Thx Albiecrazy i will be checking them out later on after work.

 

Today, I blacked out the lower grilles on the Astro Black 2009 MCS. The MINI came with the Chrome-line exterior trim package. The beltline, headlight rings, and taillight bezels are still to be blacked out. I am replacing the chrome grille trim with a JCW black grille trim. The door handles, mirror covers, and boot handle will done in carbon fiber vinyl.

 

Finally got around to activating the free Sirius XM subscription. Yes, I'm serious!

 

Just installed a JCW grille trim kit.

 

Just took off the bumper, intake and a few other items to get things going. Waiting on parts to come in on Wednesday to replace super charger.

 

Gave the car a quick was in anticipation of my freshly painted trim rings coming back from orangecrush on Monday. No detail work as I'm super busy this weekend and it's going to rain all week...supposedly. The fact that I didn't detail it means clear weather, if I had, it would rain all week.

But, that's not what I did. What I did do was very simple. Removed the "Cooper S" from the back. I've been toying with painting the letters or just removing them altogether for a nice clean look. Decided to take them off. Fishing line removed them super easy and then a clean up with goo gone to get rid of the sticky stuff. Ended up with a lot of embedded dirt especially between the o's so after I finished washing I hit up that area with some car polish and a microfiber towel and it came out smooth and clean.

Before and after...


I shot this one in case I want to put the letters back, I know how they go.

 

I replaced my Brisk plugs that had less than 15K on them for the NGK Platinums that came with WMW pulley kit and guess what? The hesitation is gone. She's running better than ever before. I thought for sure the plugs should have been fine, but then I realized I got 14S plugs, which aren't cold enough for the 15% pulley.

So the only issue left to deal with is the leaky CV joint on the passenger side, then hopefully it is smooth sailing for years to come.

 

It was nice out today, so I took a little drive, and while I let'er cool down, I waited on a little something from Way. I installed a BSH OCC, and it was SUPER easy.

Sorry for the super-bright picture, I took it with my phone.

 

And nothing says "clean" in an engine compartment like a big'ol sticker telling you how to properly refill the oil... LOL Going to be relocating that at my earliest convenience.

 

Isn't it great?! I bought my '03 with Sirius XM paid for life already. It's been on the same classic rock/oldies station for ever since I brought it home!

 

My buddy installed NM Engineering Engine Torque Arm Mount Insert today for me.

 

Change oil using Penzoil Ultra 5W-30. Noticed my engine mount starting to leak.

 

Took my dirty girl mountain biking.



Love the roof rack and highly recommend it over the hatch rack.
Thule 400XTR with Aeroblade bars, and a Rocky Mounts Euro Pitchfork bike rack.

 

Autocross!!!

 

Nice! From your experience auto crossing, roughly what percentage of cars are manual?

 

I'd say 80+%. Out of 10 cars today though I think I was the only automatic (there may have been one more) and today was the first time I actually felt at a disadvantage having an automatic, for some reason my "automanual sport shift" whatever you want to call it refused to stay in first gear and kept jumping to second so I was losing a lot of power through turns =(

I'm not a great (read: actually pretty bad) manual driver but I got the chance to drive a buddy's manual 06 Civic Si and it wasn't bad..

 

i figure it's in the programming, they dont want us to kill our engines by bouncing off the limiter. my friend's z lets him shift up and down whenever and won't automatically shift up when he reaches the redzone.

 

Right that's what I would think except that it didn't always do that, I've autocrossed before without having that problem...

 

Finally installed my minimotoringgraphics dash decal (the second one they sent me, since the first one was messed up).

What a waste of time. While the coloring was slightly better, I can still see the printing lines (banding is what the local graphics company called it). They resized the middle piece of the dash, so it actually covered the whole panel, but the steering wheel one was still too small, and BOTH VENT HOLES WERE MISSING!

Way to go guys! Thanks for wasting my $70. Good thing 3m bought you out. It's also too bad you're the only major player in the mini graphics game.

DON'T BUY FROM MINIMOTORINGGRAPHICS.

I'll be going to see Lyle up the peninsula soon for my vinyl needs; it's much more difficult than it looks on YouTube.

 

Did a whole bunch this morning. Woke up at 6am to paint my wheels green, plasti-dip the side scuttles, and tint the read side markers. All done by 10:30am!

 

More blackout work today. I removed the taillight and headlight trim rings and went to work. I scuffed the chrome with some fine sandpaper and came back with a Scotch pad to take out the abraision marks. I then painted them using Krylon Satin Black Paint for plastics. Here are the results.

 

Looks great srtoad4!

 

Part of the interior after swapping out clear bulbs for amber.

 

Thanks man.

It's getting there, slowly but surely

 

clay bar and a fresh coat of TFP polymer sealer. Got all the over spray off. The TFP darkens the shade of the blue slightly. Shines like a mirror too.