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Great news! We won 1st place in the Gen 1 category at the SoCal MINI Maniacs All MINI car show on Saturday. What a great way to round out the transformation of this car into what I think my dad would have been amazed by.
It seems after nearly 2.5 yrs since the OP @audihere's MINI car show award, he's been AWOL with no posts whatsoever since then. Perhaps sold since then (or worse) and moved on to new project(s). If not, perhaps reply with updates! With this topic apparently "dead", I'll post subsequent comments related to this on my own (sig) thread topic.
It seems after nearly 2.5 yrs since the OP @audihere's MINI car show award, he's been AWOL with no posts whatsoever since then. Perhaps sold since then (or worse) and moved on to new project(s). If not, perhaps reply with updates! With this topic apparently "dead", I'll post subsequent comments related to this on my own (sig) thread topic.
I still come around NAM to read threads. My Purple Haze MINI is now daily driven to high school by my son. We haven't done any more mods to it. Just keep fixing things that break. I did get another project though, a BMW clown shoe.
I still come around NAM to read threads. My Purple Haze MINI is now daily driven to high school by my son. We haven't done any more mods to it. Just keep fixing things that break. I did get another project though, a BMW clown shoe.
Hopefully he appreciates it a bit more seeing that he helped perform much of the work on it.
I meant to come back and comment after the OP responded. Nice that the R53 is still in the family and in the hands of his son. Hopefully, he's been able to avoid door dings in the HS parking lot! Quite the unique car which must make his peers envious. I agree on BEP/PH color, which wouldn't have been my selection sight unseen (as I believe the original owner of mine had not), however the hue as shown in audihere's pics and my own thread topic isn't at all "girly" as I might figure "purple" might be. Quite distinctive, unique and pretty rare now.
@audihere - BTW, I traded messages with "bj" of Clown Shoe Motorsports this August, which was quite interesting. Perhaps you have as well as an owner of one of those models now...
@audihere - BTW, I traded messages with "bj" of Clown Shoe Motorsports this August, which was quite interesting. Perhaps you have as well as an owner of one of those models now...
Really love my clown shoe. Such a unique car with fascinating development R&D story. I need to get a pic of it with my R53.
Got a couple MINI dome decals off eBay to replace missing one on my key.
I know this is an old thread but still want to ask about the button decal. My key is also missing one and I couldn't find it on eBay or anywhere else... What term did you use to search for this sticker? Thanks!
Well, I thought I revive my old Purple Haze thread. Been a long time, several years.
My son drove the MINI throughout high school and graduated. Then, my daughter drove the MINI throughout high school and graduated. Both really love the car. It was Grandpa's after all. 3 generations single family ownership.
Now, kids are off to college and I decided to do some refreshing so I'll update the thread.
We did have a crazy CAN bus problem which was tracked down to the ECU thanks to some fellow NAM members. ECU was sent out and repaired/replaced to keep the car going. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ror-codes.html
The catalytic converter on my Milltek header "melted" out and wound up getting stuck in my Milltek non-resonated exhaust a few years ago. Put the stock header back on and got a new JCW exhaust installed to keep the car going. No where near as loud but that'll be addressed soon.
Recently did a full front/rear suspension bushing refresh as I want to tweak the ride height and get a full alignment and corner balance again.
Started buying some mods to give the car a new look.
This car has A LOT of chrome on it. I had always wanted to do a JCW style front grill. My dad had actually put black vinyl tape on the grill to black it out, but that didn't last long.
I finally pulled the trigger on the out motoring flat back upper and lower.
Installation was complicated by the existing OEM rally lights we installed years ago.
The rear MINI badge was looking a little beaten down by the sun. Got a new one. Make sure you get the correct version for R53 that has 2 of the same diameter locator pins on it. There was some confusion on a supplier's website and wound up having to return the first one I recieved.
My bonnet stripes started to wear over the years. Presumably from the buffing by my detailer every once in a while. It got to the point I decided they look too scruffy, especially the silver pinstripe highlights on the sides of the 4.5" black vinyl strips.
Well, it took me and the 2 detail guys 2 hours to get those off! They were baked on and baked in. For some reason the silver stripes etched into the paint a bit. We color sanded, buffed with different compounds. Got it as good as possible.
Back to the excess chrome, I wanted to get some black mirror caps, not the tape on version, but replacements.
Checked around for some time but couldn't come up with much, so decided to bite the bullet on some overseas eBay junk. Yep, total junk. I received them and found that they did a pretty good job reverse engineering them if you DON'T count putting the left side mirror's 5 snap's geometry on the right side mirror. And, the right side mirror's 5 snap's geometry on the left side mirror.
It's interesting how MINI's engineers designed the 5 snap's geometry on the left and right mirror asymettrically.
Anyways, major eBay battle, but since they favor buyers so much now, got a refund.
Then saw an R53 that had black mirror caps just arrived at a pick your part not so near us. Sent my son to grab them and those unfortunately turned out to be beyond repair and unusable.
So, as my new saying goes, Buy nice, or buy thrice.
Picked up a set of OEM MINI "primed" mirror caps from major parts vendor. They showed up and only 1 of 2 was primed. Used my old guy that did my bumper years ago to paint them black for me. Mo money.
I noticed that my mirror gaskets were in need of replacement so picked up a set of those too. OEM this time straight from the start.
Installation went OK. I think it's almost impossible to remove the caps without breaking any snaps (at least on 20 year old caps). Not a huge deal here, but I found re-attaching the new caps very difficult to line up the 5 snaps at the same time, and this is with my mirror completely off the car in my hand sitting in a chair in my house with cotton gloves on.
Last edited by audihere; Feb 25, 2026 at 03:46 PM.
I recently saw a cool lowered yellow VW Golf with RPF1's and a rear wiper delete and thought, that would look clean on the back end of this car.
I got the billet aluminum one from ECS and it's really nice. Just spit on the incredibly thin o-ring before you try to place the plug on the window so it doesn't fall out.
I like the look..... My daughter texted back "hey that thing was pretty useful" when she saw the pics.
I had gotten a 456 Fault Code - tank venting system very minor leak detected - and found the gasket on my gas cap was pretty cracked up.
Found that a proper replacement for R53 gas cap is NLA. The part that MINI superseded the old versions with is quite a bit different and sellers don't understand that the tether is too short to stretch to the mounting point on the car when the cap is in the holster while refueling.
So, I wound up buying a new gasket from RKXTech on ebay and it looked a bit different but seems to actually be the correct seal. Don't get all nervous like I did when it showed up
I tried cleaning the inside and outside with some MAF sensor cleaner.
Anyways, it's on the car now. Hopefully no more error codes.
I recently saw a cool lowered yellow VW Golf with RPF1's and a rear wiper delete and thought, that would look clean on the back end of this car.
I got the billet aluminum one from ECS and it's really nice. Just spit on the incredibly thin o-ring before you try to place the plug on the window so it doesn't fall out.
I like the look..... My daughter texted back "hey that thing was pretty useful" when she saw the pics.
"Actual Size" I laughed out loud, which doesn't happen too often
Yep, my dad had me make that decal for him back when he purchased the car new in 2005. Since we've gotten it, I've had to replace it a couple times due to wear. My neighbor once told me he laughs every time he sees it. haha
When I had some work done on the engine focusing on all the oil seals, I had the front motor mount replaced AGAIN, hopefully once and for all! I don't remember how many times this and the tensioner has been replaced - at least over 4 times.
Went with the Vibra-technics version. Looks pretty cool and is a completely different design than the facelift OEM, so I'm hoping it lasts.
... What term did you use to search for this sticker? Thanks!
