My 2003 MCS is beat up. beat up from other peoples bad driving, and the lack of time to get it cosmetically fixed. Then at 255K miles as I was rebuilding it and getting ready for paint and body the Head gave up a cylinder.
Being that I needed a car to drive me to work Now and with a mountain of work to make my poor beat up mini like new again I jumped on craigslist. Low and behold 100 miles away was my UNICORN. A low miles JCW facelift in exactly the same color as my old car with no sunroof. 68K miles for $6500. I went to the bank, grabbed my wife, arranged with grandma to watch the kids, and went to get it. It is the first month of production for facelift. Produced one year after my 2003 yet it is called a 2005. Sadly it does not have factory LSD. but it will get one when I need a clutch. What it does have is the 210 JCW dealer installed.

I brought it home and started to make it mine. First on the list was get it registered, pass smog, and do a full check on everything. New belt, fluids, swapped out a coil, restored some Dinan plug wires and new plugs. brought it in to perfect running order.

Next weekend it got a full set of LCA bushings and ball joints. That dialed the car in and got rid of the shimmy. I put on new tires on my 16" wheels from my old mini. I like the way a lowered mini looks with tall tires and small wheels, and 16" clear my R56 brakes perfectly.

Now my journey has lasted close to 9 months swapping parts as I can. removing the interior from both cars to swap it out. Due to the fact I had installed R56 perforated leather seats in the old mini. Those had to move. as did the JCW steering wheel. The stereo couldn't be left behind. The Koni Yellow, H&R springs, Alta rear sway bar swapped too. now all of this seemed to take twice as long. Oh it did because I had to take 2 cars apart and put 2 back together.

With the handling out of the way. I started shopping for some JCW pieces. I got some new door sills as there were none on this car. It has Aero side skirts. but the PO didn't replace all of the stickers. Which I might add caused me some grief at DMV. I didn't think to look for all VIN number stickers. and this JCW was missing the one in the door jam. I was able to find JCW hood scoop and boot handle. I like deals. most parts are acquired from forums, craigslist, or ebay.


So over the year I have rebooted the drive shafts too. Many many standard maintance items. Living with a R53 since 2003 and never taken it to a shop I know how to maintain it. This was part of my reasoning to stick with a R53. I like the car. have all these cool parts collected and I know how to work on it.

Inside the car I have managed to find a JCW carbon fiber dash. which helped as I hate alloy patina. I found a shift **** and a brake handle. Recently I acquired a auto dimming home link. what a cool product. I like it for $50, for Mini's retail not so much.

On the exterior of the car right away I replaced or swapped over rather the grills for the real JCW aero grills, added my red mirror caps (which I have had since 2003) but I'm ready for a change. I'm thinking about ordering some Craft Square. I also ordered from England the euro taillights. Yes they are prefacelift. I had to rewire some things. You see I have been lusting for these euro taillights for over a decade. I couldn't change my object of desire just because I had a facelift car. Well this to caused me an issue. when I popped off the cover to install the reverse light, Guess what. I had a trailer hitch. Well shoot. being that I have trailers and a bike rack I decided to leave it in and modify the light with a flat LED panel to go around that trailer hitch and mimic the shape of the black plastic cap.

Recently I have started to refresh the exterior. This is my reward to myself to clearing the dreaded P2096 all new raingutter and windshield pillars are now installed. I will be going in for paint soon as the boot needs to be repainted. I tried to swap boots but it seems the wiring is different. and clips in different places. Oh well. My top needs a refresh too. While I have no sunroof. Some birds have placed their acidic ***** on the top before I owned it and it has eaten the paint away.

So I am close. Very close to being done. I also have to paint the black portion on the aero skirts. I also have this really rare JCW piece. the JCW carbon fiber wing. Brand new in the box in the garage. Now for Pictures.


I just needed to share. While I have no pictures while it was in pieces. I do have pictures the way it sits now.

 

 

I tried, but without paragraphs my old eyes said

 

 

You jumped the gun. a forum post is not like word. I type as fast as I can, hit post so all my typing doesn't disappear. then go back to edit it.


You tried in between my post button and my editing.


I am sorry you have old eyes. But I do too.

 

You got a nice one at that price. Gotta keep the Gen1 JCWs on the road.

 

Great work and best of luck in getting your JCW the way you want it!
My project is going much slower than I want it too, but I keep plugging away on it, every chance I get!
Keep us posted on your updates!

 

Great thread; thanks for sharing! Your car looks awesome and I am glad to see others keeping these R53 JCWs alive and well.

By the way, how much trouble was it to put those R56 seats in the R53?