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Hello everyone, after searching for an R53 for over a year I finally found one. After driving a newer Silverado out of necessity for the last five years I can finally get back to having something fun to drive again. I'm still keeping the truck to tow a toy hauler but the Mini will become my daily driver so I don't have to fork over $70 a tank and settle for 15mpg after every fill up.
Anyway, I was looking for a non runner '05 or '06 that I could pick up cheap and start from scratch with a fresh engine rebuild. I found this well taken care of beauty for super cheap. '06 Cooper S, no rust, excellent interior and as close to a base S as possible. Only thing that was wrong with it was a couple of door dings but I know a good paintless dent guy for that.
Towed home, engine pulled next day and then bumper skin placed back on the car.
Great Interior
I always wanted one of these ever since they came to the U.S. Back in 2002. Don't really know why I ever pulled the trigger on one back then, but now looking back I'm sure glad I didn't. These gen 1's seem to have had a lot of growing pains and the parts weren't as cheap as they are now.
Anyway, hello again and I'll post a different thread on the engine rebuild.
Welcome to NAM! Congratulations on the find, looks very clean. How many miles does the body have on it? Good luck with the build and please don't hesitate to shoot me a PM if you need any parts help!
Welcome to NAM! Congratulations on the find, looks very clean. How many miles does the body have on it? Good luck with the build and please don't hesitate to shoot me a PM if you need any parts help!
Thanks for the welcome.
I actually ordered a few parts from Pelican already, it was a pleasure dealing with Glen on the phone.
The engine made it to 164,300 before detonation killed piston #2. The body's gonna double that with me hopefully.
Hi and welcome to the NAM family. Your 06 MCS looks great. One thing of extreme importance: you must only use High octane fuel in it. Running regular fuel will kill pistons, valves and the like! (I see them all the time)
I am partial to the 06 Mini S and dearly love mine.
Congrats on your buy and keep us posted on your rebuild!
Congrats! Great year for MINI. Going our 12th year with our 06 R53 and couldn't be happier. We have only used toptier premimum fuel as recommended by MINI, checked fluids weekly and changed fluids as prescribed,except oil 5k. And also we haven't flogged it. Sofar so good. Enjoy.
Great project... really nice R53 find. By the way, did you ever own a GTI?
We bought a '79 Diesel Golf (Rabbit) when I rotated back to the States from Germany. I went to the local VW dealer before I left the country and ordered all the bits and pieces to turn the Rabbit into a Golf GTI. Our VW confused a lot of people, even a group of German engineers in a pack of Westmoreland Rabbits doing desert testing out in Arizona. My german was still pretty good back then and they just couldn't understand how I could have a Golf GTI in the U.S. I finally had to open the hood to prove it was just a Wolfsburg built U.S spec Diesel Rabbit disguised as a GTI. Fun car, even without the power. You certainly had a bunch of them.
As you can turn wrenches, and as that appears to be a nice rust free Cali car, you are going to have a nice car to tool around in when you are done. You going to do any other repairs while you have your wrench out?
As you can turn wrenches, and as that appears to be a nice rust free Cali car, you are going to have a nice car to tool around in when you are done. You going to do any other repairs while you have your wrench out?
Repairs, money, daughters college tuition, what to do. Yeah I'm a little concerned with the auto transmission and the mileage. I would really like a 5 or 6 speed but I don't think I can swing a conversion with all the money I'm spending on the engine rebuild.
If I can swing the engine and I have a little money left over I'll rebuild the auto trans since its coming out anyway when I install the new engine. If the money's not there I guess I'm going to ride out the automatic trans until it dies and then do a swap. The biggest thing holding me back is it's my daughters first year of college, even though she's still going to live with us we're not sure what unexpected bills are going to arise.
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and the premium fuel advice! I hadn't even thought about it. It's been a while since I had a premium fuel vehicle.
Great project... really nice R53 find. By the way, did you ever own a GTI?
We bought a '79 Diesel Golf (Rabbit) when I rotated back to the States from Germany. I went to the local VW dealer before I left the country and ordered all the bits and pieces to turn the Rabbit into a Golf GTI. Our VW confused a lot of people, even a group of German engineers in a pack of Westmoreland Rabbits doing desert testing out in Arizona. My german was still pretty good back then and they just couldn't understand how I could have a Golf GTI in the U.S. I finally had to open the hood to prove it was just a Wolfsburg built U.S spec Diesel Rabbit disguised as a GTI. Fun car, even without the power. You certainly had a bunch of them.
GTI's, aren't they great Funny you mention a '79 Rabbit, almost bought one from Oregon before deciding on the Mini. I was gonna convert it. But the Rabbit was too far gone with Rust and parts are too hard to find.
GTI's have always been a great well rounded cars. They're no rocket ships, but the handling and the build quality was always what I enjoyed. Just a well built vehicle. Room for 4 and decent trunk space.
My first GTI was a hand me down from my father that I had in high school, fell in love with VW's after modding, and working on it. The '87 was the first brand new car I ever bought, Red with plaid Recaro seats and BBS wheels. Traded that one for the next when it was paid off. I put over 350,000 miles on the '92.
Then I went Japanese. The Honda was fun with the 9000 RPM redline, very high strung. Kind of like a two stroke dirt bike. You go from barely any torque at 800-6400 RPM to 240 screaming banshee horsepower from 6500-9000 RPM. That car had really bad road noise and no room to carry anything. I missed the quiet of the VW's and went back.
My '05 got totaled when I got t-boned and that opened the door for the '06 which was far superior to the previous gen. The R32 was a harsh lesson in auto depreciation. Funny how once you hit your mid 30's you realize there is more to life than always having a car payment. It was like I woke up one day and realized how much money I had lost over the years on cars. Maybe spend that money on more important things like owning a home instead of renting. Maybe save up some of that money to actually buy a vehicle outright or have some savings to fall back on.
New '17 GTI and Golf R's look nice, but not for $30-40k
I like the Mini, working on it the last couple of weeks it reminds me a lot of the first GTI I had. Yeah stupid **** seems to break or wear out on them like sensors and o-rings but so far it doesn't seem really hard to work on if you've got the time and patience. And it's paid for
GTI's, aren't they great Funny you mention a '79 Rabbit, almost bought one from Oregon before deciding on the Mini. I was gonna convert it. But the Rabbit was too far gone with Rust and parts are too hard to find.
GTI's have always been a great well rounded cars. They're no rocket ships, but the handling and the build quality was always what I enjoyed. Just a well built vehicle. Room for 4 and decent trunk space.
My first GTI was a hand me down from my father that I had in high school, fell in love with VW's after modding, and working on it. The '87 was the first brand new car I ever bought, Red with plaid Recaro seats and BBS wheels. Traded that one for the next when it was paid off. I put over 350,000 miles on the '92.
Then I went Japanese. The Honda was fun with the 9000 RPM redline, very high strung. Kind of like a two stroke dirt bike. You go from barely any torque at 800-6400 RPM to 240 screaming banshee horsepower from 6500-9000 RPM. That car had really bad road noise and no room to carry anything. I missed the quiet of the VW's and went back.
My '05 got totaled when I got t-boned and that opened the door for the '06 which was far superior to the previous gen. The R32 was a harsh lesson in auto depreciation. Funny how once you hit your mid 30's you realize there is more to life than always having a car payment. It was like I woke up one day and realized how much money I had lost over the years on cars. Maybe spend that money on more important things like owning a home instead of renting. Maybe save up some of that money to actually buy a vehicle outright or have some savings to fall back on.
New '17 GTI and Golf R's look nice, but not for $30-40k
I like the Mini, working on it the last couple of weeks it reminds me a lot of the first GTI I had. Yeah stupid **** seems to break or wear out on them like sensors and o-rings but so far it doesn't seem really hard to work on if you've got the time and patience. And it's paid for
I saw the list of GTIs and had to comment! Euro Golfs/Rabbits were excellent drivers. I drove a friend's Westmoreland build Rabbit and found it not to be closely related to the Euro built units. We enjoyed the heck out of our poser GTI. Beyond the GTI bits, we did put Koni Yellows on it and fat rubber on light alloys to make it fun in the curves.
We all go through that car thing in some phase or another. Fun while it lasts, but then comes stuff the kids education expenses and all the rest. At least you're not paying for room and board... college has gotten into crazy money levels.
You found a great Mini, obviously well loved inside and out and it's paid for. Best way to do it. One of the most fun cars I've ever driven. Once you get it sorted out, it should be a reliable ride. '06s are the ones to own. Enjoy it! Minis spice up any trip, errands around town to a major trip across country.
Funny you mention a '79 Rabbit, almost bought one from Oregon before deciding on the Mini. I was gonna convert it. But the Rabbit was too far gone with Rust and parts are too hard to find.
