Lookin' good!!!!

 

gray raven, looks fantastic - you've addressed one of the drawbacks of that type aero kit by extending the exhaust - but beware: Summer is approaching (not quickly enough, but approaching). You may want to wear shorts. Circular burn marks on the lower leg are painful! ;-)

 

Sounds like the voice of experience there?

 

Finished first part of re-doing my dash. Pre-surgery: dark interior, piano black, but silver gauges with silver trim rings. I did not like that. Installed Outmotoring black gauge faces. They are very plain looking since the check lights don't show when not lit, I also like the fact that all digits are right side up. Plus, they will match my JCW gauges when installed. Then I changed all trim rings to my exterior Lightning Blue, as well as the glove box release button - the chrome was always glaring me in the eye.
What do y'all think?

Here's the how-to thread on removing trim rings:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ed-how-to.html

Next up: JCW gauges

 

Piano Black? Interesting term. I'm a piano tech at a major university. There are many kinds of black, but I've never heard this one. Gloss black, laquer black, laquer black satin, satin black, ebony, satin ebony, rubbed satin ebony, anyway,; They're all different. To be stylish, say Steinway satin rubbed special. looks pretty nice.
Loving my '05 MCS lightning blue, black boot stripes, LCD lights, sun and moon roof windows, Soon to come sway bars and pulley.

 

The special satin rub costs $10K extra! lol! It's standard on the 9' concert grands, but for $120K retail, would you ask for less??? Better yet, get the Bubinga or Madascar Ebony satin rubbed interior. Way cool. I would if I could. Wow! $25K extra on the Steinways! Yes I said extra! No, we don't have one of those. Check out Steinway.com to see the fun stuffs! I would love to do that on my MINI. I have to win a lottery though. I'll bet they could part with some of their nice veneers or connect you to the source if you're nice. Or give me a message. I have ins there as you might expect.

 

Piano Black is the MINI designation for the black colored interior trim pieces.

Dave

 

Gloss black interior trim pieces.

 

Yep, the two pieces you see in my above photo to left and right of the vents, respectively. Them's the piano black ones. Shiny like a Steinway.

 

Yup! Yowtch!

I redid daughter-unit's CV boots, there's a place near me that repacks and reboots for $20/joint cash. Nice. At $40/axle, those boots oughta go another 100k...

Now to find a good, inexpensive place that'll do a removable resonator delete on my JCW exhaust...

 

I'm really getting bummed! 3 days now without my MINI! Since I had to replace tires on the Rav4, I had to postpone some great winter tires for the Blue Meanie :>) I'm driving the Rav4 and miss my Blue Meanie everyday. Tomorrow will be fine, sort of, Bite-*** cold, but at least good enough to get behind the wheel. Believe me, winter tires are high on the list of "what did you do to your MINI", but just can't quite do it yet.. .tick tick tick...$$$ Ironically, I'll afford them about the time the snow stops for the winter! Hey, maybe clearance sales!!

 

Awesome! Them shiney ones are usually from Hamburg too! The normal satin finish is from NYC. You can special order anything of course. For those who care, the Hamburg Steinways have curved sides next to the keys and the NYC Steinways are more cut strictly. Strangely called "cheeks" (?)


see... you can learn something for trivia challenge at the MINI Dragon thing while sipping a brew at day's end!! I'm trying to figure out how to get out there to tame the Dragon this summer. Looks like a blast.

 

Ugh... Just get in your car and do it... If you wait until the right time, you either wont get there, or it will be flooded with Fugly-56's. :(

 

Popped my stockies out 12mm

 

Finally took the '05 MCS out today as the roads have been plowed nicely now. My son took out the snow blower and did the driveway nicely on Wednesday. A lot of snow blown into the side of the Blue Meanie! I thought I cleaned it off and thought nothing of it going to work this morning. Getting to 40mph the steering wheel starting wobbling something fierce! Worried me, so I stopped. Checked the wheels and sure enough, huge chunks of ice stayed on the inside of the rims, so to throw the wheel balance out. Cleared it out, and voila, no more shake! I'm a happy camper now. I was fearing the worst!

 

I ordered a Cooper Crap hitch to mount my bike rack.

 

Swapped my telephone mic over to the "American" side. Installed auxiliary lighting in the boot. Light was $6.95 at wallyworld and mounted it to the dummy plug.

 

If you were going to paint your calipers and had the choice of powder coating them or going with a rattle can, is powder coating so superior as to rule out the rattle can? Or is there a brand of rattle can that would come pretty close.

I'm going to be taking the calipers off and I have access to powder coating where I only have to buy the powder... And a case of IPA, of course.

 

You can buy heat-resistant paint that works well on calipers. I did it once to my CRX, came out okay and cheaper than powder coating. Sorry, I forgot brand names.

 

Ive used multiple brands of rattle... The VHT crap seems to work OK, but if you can get them powdered for cheap, go that way!
Its like a pork VS tuna comparison in durability and overall look as time goes on.

 

My vote goes for powder coating also. Much more durable...looks better... Other than the work of taking them off the car.... cleaning them up... waiting for them to be powder coated... etc and the cost to do them. I'd say powder coating is far more superior to any kind of rattle can you can get. But if you do go "rattle can" try the G2 stuff. Its alot more expensive than the others but from everything I've seen does a pretty good job. I used duplicolor caliper brush on paint and I must of not of prepped them very well or something cause it turned out like crap. Even after 4 coats on each caliper.

 

I think a question is permanent vs temporary. If you get tired of the look the rattle can will eventually wear off. That's been my observation and reluctance in deciding.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone - I just wasn't sure if the durability and was so much greater to warrant the wait (there is a wait involved with "free") and the extra labor of removing the calipers. I try to do things the right way if I can and you've all confirmed what I thought about the powder coating bit. As it stands, the MINI will be garaged for a bit with a suspension issue - looks like my one of my front end links (Alta) took a crap. So now's as good a time as any to get these calipers done. And see how good Alta is about their warranty.

 

Got a name tag for Tink

 

Picked up new tires, Michelin MXM4; 215/45/17 and gave it a car wash.