took her to the park today to feed the ducks

 

Summer shoes back on today, and in mounted up my Yakima rack with some used towers off of craigslist. Haven't carried a bike yet, but it seems nice and sturdy

 

installed boost and water temp gauges!

 

Today I installed my new Alta hot side boost tube on the '09 JCW. Removing the old one was an exercise in anger management, but the new one took all of about 15 minutes to install.

 

Mini Fini Stainless Steel scoop insert...

 

I love it....here's mine on my inside rear view, been there a bit over a year.

 

THANKS!!

 

Hahaha that's great!

 

Thats why we are all here, no problem

 

The "Krautenküper" got an adjustable, 19mm, Hotchkis rear sway bar this morning.

Used the 2X4 method to get the MINI up on four jackstands with my one floor jack, and the whole installation took 2 hours and 15 minutes (solo), from start through clean-up. The install was surprisingly easy, although I used the NM Engineering sway bar instructions I downloaded from their site -- better photos.

I went straight to the middle setting, and have kissed all my understeer goodbye. Even managed to kick the tail out and drift a little around a tight curve. The ride is nowhere near as harsh as I expected, and there is still a little body roll. It's still quite comfortable, so I might try the hardest setting just to see what happens -- don't want too much oversteer.

Best upgrade, EVER!!

 

Got the screw pulled out of the run-flat and got it plugged.

 

AAhhhh, gave Giggles her first home, hand wash, and applied liquid polish to hide the "swirlies". Vacuumed and cleaned her inside, too. She looks purtier than when I picked her up at the dealership. She is beaming and gleaming and so am I!

Who's a pretty car?!...........YOU ARE!!!!

Uber proud Mama of a 2010 HzB/Clubgirl, fairly loaded, much loved (and now very pampered!)

 

objects in the mirror are losing. that is absolutely priceless

 

cleaned out my oil catch can!

 

Rip out armrest/console.
Remove Schroth harness.
Wish wife would get her own car.

 

43-mile motor along the Front Range...also ordered a bunch of stuff from Griot's Garage.

 

K, so it was really yesterday and not today, but Nudnik and I went out to the Supes to see the snow. Yes, I said "snow". In AZ. In April.


We made a little fun of the 4x4 crowd while I was there:



No MINIs were harmed during the photo shoot....

C ya,
Dutch

 

Sick flexxxx, hah!

Hey man, I'm in that 4x4 crowd too


Um, do you have different license plates? hah.

 

Yours is on 4x4 status too lol

 

Had a little more fun with photo-editing trickery when I got home:


C ya,
Dutch

 

It's all in good fun!

The front plate's a decorative one that I bought at the Tortilla Flat Gift Shop down the road a bit from the pic.

AZ only requires the rear plate, though with vanity tags they give you two, even though when you use regular tags they only give you one.

I'm glad my car has a sense of humor!

C ya,
Dutch

 

I did a little interior work which i have to finish next wknd after my kw install couldn't be happier with the result. Thanks to my g/f for sticking w me through out the work Wrinkle free, might need to re stretch one of the arm pads in the future.

 

Bravo.

 

I believe the snow. I was playing disc golf and got snowed on in Vegas on Saturday. It sucked.

 

Performed blood transfusion (i.e., oil and filter change) yesterday for a 2800 mile break-in maintenance activity - 2011 S Clubman.

Used BMW oil and filter from dealership.

For those that haven't done this, but plan to:

1. Use of gloves and loooong Allen wrench highly recommended when removing oil drain plug.
2. Access to the filter and housing are the worst of any car I've ever had the pleasure to work on. Relocating the coolant reservoir is necessary, so use care not to overflex the hose connection on the bottom of the reservoir. My hose started to work its way off as I moved the tank out of the way until I noticed it and supported the connection as I moved the tank around.