Just picked up a project 2004 R53 Mini with 145K on it. Previous owner got it from his cousin and was slowly working on it until the power steering pump went 2 years ago and it has been sitting since. The car does run and drive, was able to drive it on and off the trailer and into my garage. Brake pedal hits the floor, shifter is hard to move, power steering is non-existent, and when I drove it around my dead end street briefly, felt like it was under-powered. Obviously have my work cut out for me. There are also some cosmetic issues I need to take care of, hood has a dent so that needs to be replaced, both doors have some light rust along the bottoms, small amounts, there is a tiny rust bubble under the the rear driver tail light, its missing the molding on the rear drivers quarter panel and there is a small dent there. No rust or rot under the car, nothing bad on the inside of the door sills either. This is not my daily so I will be chipping away at it as I get to it. First item are the brakes and the power steering. I'll go through the brakes, see if i need new pads and rotors and bleed the system. For the power steering, I have a letter the PO included about the recall, so I'm hoping I can get the work done for that for free. Once i get these done I can give the car a real test drive to see whats what. I also need to replace the hood as soon as possible as it doesn't latch completely with the dent. Looking forward to posting. Thanks!

 

Nice, I hope you got a good deal on it. I'm starting to see more and more to fix on my 04 I picked up a few weeks ago.