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Nice restoration so far! I'm really interesting in seeing your progress as I picked up a 1 owner 79K mile R50 yesterday that had been parked about 5 years ago. It needs a lot of work, including clutch, but the body's straight and the engine runs good. It needs a lot of minor appearance stuff and some trouble shooting to figure out some of the electrical gremlins. But the cool thing is its also a liquid yellow car! The PO named her Winnie and had a Euro front tag made with her name on it, which came with the car. We're keeping her name, well, because that's basically how she came from the dealership! I'm going to start a build thread in a few days.
Did some research and found some LED tag lights that I may be able to modify and make work for low $$. More testing is required to determine where we lose the power.
Also been thinking about trying some rattle can action to try and fix the peeling clear coat issues. A member of the e46 community had some great results painting a bumper cover with rattle cans. I did a 1/4 panel many years ago on my 82 Rabbit Convertible, and have done a few sets of wheels with good results, too. Research will commence into the cost factor. Hoping I can give this a go for around $100, but even for $200 I think it would be worth it. It honestly can't wind up worse!
You don’t see the peeling clear coat on MINIs too often; at least I haven’t seen much discussion about it on NAM. But I have seen it on other cars.
Any idea what causes it? Bad prep at the factory? Too much sun exposure?
That is another one I haven’t seen much of is body work. I did come across a thread by a guy who picked up a damaged GP2 and had the body work done in about 5 days (judging by the dates on his posts). He didn’t get into any detail and my guess is he was in a Pro shop; not a DIY. If yours works out with the rattle cans it would be interesting to hear about the details for the DIY’ers out there.
From looking at the isolated occurrences of the clear coat peel on Grumpy it looks to be poor prep or incompatible materials used in a previous body repair. Where the clear isn't peeling there is a color difference to the adjacent panels that also points me in this direction. I talked to a pro that I've used in the past about a respray, and even as small a car as this is, it would still cost almost as much we have invested in the car to this point. Getting the questionable panels properly prepped, there is a bit of rust work that needs attended to, and he said yellow doesn't cover very well, so it takes more paint. Still a lot of good info to have as I dive into this. Realistically there should be some more attention paid to the mechanicals before I attempt this.
Grumpy has his grumpy face on, now. The various methods of reattaching the studs to the hood scoop did not hold. I noticed it was missing when I looked out the kitchen window while cooking dinner. I asked my wife "what happened to the hood scoop?" "What do you mean?" she replies..."Oh! That's what flew over the hood this morning on the way to work! It just looked like a piece of paper in the mirror." Not that I expected her to stop on the highway and try to retrieve her broken hood scoop, but how do you not notice? Lol!
Today is a new (but not unexpected) problem. The balancer has kicked the bucket. The wife called me yesterday morning because the battery warning light came on while she was headed to work. She killed all loads and made it home with no issues. I took Grumpy into work today to test the charging system, so I loaded everything up: AC, radio, lights, rear defrost, etc. Before I even got the tester hooked up I heard some funky noises from the drive. Shine the flashlight down and see the alternator isn't turning, and neither is the AC compressor. D'oh! Like I said, at just shy of 175k miles this balancer had a good run, and I know they are a problem. New one from a reputable German manufacturer is on it's way for Thursday. Thanks MG Motorwerks! Driving the living room couch (2004 Ford Crown Vic from work) while the wife drives the e46.
The extra vehicle has been down for a few weeks, now. My 94 Grand Cherokee started puking trans fluid out the front seal, and now sits in the driveway with the trans yanked out and in the process of having the wheel arches opened up and the rusty rockers replaced with 2x4" 3/16" wall tubing. Yup, I can't leave things alone or stock. Lol!
The AC decided to not run today. 3hr trip and 92 deg out. Ugh! Hoping it is just a fuse or it came unplugged (?). Hope it wasn’t a mouse with a taste for wires.
The AC decided to not run today. 3hr trip and 92 deg out. Ugh! Hoping it is just a fuse or it came unplugged (?). Hope it wasn’t a mouse with a taste for wires.
Well, you, my wife, and my daughter tell me that. I think I'm just a glutton for punishment! Lol! Why don't I drive a Hyundai or Toyota? Oh, yeah, because I enjoy driving! Actually, those two would be at the top of my list for asian cars with a good driving feel. But, they just don't have the dynamic and personality of a quality Euro! Then again I do own an aged Jeep product, but it has it's own purposes and costs a heap less than a Rover!
Honestly? Some of it is the challenge of keeping an older vehicle on the road. I have the skill set, it still saves money over a new car payment, and these older models are so much cheaper and easier to maintain! The newest car we own is a 2003 (x2), and the lowest mileage just rolled 150k, and it doesn't bother me a bit. Better a well used and well maintained car than a problem waiting happen due to lack of use! These things were meant to be driven, so go out and drive them! 👍🍻
And, enjoy, I shall. MINIs have a wonderful personality that other cars don’t have. This is what separates MINIs from other cars. Today and tomorrow are fun times in the MCS buzzing around the track that is a few hours north of you.
Grumpy is back in action! I fought myself on the balancer a bit, but finally got it figured out. First step was to make a belt tensioner tool out of leftovers from a flat panel TV mount and an extra socket. Found some drawings online to base it off of and it works pretty well. Old balancer off. Yes, thise are M8 nuts welded to the face. I didn't pay attention to the proceedure and was trying to pull it off of itself. This ia what hapoens when you rush, and I ended up breaking M6 bolts off in the balancer. Finally got a stud to push on threaded into the crank and the old balancer off. New Corteco balancer. Definitely the OE supplier, you can see where the BMW markings were ground off for sale in their own packaging. Extra time involved but it still ends up being the less expensive part.
On track for a less Grumpy face, now that drivability is back! Brand new MINI scoop sourced from Ebay, as delivered. Very glad to have the new studs. Wish it had come with nuts, but I have scrounged just enough M5 nuts to get it fastened down! 4 coats of black, 3 coats of clear, Rustoleum rattle can treatment. It's not my best rattle can effort, but I think there is plenty on there to give a little wet sand and polish once it's soldily mounted on the car.
Scoop has been installed! While the black is better than the as delivered primer, the black treatment is getting a little over the top. Still better than no scoop!
The gloss scoop does tie in much better than the horribly plastidipped grill, I do agree. The grills in general aren't cohesive, IMO. The lower honeycomb grill and the bar style uppers clash with each other. This is becoming the car that Ebay built. Lol! Been eyeballing the matched set of upper honeycomb grills, just haven't had the extra scratch to grab them, yet. There's a car lot down from work that just did a respray on a Cooper S in a dark burgundy with all the gloss black like Grumpy has and it looks really sharp!
Grumpy is ready to hit the road again! The wife parked him last Tuesday and Wednesday morning he wouldn't start. I checked and he had tach signal and spark and that's as much time as I had to mess before work. Saturday I pulled the back seat and access covers and thumped the pump while cranking and he came back to life. Today I got the new VDO fuel pump unit and had installed before dinner was ready.
Reminds me of the Lucas fuel pump in my MGA... I think I used the hammer on the generator (yes a generator not an alternator) a few times, too, I would have thought that the old “hammer” fix would gone the way of those old British electricals...
Last edited by Eddie07S; Aug 28, 2019 at 05:22 AM.
Reason: Edit
Reminds me of the Lucas fuel pump in my MGA... I think I used the hammer on the generator (yes a generator not an alternator) a few times, too, I would have thought that the old “hammer” fix would gone the way of those old British electricals...
The hammer is good for the Lucas stuff because it doesn't usually let the magic smoke out. When my daughter is old enough to date I want her date a guy with an old British sports car. She'll never be out after dark, or in the rain, if he can even keep it running long enough to take her out in it! Lol! Plus it would be something he and I could bond over...
Hope that works for ya... I gave my daughters tools for some of their birthdays when they were young. Then had them change oil and tires, and how to jumpstart a car as part of learning to drive. Turns out they knew more about cars than some of their boyfriends when they started dating, which helped them to keep the boys in line.
My daughter just turned 4. On her 3rd birthday she was lying under the coffee table fixing a "leak in the roof" and asked me to pass her a wrench. (She's had her own toy tools since she was about 2.) Here's a pic of her understanding the importance of having an extra car. Notice which one she is driving and which one needs fixing? The afore mentioned fixing @ last year's birthday.
I think I used the hammer on the generator (yes a generator not an alternator) a few times, too, I would have thought that the old “hammer” fix would gone the way of those old British electricals... 
