What did you do with your MINI today?

Still waiting for the funky weather to change, going up to the Mountains Tuesday I think for some leaf color relief, so might stop and take a picture of the JCW along the way.

I did update the folder with some shop pictures above, if you want to look, see the shine under those bright flourescent detailing lights.

Take care, mask up,
Don

 

New battery time after just 2 years
and one month with the Odyssey
Battery (0752-2020). Way too soon
for an expensive upper market battery.
Started fine yesterday after a week’s
vacation to move the car and started
fine this morning, went to a grocery
store, then to another, then nothing
but a few clicks and incompletely lit dash
when I tried to go home.
I jumped it and drove home (voltage 14V
so alternator is fine. voltage only 12.2V
after turning it off, and down to 11.5 after
sitting a half an hour. I guess a cell must
have suddenly died or something.

Putting in a Die Hard Platinum AGM as
it’s the best one available locally.
No IBS module on my car, but will
register it anyway as I did 2 Years ago.

 

Not a big fan of Odyssey Batteries as I had one do the same thing on my tractor.

 

Gave GIR a much need wash and wax. With teleworking, not being in the car everyday I didn’t realize how much I let him go


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Isn’t the eleventh commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors first generation GP ??

 

Thanks for looking out for GIR . It has been my DD for 11 years and you can tell. It has a few nicks here and there. Seats, driver’s anyway needs to be reupholstered, wheels resurfaced and just noticed I need to replace the seals on the side views mirrors. Still a blast to drive though

 

said screw it and got the schrader RSD kit, arriving tomorrow. The cost was worth the time saving right now, so I'm not too worried. Still have used the template that I made for laying out the sound deadening that will go on the underside of the lid. Seat wells are good to go. Nothing left to it but to do it.

With the seat out, I noticed I had some chatter from the seat belt male end clinking against the panels, so some cheap ole beer coozies went to live another life.

 

Nice R53!

Other than your media pics, any details on your build... engine, exterior, interior mods, paint or wrap, etc.? Also, what's the story of the Greg Ray helmet?

 

Thanks!

Its an 06 factory built JCW with cold weather package, headlight washers and homelink that just rolled over 20K original miles. Originally Astro-Black with Silver roof, it is now wrapped (Avery Dennison Gloss Grass Green), with 99% of the chrome replaced with either overlays or new parts just so that the car can go back to its original self easily if/when the time comes.

Engine and exterior: BEHE/LDG remap and tuned, sits on Cross Competition coil overs and VOLK Le37t's 17 X 7.5s, SPC control arms, Magnecor Kv8.5 ignition wires, Hotchkis rear sway bar, M7 strut tower brace, 15% reduction pulley added, a GP style wing from CED, front and side splitters, rear diffuser from LEAP, LED Brake lights and 3rd brake light with pulsar, updated LED DRLs up front .

Interior mods are simply RSD, I wrapped the dash trim, and have seat covers to protect the original, and switch up the look. There are the 4 point Schroth quick harnesses as well for spirited runs/auto-x days. Whalen shift knob, Harman Kardon sound, Ian Cull auto up, Ultragauge, Android tablet for UI, updated LED puddle lights, and RGB under-seat/footwell illumination. Any decals/stickers I have I've left to the door jambs.

You can see pics HERE of most everything. I haven't done an interior shoot or engine bay shoot in a long while, but that'll give me something to do now with cooler weather moving in.

As for the helmet, it was gifted to me from a guy that we became friends with through our local watering hole. He's the retired fire marshal for our fair city and has a great garage with all sorts of killer stuff, it's like something out of a movie. He called me up one day and said to stop by and he gave it to me. I've just left it in there until I finish up my display tower in the tinker temple.

 

RSD done for now, debating on carpeting it and adding some reinforcement, as it does bend/sage easily in the middle. Also lined with sound deadening. Fire extinguisher finally has a home.

 

Nice look.

 

Great job!

 

This is also one of my hobbies

 

Making progress on the tablet UI. Grabbed a Verizon Samsung tab A 8 inch on Swappa for a steal, stripped it of bloatware, got its operations down to the bare bones. I'd like to root it as there are a couple of macros I'd like to enable, but for right now, it works for all things audio, nav, calls and text. Finally go it to screen on and off with the power of the car, launches automatically and shuts down upon power being cut.

After messing with 3 or 4 car launchers, Car Launcher Pro was the choice. I like Amaga but it lacked the level of customization I wanted, and Carwebguru was just too wonky, imo.

A screen for general interface. A screen for some trip logging and "analog" speedo, and one with a green logo, music controller and eq.

Quick vid:

https://imgur.com/H8ndf6t

 

TATTRAT, that is nicely done, are you a computer hacker by trade? What else are you adding to this display unit?

Don

 

LOL, no sir, not at all, just a tinkerer. Chef by trade for 25+ years, but now out of the kitchen full time, and handle photography, digital marketing/branding and social media while also maintaining a Culinary Mentor role all with the same company I started as a chef in.

As for adding to the tablet, it's more some functionality like making sure that wifi/mobile data turn off when the car is turned off. I don't want to inadvertently leave say Spotify on, and it be running all night or something.

IDEALLY, I would also have Torque running on this, but I can't get two things running on one OBDII port, the BUS just is too fast and sending too much info, I can only do the UltraGauge OR Torque, not both. I've tried a few different splitters, but also don't want to goof anything up with the cars systems too.

The whole social distancing thing, and being away from my fiancé since March, I've just found myself trying to keep busy both physically and mentally. All the money I haven't been spending at the Bar, has seemingly gone into the Car. Just trying to make a modern equipped R53 I guess. It's all still a toy, and I just love foolin' with it.