Hey Everyone,

So I've been a MINI fan since they first came out back in early 2000's. We ordered an '03 back in the day and its been in the family ever since. When I saw 0487 for sale locally, I had to buy it. It may be the highest mileage GP in the country and as such, needs some reconditioning. This will be the rebuild page for the car and I'll add pics and details as the car gets pulled apart.

My intentions with the car are to get it rebuilt back to near stock, fixing some of the issues known with the 1st gens, and hopefully have it as a fun reliable car to take occasionally to the track and complement the other cars I have in the garage. It currently has 145k miles and has all the issues known to other 1st gen's.

Known issues so far:

• LCA bushings
• oil leaks from all gaskets
• cracked pre-cat from failed motor mount and dog bone (check engine light)
• scuffed wheels
• dirty interior and unsavory smell
• Parking brake doesn't work
• supercharger hasn't been serviced
• shifter bushings are sloppy
• small drivability issues
• JCW intake valve doesnt work
• A/C doesn't work

Anyway, here are some pics of the car as it sits.

 

Finally had some time to pull apart the front end of the GP. The oil pan had been leaking (the oil pan bolt had been stripped) and the time sert that had been installed had also failed. So i ended up just buying a replacement oil pan. The A/C had lost its charge and due to the amount of miles, the condenser had been damaged by all the grit from the road, so I bought a replacement one. When I was pulling off the bolts, I found one of the condenser line bolts to be loose, so I assume that is where the charge had been leaking from. I will do a vacuum test on it once its all back togetherr and do the problem solving if it doesn't hold vacuum. While it's apart, I'll be changing out the thermostat and housing, bypass valve, vacuum lines, as well as the oil cooler gaskets, the valve cover, crank and cam position o-ring, oil pan gasket, and all the parts that go with the supercharger. Here's some pics of the work so far!



Car was really dirty when I first got it

Used some chrome polish and got the tips sparkling!

Did a group wash with some of the other cars in the garage.

The oil pan bolt had been badly repaired and was leaking a lot

Pulled out the seats and found 15 years worth of dirt and grime. I steamed the carpets after vacuuming and a lot of the smell is gone. I have been cleaning the seats and will put them back in once they're no longer dirty



It looked like the Crank position o-ring had never been changed. The amount of oil and dirt around it was a lot more than the '03 I had done with only 80k miles.


All the valve cover bolts had rusted and needed to be replaced! Why does it cost $200+ to replace them!?!?!

valvetrain looked really good for the miles. The car's oil had been changed on time!

Same with the oil pan. Everything looked clean - at least on the inside


the rotors looked really good

There was still oil in the PTO

 

HI
Your car looks great! The supercharger looks really good, like it is not the original, but I guess if it was well maintained, it could look this good. There are no scrapes on the vanes, which tells me the bearings are holding up well!
The engine also looks newer, or very well maintained, as it is clean as a whistle!
I had been looking for one (06 GP), but had a knee operation in January 2019 and it did not go as well as the other knee, so my funds for it went away! I will get one at some point!
It is good to keep this build thread!
Best of luck on this rebuild! I will keep watching your progress!
Congrats on your 06 GP!
Wayne, the old fart!

 

Congrats on the GP, and glad to see you are rebuilding it. I just had a GP in with 136k so you do still have more miles. I wonder if anyone has more on a GP1 as I haven't seen one yet. The one I had years ago had 120k, so it may be possible if someone actually drove it after they got it.

 

Congrats and well done!

 

Thanks! Yeah, I was very surprised with the supercharger vanes. I bought the car from the original owner, and he mentioned he'd never changed the fluids or the waterpump, so I'd bet its the original one. Also, interestingly, all the parts i've pulled off have some marker writing on them. If you look inside the supercharger, there's some measurement writing on different parts of it. i've rebuilt paxton superchargers and i've found similar markings (used to space out the impeller in the housing, and set the right backlash on the gears) so I wonder if it's similar in this case as it was a special build. I did the same rebuild on my '03 and i didn't see any writing. And yeah, I was relieved to see a clean upper end, especially at the mileage! Hope you eventually get a GP! They're really fun cars and feel special!

Thanks! I feel like i should be posting a youtube video saying "I bought the cheapest and highest mileage GP1 in the US" and see how many hits i get! There's probably a couple cars out there with higher mileage though, but I haven't found them yet!

Thanks!

 

Looks like it found a great new home!

Off-topic, but could I get you to post, or PM me a pic of the front of your 03? I'm seriously considering de-chroming mine, and would like to get a look at what you've done with yours.

Thanks!

 

Thanks, it's going to be brought back to hopefully close to showroom condition.

Here's some shots of the '03.

 

Wheels fit!

Replacing the rear tail lights as they had some cracks. Been spraying the rear brake lines with penetrating oil so hopefully its not too much of a bear to remove them.

 

I took the GP wheels to a refinisher to fix all the curb damage and powdercoat them the original color. Will also be fitting some new rubber to the tires, so it should really handle better than the Pilot Sport all-seasons that were on it before.

I also ordered new shift cables and bought a short shifter (like i did on my '03) which should greatly improve the shifting feel. The difference in shift feel between the '03 and the GP is huge. It completely takes away from the experience on the GP, so while its all apart, i may as well replace parts that influence the driving feel.

The car also has the yo-yo effect and I got a new bypass valve to hopefully rectify the issue. The '03 never had the issue, so the driving experience in the GP is a lot worse! Can't have the GP not drive as well!

 

Steamed up the seats and got all the dirt out of the clot



h insert. Also steamed the carpets and found a little bit of rust on the sills. Will clean that up and seal it up. Found more dog fur and dirt under the shifter console.

 

Congrats on the purchase! Glad you are saving and restoring it!

 

Thanks! It's been fun to slowly build it back to it's original self.

 

Installed the new oil pan. It's the shiniest thing on the whole thing! I will be scrubbing the block and applying some paint soon.

Drained out the entire amount of oil from the front and rear. The fluid wasn't actually that bad, but smelled horribly.

PTO gears looked great.

Still filled with fluid

Installed with anaerobic gasket maker

New water pump installed and ready to put back on the car.

 

Picked up the wheels from the machine shop/ Powder coater. They look so good! One of the biggest issues were all the scuffs and gouges on the OEM wheels. Can't wait to see how much improved the tires are compared to the old ones. Also pulled the exhaust and found why the thing was so loud! Thankfully I can weld!
Got the wheels back from the powdercoater. They welded the curb rash and gouges. Also put on a set of Firestone Indy 500's. Have these on one of my S2000's and really enjoy them for stickier street driving.

Pulled the JCW exhaust and found why it was so loud!

Both mounts on the inside of the cans

Ouch.

 

Those wheels look great! I always wondered what those wheel would look like on my Clubman...

 

Yeah, they came out really nicely! Not sure if you noticed, but i got them in 215/40/18's and their sidewall will be a little bit bigger than the 205/40/18s that came stock.

 

I don't think I've ever seen so much salt damage to aluminum. You need to keep an eye on all the normal places rust accumulates on the body because it looks like this MINI lived north of the Mason-Dixon Line for a while.

 

This lived its entire life north of the mason dixon line considering the PO and I live in New Jersey, LOL! But yeah, there's some surface rust on the LCAs and the subframes, but they will be taken care of once i get to them.

 

Wow, the mufflers are toast! I guess shitty New Jersey roads and salt water were too much for the stainless steel!
The tires and wheels look great!
Sometimes progress goes the wrong way for a time! But I am sure this is not a big deal!

 

Nice work! Hoping to do the same one day.

Anyway here's one with 106K looks to be original owner too.

https://treasure.craigslist.org/cto/...021979713.html

 

Yeah, thankfully I have a welder and have the correct wire to weld them back! It looks almost like stress cracks to me for the exhaust, but who knows!

I love the process of rebuilding, so that's half the fun! And thanks!

Looks good! The spread on these cars and value is hard to work out. That one looks like a pretty good deal for the amount of miles and condition!

 

Hi Soul Coughing,
Most people don't know this, but stainless steel have a weakness for salt water and being wet with it for a long time. It weakens the structure and a few back fires, or burbles, would likely show this type of failure and GP are tuned to do this burbling. The weakened stainless becomes brittle and fails. I have only seen this in exhausts that live in eastern climates and highly salted road areas.
People that buy stainless steel guns are usually unaware of this shortcoming of stainless too!

 

That's good to know, thanks!

I'll clean up the area, weld the pieces back together and then add a little extra material to give it a little extra strength. I did not budget for a whole new exhaust system! lol

 

I thought that number was familiar. That is actually SCUBUS on this website trying to sell his car. He has a couple build threads on this website about all the work he did to improve his car.