Oh, this is going to be an interesting build...

 

The barn find should be coming home on the 20th. I'm going to be in Mini overdrive!

 

And the wife approves?

 

It means parts to fix issues on her car, of course she's on board!

 

So, as posted yesterday in the "What did you do today" thread, Grumpy got a belt drive refresh. New tensioner, idler, and belt. Things are much quieter now and today he took my wife and daughter to the beach.

 

Today my dad and I took a short trip and pulled out the barn find R53 I stumbled across a couple of weeks ago. The story goes it was wrecked in 2006 and stuck in the barn after a repair estimate was worked up. I took a look at it and between the accident damage and the storage wear unfortunately it's just not worth the money and effort to save. OTH it still has a ton of good parts on it. Stayed tuned as I dig in and explore the overall condition of this modern classic barn find.

There's definitely some residuals from the accident. I had to crawl through the back seat and tear the trim off to pop the hatch and get to the safety battery terminal. It's an early build from 7/02 and it doesn't have the emergency release under the back seat, which I find very strange. After power up I got an odometer reading, which is 77,518. A lot miles based on the story, but still low. Next was the windows not going up, even with the car powered up. Pulled the door panels and found they were getting a down signal, but not an up signal. Pulled apart the motor connector, swapped the terminals, and got them up.

So far I've been referring to this one as Grumpy 2.


As found slumbering for last approximately 15 years.

Everything cleared out and the cover pulled back.

Out in the daylight!

The broken trans mount and what appears to be a broken trans case. Will have to compare to Grumpy and see.

How mangled the left frame horn is. I pulled off the mangled subframe extension to make room to turn the wheels. I'm not sure if the subframe is tweaked, or not.

At home, windows up, and rinsed off. Lots of mouse nests, spiders, bugs, and what looks to be a squirrel skeleton still inside.

 

Hopefully this will donate a lot of organs to the cause. Yeah, MINI definitely blew it when they overlooked the manual release for the hatch in the early builds. It can be a real pain in the a$$ if your battery dies, over the winter, for example, and you've closed the hatch fully. Ask me how I know...😉 Aren't engineers supposed to think of that kind of stuff???

I hope you provided the squirrel bones with a proper grave...

 

As a backup on a car with a missing or broken manual release cable, the hatch release should power up with the positive jumper post in the engine compartment. Not sure on the barn find car though as it looks like there’s damage to that area in the pic with the ECU.

If the battery is missing, be careful as the loose positive cable could be grounded out.

 

And whatever they hit, didn’t bust the bonnet But it clearly took out everything below it. Strange?

Also, it appears that the mice and other critters will nice enough to leave at least some of the wires intact.

Check for LSD? Even if the case is cracked, that would be worth something or it would be something you might want.

It will be interesting to see what you get out of it...

 

No juice with jumper cables because when the airbags blew it blew the safety battery terminal. Once I got the hatch released I could reconnect the safety terminal and it works from the release with jumper cables.

They hit a stump, so, yes, low hit. Must have been with a good bit of speed. And a good tip to check for LSD. I was secretly hoping it was a JCW, but it is not. Doesn't have HK audio, either, but I might still put the stock base radio in Grumpy. Looking for better FM reception, and I'd probably add a Bluetooth module while I was at it. The HK amp has already been bypassed in Grumpy.

 

Tip:
If the battery is dead or missing, or the hood & trunk cannot be opened, the main battery cable runs under the floor on the left side. If you stab it with something sharp you can get +12V to it; ground can be anywhere convenient. Then the key, & maybe the fob, can unlock the door.

 

I'd rather break the plastic trim at the base of the hatch to get to the latch than to damage the insulation on the main battery cable, personally.

 

Being a 2002 it won't have LSD unless the trans has been swapped at some point. I'm also looking for that forgotten JCW barn find myself, lol

 

Grumpy came home from the beach today to find his new friend.

 

So yesterday we picked up a new key from Mini of Baltimore County. I knew I could get into the fob programming function with my Autel, but wasn't sure it would work. It took me some digging in the key itself and in the info from other keys stored in the car to figure it, but I finally did and got the keyless working for the first time since long before we owned him. Now, for whatever reason, the driver's power lock seems to have called it quits. 🤦‍♂️ It used to auto lock and lock and unlock with the switch on the dash, but it's completely caput. Good thing G2 is here!

 

G2?

i have wondered about getting new keys for these older MINIs. The plastic fob button area crack on one of ours and the spring and guts fell out. I am surprised to see MINI deals might still have them...

 

G2 = Grumpy 2, what I've been referring to the parts car as.

More on the key front, these are made just like my e46. They maDe 10 keys with the car, preprogrammed to the EWS/immobilizer, and come from Germany ready to run. The e46 uses the same process as the later R50/R52/R53 Minis for programming the key fob. Not sure why they used this silly method on the early Minis. This is key #4 for Grumpy, and the key we got with him is #3. Since I have no idea what happened to 1 and 2 and went ahead and disabled them in the EWS module while I was trying to get the new fob programmed. Mini of Baltimore County wanted around $150 on top of the cost of the key to program the fob. I'm sure it takes them no more than 15 min to do it, too. For the price we pay for these keys that simple part of the process should be included, or at least offered at a reasonable cost.

 

First parts are swapped over from G2. They aren't perfect, but they are far better than the ones that were on Grumpy.

Old on the right, "new" on the left.

Ah! That's much better!

And I found a use for the BBS with the bent/cracked barrel. The post was rotten and broken at gound level.

 

That mailbox will be solid from here on out!

 

Grumpy is looking good...

The mailbox stand is great!

 

Thanks!

I really need to get the hatch swapped next. It will be good to get the rear defroster back for this winter, and the right tag light is not working again. I had rigged it up last year, but that must have come loose.

We got our occupancy permit for the house project, so the main push is to get my wife back into her office space and out of the kitchen.

 

I admire your ability to stay with a project and to juggle more than one. I hit the point of “functional” on some my projects and move on. With some projects it is tough for me to do the finishing touches. Then they sit...

Hey... Will “Grumpy” still be “Grump” once he is all “new” again?

 

Grumpy will always be himself in spirit!

As for seeing projects through...I'm not so sure on that. LOL! And part of it comes from having too many going at the same time. It's gotten better since our car count has gone down, but house always has things that need done, as well.

 

Pulled the S/C off G2 today and am happy it's in excellent shape. The alternator was completely seized, though. Snout coupler and waterpump drive seem to be nice and tight, the rotors still have the coating intact, and it turns nice and free. I also took some basic pics and will be starting a part out in the classifieds.

 

An ‘02... The first year... It is sad to see one of the originals being parted out. I know, too badly damaged, and if you could have worked your magic on it, you would have.

I just noticed that our ‘04 is missing one of the “plugs” for the fog light openings and thought of you for a replacement... No such luck with the bumper gone... Last winter I took it to a touch-less car wash and the pressure washers they use were so strong they ripped off the 3rd brake light and the black part of the “MINI” from the front and rear emblems. My guess is that this plug was pushed out by them too...

Hope the parting out goes well for you...