Hi all,
Just picked these up and had a couple of questions? These are r56 skirts correct? The sill plates look to me to be r53 style not r56 style? Do these look like original r53 sill plates or reproductions?
Thanks,
Dean

 

Yep,
R56

The sill gels are likely original, they continued using the mk1 logo up until around mid 2008 I think?

 

Thanks I figured you would know the answer was going to PM you but couldn’t figure out how to attach the pics! Now I have to find the post about what I need to put these on my r53. Just read it the other day!

 

They already had the 2005+ euro tailight retrofit kit at blow out prices about 6-7 years ago for $70 each, not $60 as I originally posted, and I was able to get a couple of kits.

Around the same time I got a pair of mellow liquid yellow interior door panels for $19 each and a full alarm retrofit kit for $55. The door panels were the entire panther black door panels with the liquid yellow surrounds, but nothing removable like armrests, speaker grilles/door handle trim, or reflectors. Also ordered at the same time, but they ended going NLA and never came in, were a leather and an alcantara JCW shift **** for $42 each.

 

.
.
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I guess that not many people bought the JCW keyrings because they're rarely ever seen,
wonder what the price was new back then?

Here's one on offer that recently popped up:

Asking price ~ $225 !!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275472491...MAAOSw-W1jLaSN

.

 

They are replicas, be very careful... these pieces have not been manufactured for many years...

 

They are replicas, be very careful... these pieces have not been manufactured for many years...

 

Regarding the entry sill covers. I have a set of NOS, a set of repros from what a geek (uk) and a set from this eBay seller. I’d say if these are repros, they are spot on with aluminum backing like the OEM. If they’re actually repros, someone spent a lot of time and effort to get this finished product.

 

JCW t-shirt recently popped up for grabs.

Pretty rare in my opinion,
ever since starting my obsessive scanning of JCW auctions several years ago,
I've only seen 2 examples of this shirt come across the wire.

 

And also,
many of you may have already seen this because it's archoval footage from 2006 from some sort of promo film or something, but I just saw it for the first time and I totally love it much because such rarity on yootoob viddies to have "just the facts ma'am'" type of stuff without soundtrack music overlay or rambling hyper-commentary, so always love seeing the straight dope.

GP0001

 

Another thing recently seen.

A snapshot from the past.



:

Chris Dawson wrote:

"Works House

the lads and Mike Cooper with a Cooper S kit ready for BMW to pick up .

Boxes were made by ace packaging supplier Design Packaging Group."

:

 

Awesome!

 

meanwhile...



spotted this GP i/c and the seller sent an "offer",
but nope not me,
still too rich for my blood!

(even tho I'd really love to have it!)



Just in case someone here may be looking and has much deeper pockets than mine,
here's the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325360670726

:

 

Well,
looks like someone bought that GP i/c today, it was still available when I posted the link.

Likely someone took the offer which was probably sent to all the watchers.

Best current price for a new one is from bmwpartsworldwide but as far as I know they are no longer a MINI dealer and they cancelled my last order which was several months back, does anyone know if they are still actually dealing in MINI parts?

If they ain't then I wish they'd remove that portion of their site because it is like an unlawful taunting and gives me slight trauma because their pricing is parallel to my old beloved local dealer MINI of Kennesaw and man do I miss them!

 

^^^ Correct, bmwpartsworldwide no longer is an authorized OEM MINI parts dealer. Added a couple P/Ns to cart 2 days ago as lowest USA price found, sent email to confirm availability, then got reply from "Dennis" stating they can no longer look up MINI parts nor sell them...

Perhaps consider Schmiedmann - Denmark

 

Thanks for the confirmation.

Kind of a bummer about them dammit!

May try Schmiedmann at some point, was surprised that freight charge seemed reasonable,
went ahead and did a dry run checkout on the link you provided and the quote was $64.

Have read positive review of them on BMW forums (also sprinkled with bad reportage as well tho) and they used to advertise in Performance MINI print magazine.

Would be a good source for euro-only stuff too I'd reckon, or even stuff that was available over here but now hard-to-find-or-actually-get like the recent experience I've had attempting to find a small simple dummy plate...


:

One dealer has already cancelled my order with no real explanation,
but then updated their site to say under this part number "backorder"
so it must be on the way out or gone altogether,
may be more common in Europe with a few sitting on the shelf somewhere?

Ran that part # thru S-mann just now to see
and they don't have it in stock either...

 

Whoever bought the intercooler probably did it just to take advantage of the exchange rate.

 

Bad news on that used GP i/c in that it suggests one less special vehicle still on the road...

If it were my $$, I'd much rather pay add'l for a NOS unit that one used to the point the donor car died. After my failed attempt with the mentioned no-longer-a-mini-dealer, I decided to order my wanted but not really needed parts from Schmiedmann and did so last night. Total of (4) parts was ~ $253 to which was added; $16.15 shipping to AZ, $1.48 "pack & handling" plus ~ $7.5 credit card fee (but not Euro VAT). There was a $2 option for payment via direct bank transfer which I chose not to do. As soon as I entered my CC number info and submitted, I got a fraud alert by text and email from my bank asking for verification I was the one doing that transaction. I replied YES and re-submitted which took, after which the online transaction provided a receipt and updated status to on-order (summary shown in English, all else in Danish translated using online Danish to English utility).

Similar to the parts OBS displayed, parts shown "expected in stock in 30 days" which is likely default for anything coming out of a BMW regional warehouse location. I wouldn't expect Schmiedmann in Denmark to stock anything other than routine service parts with most else for the 1st Gen likely coming from Germany. So then, an overall savings ordering from overseas but probably not optimal when parts are needed for a pending repair project.

 

I hope your order from Schmiedmann doesn’t end up like mine did. I ordered and paid for a pair of JCW Recaro’s w/airbags from them and the shipping charge was a reasonable $128 for the pair. A few days after the order, I got an email saying the actual shipping is $524 and didn’t include any customs, duties, taxes, or any other fees I might be charged once they land in the US.

 

^^^ If that happens with an amended increased shipping quote, I'll probably cancel the order with full refund due. I don't believe a merchant can arbitrarily charge an additional amount to your credit card without specific cardholder authorization. If Schmiedmann does so, I'll dispute the VISA charge in full and report here for future reference. WRT customs import duty, these documented guidelines seem to imply value of goods I purchased for personal use are below the threshold outlined, i.e., not worth the hassle. We'll see...
Basic Importing and Exporting Internet Purchases


Edited to add Schmiedmann's statement on order confirmation WRT shipping charge adjustments, which alleviates my concerns posted above:

Freight price: 16.15 USD excl. vat (Our freight calculation system may not always calculate orders with odd sized / voluminous items correct. In these instances we will always contact the customer for approval of revised and correct freight charges prior to shipping your order. You will of course be able to cancel your order if you do not wish to pay the extra cost.)

 

The email was just a notice of the issue and the additional shipping wasn’t automatically charged. I could have cancelled the order, hopefully without a hassle getting a refund for the original amount, but I wanted the seats and paid the difference. My original post was an FYI/review of my purchasing experience with Schmiedmann, and that a reasonable shipping amount from them at the time of purchase might not be accurate.

I know the additional duties, fees, etc. were also due to the value and shipment size of the seats, but many people forget to take the possibility of additional taxes and fees into account when ordering from overseas.

For the record, other than the revised shipping amount due to bad website/e-commerce shopping cart programming, I received good customer service and had no problems with shipping delays or damage. The duties, taxes, and other customs charges did add quite a bit to the final amount though.

I would definitely deal with them again for any hard to get or Euro only parts I’m looking for.

 

Shoutout to @OutMotoring for hooking me up!





Dunno why the dealer I dealt with cancelled my order for this, and likely won't use them any more since they can't seem to be bothered by a small order.

Many thanks to OutMotoring though who got it for me.

After much debate and contemplation I've decided to do a radio delete --- this blind plate looks great and has a better finish than I was expecting so I'm stoked about that, will have to drill it out though because it will ultimately house 3 gauges.

 

 

Thanks for the link! I'll post photos after it's installed.

 

I can't remember if I replied to this thread previously, but just ran across a post from it that I had saved in Jan 2022.
Just in case I did not, here is the info on my 2004 Cooper S JCW

Kit number S3902
Dealer 35071, Jackie Cooper
Date 03/15/2004
Vehicle Mileage 1.501