Looking forward to the results. What are you using to remove the waterspots?

 

I'm using ScratchX to remove the waterspots. You have to put some elbow grease into it, but so far there hasn't been a stain on my roof that I wasn't able to remove. Once I get them all off I'm going to throw on a coat of paint sealant (I like Griot's stuff) and then I'm hoping I won't have to worry about spots for awhile.

 

Drove it around the central portion of AZ - from Mesa to Happy Jack to pick up garbage on our local MINI club's sponsored mile, then lunch at the Long Valley Cafe, then back down and over through Camp Verde, Cottonwood, and Jerome, up over Mingus Mountain to Prescott, tried my darndest to get a cuppa coffee at the coffee roasters there, but they were closed, then on through Yarnell and Wickenburg, across to Cave Creek on Carefree Highway (yes, the one from the Gordon Lightfoot song), through Rio Verde and Fountain Hills, back to Mesa. 348, er...wait, 364 miles total.

Mixed signals about the coffee:


More pixs here

Got LOTS of bugs on the car, so I blasted 'em off at the self-serv carwash when I got home. Will do the Stoner's on the windows tomorrow, along with some bug & tar remover to get the more stubborn bugs off.... :D

C ya,
Dutch

 

Joe that sounds like an awesome drive, I grew up in the PHX Metro area!!
The Jerome route is what I remember as being a bit scary as a kid, but boy would I love to take Molly on some of those roads!!

The last time I was back to visit and took Molly was last March, it wasn't a Vacation Visit, though I did stay at the Best Western Dobson Ranch so it seemed like a Vacation. I also got to visit MINI North Scottsdale, what a Great Dealership, Molly got a good L@@K over, Oil Change, and a License Plate Bulb replaced because it had burnt out.

 

I took some before and after pics but I must make a couple of disclaimers. 1) My camera skills suck. I tried several different angles and these are the best I could come up with. 2) The waterspot stains are a lot easier to see inside my garage with the overhead lights versus outside in the sunlight. I guess that's a good thing but it made it hard to really capture what's going on.

Anyway, here's a pic of some of the waterspots. Imagine this all over a black roof.



Here's a pic of the same area after a few minutes of ScratchX plus a coat of paint sealant.



Here's what the entire roof looks like from a few feet away.



And this is just Douglas being a ham.

 

Well, today I installed my Alta cold air intake. It was kinda a pain, not because it was hard, but because the directions were kind of vague and provided very few pictures. That and they described the process on a R56, and not on an R53, which didn't help.

Anywho, the Mini sounds better than ever. The previous owner I swear never took out the filter...it was dark chocolate brown/black. It was disgusting. There were what looked like popcorn kernels all over the place in there, and grime coated in inside of the intake box... it that was so dense that we had to clean it 4 times with Fantastic cleanser.

I also put my silver M7 and Alta decals in the rear side windows on each side. I'm loving my two upgrades, and the car is running better than ever now.. that supercharger really screams!

I've ordered my black out kit and aero grille, and will be ordering my stripe kit soon as well. The Mini is going to look as sick as it drives :D. After that I'll be doing the pulley mod as well... but for now, I'm really enjoying my car and how amazing even a simple drive to the grocery can be

Pictures to come tomorrow!

 

Can't wait to see those!!

 

Nice job removing the spots, looks good.

 

What did we do today?

We went for a nice drive on some great rain soaked roads. Hardly any other traffic. Saw a surprising number of other MINIacs out doing the same thing.

Beautiful time of year with all of the trees in bloom or pushing out new leaves, lots of daffodils and tulips. In the rain everything looks clean and fresh.

 

I drove mine to Bellevue (just east of Seattle) and back this weekend. Momma has been through the mill with me the last couple of years- 2 motorcycle crashes & a near fatal illness & she still sorta likes me.

She let me get the JCW before I could really afford it & she deserved the birthday meal of her choice.

She decided that she wanted a steak at Ruth's Cris Steakhouse & the closest one is in Bellevue, so off we blasted Saturday noonish and just got home. Put 500 miles on the Beast and it's absolutely filthy (rained on Saturday) so it needs a bath badly.

We were impressed with how comfortable the car was, considering how small it is. Got a little bit rough through Snoqualmie Pass, but the road is rough no matter what you're driving.

All-in-all it was a great weekend & we'll be hitting the road again soon.

 

Sounds great Bilbo-Baggins!!

I am so jealous of both of you...taking drives in your MINIs.

Bimjo sounds like you got a Good Woman, she does deserve something Special, glad you able to enjoy the ride, the company, and the scenic drive you took!!

I am still recuperating and though I was able to get out of the house on Friday for Molly's Dr. Appt. and yesterday for our normal Grocery Run...I'm still not able to drive. Molly hasn't been out of the Garage except for Friday and a quick trip around the Block I had Hubby take her on a couple of weeks ago.

I'm half-way through, so another 5 Weeks and I should be released from the Dr. and able to take my Molly Girl for a Spin!!

 

The wife and I drove our two about 500 miles on our way to MOTD!

 

Hey, Bimjo, I like the color of your car.

RJKimbell, hope you are well enough to be doing plenty of your own motoring real soon.

 

1st interior detail of the spring, fixed the hummm on the AUX input, relocated the HAM radio.

 

RJ - thanks, and I hope your recovery proceeds unhampered. I know the feeling of not being able to do anything.

Bilbo-B - It's not a color I would have picked buying new, but it works pretty well.

Squirlz - MOTD. I'm jealous. We have a couple twisty roads here, but nothing like the Dragon.

 

No twisties in WA? I find that hard to believe. Try googling sport bike routes in your area. I found a ton of good twisties here in AZ that way.

C ya,
Dutch

 

I said we had some twisty roads, but nothing like the Dragon. And anything that might approach it is a couple of hours away. I found most of the local twisties when I rode bikes.

Actually, there's probably more good roads in NE Oregon than there are in SE Washington. Such is life.

 

Oh, BTW, to keep on topic--just drove to work and back, and from work to the credit union to pay my car payment on my lunch break. Wasn't up for much other than that, due to having stepped on a dead bee (that I'd picked up somewhere outside Wickenburg and had cleaned out of the car earlier that day) last night when I ran out to the car barefoot to get something. Darned Mercury Retrograde....

Most of the better twisties are a few hours' drive from here (Phoenix, more or less), too, but there's some real doozies out here. I'm hoping to find a weekend free sometime in the summer to do the Coronado Trail (aka route 666), and maybe some of the other good routes in western NM in that same bunch of mountains. I have done the Wickenburg-Yarnell-Prescott-Jerome-Cottonwood run twice this spring - once going clockwise on Easter, once going counterclockwise this past weekend. The stretches on either side of Yarnell are truly awe-inspiring, as is the bit going over Mingus Mountain and through Jerome.

The run out to Canyon Lake is good, too, and very close to home.

Sometime I'd like to run up the PCH and see the northwest. Oregon would feel like home (NJ) with all that not pumping your own gas they've got going on there....

C ya,
Dutch

 

i took of the the rear cooper s badge. im really liking how it looks and it was easy to do.

 

Pics. please!! And "How to...??"

 

Did you use the "dental floss" method?

I have thought about doing mine. If I get bonnet and boot stripes, I will definitely do it, since I want the stripes to go under the logo.

I've also considered shaving the S, getting a second set of letters, and doing this:

SOOPER
. COOPER



C ya,
Dutch

 

Had my '06 S RMW'd by the mighty JAN, then had R56 front brakes and ROTA RB 17" wheels installed with new Conti SSR tires. Was a busy day...

 

Ok here are a couple of pictures of my afternoon project. I added sided stripes to Camden, it was not very hard to do and I only have a few air bubbles and details that I will take care of later. Not bad for $30


I want to be your LatexSalesMan!!!

 

nice!!
Hot sun will take care the bubbles.

 

Let's see....today my mini and I...well not really I...but, my mini, got its first ever real detail! I had a mobile detailer come out to my office and they spent 4 hours detailing the inside and outside of my car. They did the clay bar, wax, wheel polish, steamed my seats and cleaned the upolstery. etc. etc. etc!..!

Ahh it is soooo nice! I feel like I'm driving a brand new car again...and the paint on the car feels smooth like butta! (butter...heheh)
all except the dang vinyl bonnet stripes which have yucky yuck stains on them. Man, I hate those things. I'm thinking about just having them painted on... *sigh*

So that's what "we" did today.