Hey all. Just thought I would drop in and say Hello.

 

Hey - I know you! How is Boulder treating you? You are going to CU right?

 

Your getting more snow and cold weather than normal up there this year aren't you?

 

im going to dust and Nero my interior tomorrow. also want to Slick and Hydro the wheels.

 

dusted the interior and Nero'ed both commuters. car looks
fantastic and smells like banana's.

will clarity either this afternoon or tomorrow.

 

Seems he is busy, don't take it personally, cause when the getting to clean happens, the hard cores get cleaning

Mark

 

The Clubman test drive today sealed the deal.

Anyone want a very sweet, well cared for 05 BRG MC
cabrio

Mark

 

lotise- oh really? oh wow.

 

Yeah, what he ^ said...

 

We have driven other 07-08 Coopers and MCS's so it was interesting to see if the added length would make a difference with the handling of the car, and from the test drive I could not tell any difference. Maybe a back to back test drive of a Coupe, then a Clubman would be better.

So hopefully this spring we will sell the Cabrio, and start the ordering process.

In other news, it snowed here over night, with temps heading to the 40s, but then 2 more days of rain/snow, so bath day for the MINIs won't be till later in the week.

Mark

 

Sounds good (on the Clubman)! How're you going to spec it?

I test drove one the other week, and if anything it felt like it handled a little better under certain situations (like highway on/off ramps).

 

Cosmoline 1, Blimey 0.

WD-40 proved completely useless at loosening my epoxy-like cosmoline... moving on to goo-gone now...

 

Cosmoline 3, Blimey 0

Goo-gone makes a dent in some of the softer deposits, but the really dried on stuff doesn't want to budge.

Mineral spirits worked! But it also started stripping off the non-clearcoated engine bay paint. So that's a no-go...

There's some nasty orange hard baked on deposits right along the seam at the "bottom" of the bonnet when it's open (passenger compartment edge) - I might even resort to hitting those with touch-up paint...

This is making me crazy... gotta be a solution somewhere...

 

Right now we are looking at a CR/B. LSD, stiffer sway bar, Xenons, cold weather package, sunroof. Otherwise a stock Clubby S

Mark

 

Just a thought, use the mineral spirits, then use touch-up paint to fix the paint you remove.

Mark

 

blimey- try some RC car motor spray.

the stinky version is brake cleaner.

 

Cosmoline 5, Blimey 0

Goof-Off - removes non-cc paint VERY effectively... though also took the cosmoline with it, so maybe I get 1/2 point for that... I'm getting good at covering LARGE areas with tough-up paint...

Greased Lightning - maybe loosened it some, and dissolved a little paint...

I'll try brake cleaner next (done for tonight)... pretty confident it will strip the paint also... Maybe I just need to strip the whole underside of the bonnet and repaint in a Union Jack theme...

 

WORD !!

 

Well, I DID have a major victory today, in spite of the #$!@ cosmoline... I was just working on that stuff during the "wait" time on my BIG project... I'm doing an "extreme makeover" of my one-ball exhaust. I had been waffling for some time over putting a new stainless exhaust on... Alta or Invidia probably... but I really like the sound and performance of my one-ball, and have a hard time spending about $700 on something that most folks will never see, and that won't further impact performance, and won't sound appreciably better than what I already have...

I decided that the only thing I DIDN'T like about the one-ball was the way it looked - that big nasty brown/rust/silver ball looking out at you when viewed from the rear... plus the OEM beer can tips...

So I ordered up some nice tips that I should have later this week - that will take some fab work to make them fit perfectly... but also decided to black-out everything under the car that can be seen from the rear. So I removed the battery box skidplate, exhaust, and the rear portion of battery box heat shield and cleaned and painted all these with 1200F ceramic flat black engine paint. Also painted the OEM galvanized lower control arms with black caliper paint (which I could brush on without taking them off which would require a realignment)...

I'll post pics when I get the tips on... but it already looks FANTASTIC... viewed from the rear, all you see is the car - you don't see any ugly OEM parts peeking out from underneath - all that stuff just disappears with the flat black on it... hoping the paint will hold up, but it should... right kind of paint, prepped it well, so we'll see...

It's always fun spending several hours doing something that most people won't notice, because it makes things look like they SHOULD OF in the first place... but I notice...

 

sounds(?) good! :thumbups:


my milltek sounds pretty britishy, i thought.

 

Use your imagination...

My blog's in the process of getting re-hosted... when it's done I'll post pics of the completed job with the new tips...

 

That should look great. I like those subtle details that only members of the MINI community can detect but others can appreciate.
With the galvanized control arms don't you need a special primer to get the paint to stick? I was going to go after them with a rattle can but the caliper paint sounds like a good plan. That paint is really tough.

 

We'll see how it sticks... I cleaned them well and the caliper paint is really "sticky"... so we'll see. I paint lots of galvanized stuff with good success, but usually prime it first... where the arms are, the finish doesn't have to be perfect - so touchups are no problem. While I used the G2 2-part paint for my calipers, I used the Dupli-color brake paint for the arms - which comes in a big can and is 1-part - and I used about 5% of it - so lots left for fixing it in the future if needed. If it doesn't hold up I'll just get some snazzy aftermarket arms...

Yeah, I walked around and looked at it again this morning - it really DOES look tons better...

 

Painting galvanized metal can be tricky, but there are primers out there for it. Etching the surface is a good first step, and plain old vinegar will do this, but you need to immerse/soak it for a long time, hard to do with the control arms attached. But a vinegar soaked rag wrapped around it then covered in cling wrap may work.

Mark

 

I'm now even more glad I took the time to de-Cosmoline under the hood, even though it's not going to start melting all over my plastic bits for months.

My detailing win for the day: picking up four giant refill jugs of Simple Green for super crazy cheap. I've probably got enough to last me for the next decade, and yet I'm still tempted to go back and buy the rest. I'm a sucker for a good bargain.