a spin on a nice NYC day top down


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Put in a MaxJax lift, and had a garage door guy come raise my tracks and install a jack shaft opener. Fun times ahead.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Spit-Shined my R53 and spent nearly a grand on the little guy today... I'll share with you what that coinage went to, this time next week.

 

Savvy - speed up. :devil:

Picture not taken today, but recently on the way to MOTD.

(Not on public road) :ihih::lol:

 

Changed the rear running light in the 2006 and and the rear brake light in the 2005, both were out.

 

Dave.O, why is the needle on the tach so short?

 

Made it home to Colorado on Saturday afternoon from the Dragon and a 4 day stop at the farm in Missouri. Countryman is showing 7015 miles now after this little 3400 + mile trip.

Now to debug the front of the PL, perhaps a picture or two later. I saw a few folks on Vendor alley and a lot of folks out driving in groups.

I did something I normally would not do, I drove the Dragon just after lunch on Friday, it was not bad and crazy, most of the MINIs were out on big drives and the motorcycle guys were all hanging at the Gap.

Enjoy, now to decompress from a long but fun trip.

Don


Here is a link to my photo collection from MOTD 14. Enjoy!

 

Yesterday, I went to a VW Bus camp out in Morrow, Oh and visited with friends of years gone past. Today, I am washing my MINI for the first time since the Dragon. Tomorrow, I am going to a dent removal specialist to remove the side dent I got at the Dragon. The first dent is the hardest...

 

My MINI took me to the butcher... And back.... Had the windows down and the sunroof open listening to some tunes...
Picked up two pork tenderloins...
Said tenderloins are basking in the crock pot gettin tender...
Making pulled pork BBQ sammiches for dinner tonight....
A cold beer, BBQ pork sammiches with coleslaw and "Game of Thrones" later today....:beer:drool

 

On Friday I did a few things to my MINI. New Stripes and ghetto plastidiip blackout.

The matte red vinyl looks amazing. I LOVE IT!!! I am not 100% happy with both bumpers. Totally my fault. I've never played with vinyl before and the bumpers and scoop I will most likely redo. But at least you can see what my vision is. I did this solo in about 3-4 hours. I honestly should have spread out the work.

Also, I blacked all ALL the chrome on my car. Headlight trim, tail light trim, grille surround, belt line, gas cap and side scuttles. Next thing is the door handles (waiting for covers to come back in stock). Also I need to wait until I can put on the MINI emblems back on. I need to get adhesive for them.

So once I fix the vinyl I'm not happy with, and get the emblems and door covers on, I should be done. This was a little rougher than I anticipated but I think I'll go through it again just to fix my little mistakes. Learning as I go!!

Some quick before/after pics. I'll take better pics once I finish fixing things.

 

I've had a mixed success with plasti dip spray.... It's good that it's so easy to remove.... But that was my problem...

The object was my splitter.... Had a local body shop spray it... I asked them to do it in black with a rough texture to match my wheel arch trim...

They did a lousy job trying to match it... It bothered me for a while.... Then I tried plasti dip... It was a better black but I didn't like the sheen... The splitter gets hit by a lot of debris and the plasti dip started pealing after a while...

Grabbed a can of dupli-color bed liner spray.... It is a water based polyurethane with microscopic pieces of aramid fiber mixed in.... I roughened up the painted surface with some 180 grit sandpaper and applied two thin coats... I got the black I wanted and I got the surface finish I was looking for.... and the coating is "bullet proof".....

 

I cut it down when I painted it red and installed my GP gauge faces.

Not that I look at them much because I drive by smile and know when to shift by the sound of the motor. :ihih: