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Couple months ago I was lucky enough to pick up a R53 JCW car on ebay with a no reserve action. The car lived in PA for many years and although not terrible it has some rust and oxidation that we here in beautiful Bama are not so familiar with. I already have a donor for some parts and have sourced new and used stuff around over the last couple of months. I wanted to post this bring back up so that others can see what I am doing and also advise on this project. There are things like painting I have never done before. As you look at the pics I have at least one area that must be done and the hood would probably be a good idea also. The baseball size dent in the hatch right now I not to worried about because I am going to drive this car daly to work 100 miles a day both ways. The car has a clutch and rear seal leak it seems I will get into that in a day or so why Im on vacation. hope that is all I find.car runs great!
Alright onto the car
We have 6 running R50 and R53 minis. my college age kids all have one and we have 3 here.They all have names because its me and the women. Paying for my sins now!!
This cars name is Rusty
2006 facelift R53 119K
The first thing I have done is source a set of R90s in silver thanks to Cooper48 over in Dallas for looking out for me!.
The car is royal grey metallic with silver roof which I find to be a great color for me and looks great with silver wheels.
It has leather interior which I like in really nice shape for its age
Chrono and nav
WMW over in Atlanta has supplied me with a bunch of stuff that this car will receive in the next 10 days or so. I sent him the lower control arms the other day to press the power flex bushings on the lower control arm.
The car gots its name due to the fact the steel components have surface rust so that is getting replaced by the parts from my southern donor car. body seems to be fine best I can tell so far.
Will be taking the clutch out in a couple days and will post that up.
The pics I am putting up show front end service mode with a good pressure wash to start. I hope to make this car neat as a pen with all mechanical stuff repaired.
Hopefully then I can tackle some body repairs that I have never done.
Keep an eye on this thread. I don't usually post much because I am always at my real job unfortunately..
I would appreciate imput.
A few hidden areas where rust can start to develop and gets much worse before it becomes visible.
-Door sills, pull up the bottom portion of the door gaskets and check the pinch seams. There's tons of threads about this.
-Tail lights, I've seen a lot of R50/R53s with rust around them, it starts from behind and works its way outward
-Rear hatch grab handle, there's a flimsy foam gasket between it and the sheetmetal. Water gets it and does its magic.
Great Help! The car is coming into the garage this afternoon to begin and I will look at these areas first thing. I bought some I think its called rust inhibitor and incapsulator spray and paint from POR for this problem. I want this great example of a 53 to survive. I will shoot a pic or 2 as I go and hit me up if you think of anything else I may need to look at.
Check the hard brake lines - those going to the back are most likely to rust first. The junction is below the drivers pedal area outside. The oe lines are steel coated. They rust. Replace with Cuprinol ( Copper / Nickel alloy ). American grease stick is a good source. Advance Auto has them too. Harmonic balancer center rubber breaks.
Roger that! I will sure check that out. Running late getting the car in. Had a unforseen problem with the one in the shop space. holding me back a bit.
Been working on the donor front suspension over the last 2 days. Cleaning disassembly and painting. Got some new stuff to update that. It will defiantly be a bunch of parts restos over the next little bit.
I putting a pic that was made before I bought the car and a couple of todays work.Hopfully get the one in the way straightened out in a couple days.
Ok! I have been working on this car. It has turned out to be more than I expected but I will finish as fast as I can. I am trying to update every one on the progress.
First I have been restoring some of the parts as I get to them. Lots of work just for that but this car is worth it. I really wish I has not used POR15 high gloss on the front sub frame. brushed on and does not look as nice as I would have hoped but the parts are coming from the donor so rust not as much of a factor but the other parts will get a different paint type
I have pulled up the rubber in the doors and it does have the rust you said mrbean! I now wonder if I should take all the plastic off the longs and check under there? What do you think?
I have not checked at the rear lights or the hatch yet but I will get that done. It seems I am going to have a bunch of body issues before I get to reassembly.
It is extremely helpful that you folks with experience are helping me!
You are spot on noodlesandsam! Taking the rear suspension off and removing the calipers twisted right off on one side and looks to be on the way to failing on the passenger side as well. I am going to try to use the donor lines if possible.Getting the crap kicked out of me with cost! Here's a shot of what I found.
I do not have any pics but I also have the original exhaust all ready for installation. Had to dip into the donor for that too but all original with new clamp and fasteners .
The exhaust as you can imagine has a bunch of issues!! Hanger bracket failures ,heat shield issues and battery box isues.
Had to rob the donor of brackets too. Just doing a quick search and it seems they are $50 bucks each!
I am needing badly someone who has fixed the battery box heat shield studs and can tell me what to order and so forth. I looked for a few minutes and just decided to ask here because I could not find the tread but bet one exists on the repair. I can weld here so someone please point me in the right direction.
The primer is just some I had. I got some rust encapsulating paint on the way and some body color to repair the door gasket ledge.
ANY help is very Appreciated!! Please comment! I am so looking forward to finishing this car and lots of you have experience that would be really valuable to me!
More to come. J
On the battery box heat shield: i have done the studs on the hangers for the exhaust my R52 Cooper. I drilled holes and drilled out the old rusty broken studs. Double nutted a stainless bolt and prepped the area for rust and painted it.
R50/R53 R53 MCS batterg box delete? - North American Motoring
Looks like an M5 nut and it would drill out the old studs and go from the top and drop in stainless M5 bolts and put a nut on it. How bad are those screw studs on the bottom of the box?
My bad. I guess I didn't do a good job with what Im looking for.The studs on the bottom of the battery box and a few on the sides are the ones Im looking for that use the fender washer nut that holds the heat shield to the body. Im glad you sent the diagram because I will need the plastic nuts as well for the lower heat shield. Not sure where the spacer/shim goes. There are a couple of different screws or studs in the diagram but the battery box is not in that pic so need some clarification if one of those is the ones for the battery box. Seems like there's 8 studs in that box. Is that correct?
Getting somewhere now! Want to move past this repair.
