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The problem with being “wise and experienced (read: old)” is you start to forget more than you are learning (read: “now, how do I do this that or the other thing? I know I did this before...”). More than once I have looked at something I made and thought to myself ‘I must have been really smart back then; I could never figure that out today’...
The problem with being “wise and experienced (read: old)” is you start to forget more than you are learning (read: “now, how do I do this that or the other thing? I know I did this before...”). More than once I have looked at something I made and thought to myself ‘I must have been really smart back then; I could never figure that out today’...
Boy, that hits home! I find things like really specific patterns and think now what the hell was that for?
And a note on "projects" in general. They ALWAYS cost twice as much and take 3 times longer than anticipated. If they don't you're probably doing it wrong...
On another note;
It really bothers me that Minis don't have a spare. I bought a OEM Mini jack in a bag off eBay and just bought a spare rim and tire [the little type] off eBay.
I've been pondering a roll bar with an additional bar going to the back wheel well with a plate welded on to mount the spare. Sort of how Jeep Cherokees had them. Upright in the back behind the driver.
But it also needs to clear the lid on my rear seat delete. I was thinking that if I needed to I could shorten the lid on that side and make the fixed part bigger.
I'm not sure if it's even possible. I'm waiting on the spare to arrive to see if it would work size wise. My buddy has a big tubing bender, [manual, not hydraulic] but I might just buy a "street bar" to avoid the aggravation of making one. I've used the bender before and it's more than a little work.
We'll see.
rob Was thinking about an additional section of tubing from the front tube to extending past the rear tube with a plate welded on. Maybe cut the center out of one of the old front hubs. We'll have to see when the rim/tire arrives.
I took the tool kit ouy of Grumpy because it kept pushing the cover off the cubby it was stored in. If I need to call for help, anyways, I might as well have the help bring better tools with them, anyways.
I kinda like the vertical setup, that's jow my ZJ Grand Cherokee is. I'm at the max size that fits that location currently with a 32" tire. If I was doing a rear seat delete that wouldn't be a bad way to go. Either that or I would raise the floor enough to store a space saver under it
The R50 has a spare. Our ‘04 has one. I have never looked at it or taken it out. It is probably flat from sitting there for almost 17 years. The TPMS in the MINIs is really quite good. I have had use of it on a number of occasions. Even the system on the Gen I MINIs works. It doesn’t measure pressure, but uses the ABS sensors to measure wheel rotations. I find it will kick out a warning at about 10 psi low. I carry a 12v pump that Harbor Freight sells and have had occasion to use it. I can’t remember ever having a true blowout; all of my flats have been slow leaks (eg: nail or the like) that the pump would take care of at least to the point of getting it fixed. Then I have AAA Platinum to handle the one-off time I can’t get the pump to work. I am also a bit of an odd duck in this community - I run the RFTs on my newer MINIs. Saved my butt once when I was on a ski trip in northern VT and the TPMS said I had a low tire. I checked the pressure. Yup, low. Pumped it up every morning for the duration of the trip, drove home with it and got it fix. Oh, when I found it, the outside temp was 10 deg and there was a snow storm.
BTW - On some of my track days I will take a full spare set of wheels/tires with me. They fit nicely standing up behind the front seats. So, ya, there is room for a full size spare in there.
Also, if you want to make a roll bar, I have a custom one in my 2012 MCS. This thing bolts in or out in about 20 minutes and uses only the available MINI bolt holes that are there for other things. No additional holes. I would be willing to take pictures and post them here if you want to see it. Once you see it you could do your own fitting of it. That is how it was done for mine. One for a Gen I MINI will be slightly different from mine as there are some differences in available mounting locations on the Gen I vs Gen II MINIs.
Yeah, the R50 has the space for a spare. The R53 has the second muffler and the battery where the spare stores in the R50. I will admit that the R53 TPMS can be a bit sensitive. It will kick the light with any ABS error. I've hit big enough bumps that it's thrown a steering angle sensor code and the TPMS light. Nice to not have to mess with the sensors in the wheels, though.
As compared to the R50, they made the R53 a real sports car with a stiffer frame (hence the different body designation) and moving the battery to the rear to offset some of the SC and intercooler weight added to the front. The Gen I MINIs were quite amazing in their attention to some of these details...
Also, if you want to make a roll bar, I have a custom one in my 2012 MCS. This thing bolts in or out in about 20 minutes and uses only the available MINI bolt holes that are there for other things. No additional holes. I would be willing to take pictures and post them here if you want to see it. Once you see it you could do your own fitting of it. That is how it was done for mine. One for a Gen I MINI will be slightly different from mine as there are some differences in available mounting locations on the Gen I vs Gen II MINIs.
Eddie,
I would like to see that if it's not too much bother.
Here you go. A friend and I designed this and his cousin (who builds and races modifieds) actually built it. This can be fully disassemble in about 20 min and removed. There are no extra holes put into the car. I think it can be easily adapted to R50/53. The bolted connections are all 1/2” clevis (not sure if I spelled that correctly) joints that accept 1/2” steel plate and I think all of the bolts are 5/8” grade 8s. The “U” shaped clevis piece can be bought on line (sorry, don’t remember where). Also note that the upper part of the roll bar is covered in roll bar padding. That is what gives it the overly thick look.
The overall roll bar:
Roll bar installed. Note all of the clevis joints.
Diagonal bar upper mount
Diagonal bar lower mount on passenger side at the joint between the roll bar and lower cross bar
Lower cross bar, driver’s side.
Rear brace, roll bar mount and harness bar mount, passenger side
The fore/aft brace bars mount to the rear seat latch locations. Note the extra hole in the top of the mount. This is for a cross brace to stiffen the car further. The roll bar actually stiffens the car a lot. Rear brace, wheel wheel, backseat mount
Closeup of the rear seat mount and Rear brace
Lower mount for the roll bar. Uses the seat belt mount to retain it in place. The hole in the roll bar plate is large enough to allow the carpet to compress in a rollover and not shear off the seat belt bolt.
This is where the design would need to be modified for a R50/53. On the R56 the seat belt is mounted to the car’s side rail, whereas in the R50/53 the seatbelt mount is into the floor. You will need to figure out how to use that. I think just make that bottom plate larger, so it can be captured by the seatbelt bolt. Make it even larger so you can also capture it with the seat bolt.
Also note that the lower end of the roll bar is made to fit snuggly in that pocket. It uses the car side rail in that location to brace it for side loading as the car rolls. This is also the main reason for having that lower support bar, which would not be in a regular roll bar mounting.
Wow, nice job and really well thought out! Definitly food for thought. Thanks so much for taking the time for the pic's and the upload!
The spare I bought should be in any day. As the Mini drives and handles so much better than I do at this point [at 68 my reflexes are not what they were in 1975 when I was auto crossing an 850 Fiat and ] to be honest if I do put a bar in it will be for a little bit of safety but mostly to mount the spare.[insert sad face here!] I'm thinking the "street bar" to keep intrusion in the cabin as minimal as possible.
So in a "Covid Moment", I ordered the "Auto Power Street Roll Bar". I got the Mini spare and holding it up into place I'm pretty sure it's doable.
There's not a snowballs chance in hell I'll be racing "Blue Car" so the street bar will look cool and be a good mount for the spare. That's about it.
I "think" If I get a flat on the front, a rear tire will need to be moved the the front and the spare used on the rear only, so to accomplish that, a jack stand will need to be added to the kit.
Just in case I want to add another bar for competition type seat belts, Eddie, do you know where your clevis ends were sourced?
It looks like these are "built on demand" so with all the sh*t that's going on I'm not sure if the ship time will be shorter or longer. Who knows? Web site [Detroit Tuned] says 3-4 weeks.
In the meantime I got the new OEM coolant cap and took the sealing gasket out of my old one and added it to the new cap. I'm thinking there may be imperfections to the sealing surface and maybe the extra gasket will help.
I borrowed a decent cap from a friend it and didn't see a leak. I should probably just try the new cap first without the extra gasket but we'll see.
I’m not sure if this is it, but I think it might be springfix.com. I lost my email account from back then and I only found that address (actual email address was Christine@springfix.com).
However, I would not bother with a completion belt as you need a 5 or 6 point belt to be safe (it is needed for the anti-submarining feature), and which means a hole in the seat. I use a Schroth QuickFit harness that clicks into the stock belt buckles, plus a couple of added buckles that use existing seat belt mounts. The Quickfit harness is DOT approved and works with the airbag the same as the stock belts. They use the anti-submarining feature that is part of the stock belts. So, far better than a 4 point competition belt.
Last edited by Eddie07S; Apr 17, 2020 at 04:53 PM.
Reason: Fix typo
No jack stand really needed, Rob. Just change the spare onto the rear first, then the good rear on in place of the flat front. Honestly the donut will work fine on the front as long as it's properly inflated and you don't drive like a moron.
I'm not sure if it's because of my chassis brace or not, but I can lift the entire side of my car with one jack...
I haven't tried it with the jack in the car... which I took out when I made my rear seat delete. I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to configure everything to fit the jack, before I realized that I didn't have a spare to put on, so what would i need a jack for?
I'm not sure if it's because of my chassis brace or not, but I can lift the entire side of my car with one jack...
Yup, the MINIs are all stiff enough that both wheels will be lifted off the ground by jacking up using the forward jack point. Works with the R50, even though it is slightly less stiff than the R53. I do this all the time.
Yup, the MINIs are all stiff enough that both wheels will be lifted off the ground by jacking up using the forward jack point. Works with the R50, even though it is slightly less stiff than the R53. I do this all the time.
I do the same with a floor jack. I'm not sure I would trust doing the same thing with the OEM "jack in a bag". It looks pretty cheesy.
Good Point. Need to be able to block the wheels on the other side, too. If you are doing a tire change on the side of the road, you might never know what the condition of the shoulder will be. I think my 2019 doesn’t have a jack, not sure about my 2012.
Have you looked into the tire pressure monitoring kits you can buy? I think these just attach to the valve stem outside of the wheel. These will give a real time pressure readout and that would give you a chance to catch a tire going low and allow you to pump it up before needing to change it.
"Have you looked into the tire pressure monitoring kits you can buy? I think these just attach to the valve stem outside of the wheel. These will give a real time pressure readout and that would give you a chance to catch a tire going low and allow you to pump it up before needing to change it."
I haven't but I thought about it. When I put the new tires on mine I just put regular valve stems on as the TPM was missing already. The aftermarket that go on the stems are much cheaper I'm sure
"Grab a wheel chock or two from an older BMW at the junk yard. E46 cars still had them and are plentiful, there. Same with e39 5 series cars".
Didn't know that. I was actually going to call around to the local "Pick and Pay" to see if they had any convertibles. I was looking at an old post where folks were adding the bracket [from the convertible] that goes from the strut tower to the frame horn. Appears the holes are already present.
Originally the OEM part was $20 each and now they are $110 each. Appears they figured out they were a popular add on and jacked up the price. A little hard to imagine a corp.giant would even notice but I guess they noticed they were selling a lot of them.
I'll look for BMW's while there.
You can also get cheapy folding ones like this from HF. Not sure how much I would trust them, though. I have used the one in my BMW and it works very well. Plus its a BMW part, so it's almost OE.
Apologies to my vast audience [Ha!] for the lack of Mini posts. When the general shutdown was announced in Maryland I moved all my tools from the Boatshed back to the shop at the house. The problem was the shop at the house had been pretty much ignored for the past 2 years while working on the boat. [The Mini was "supposed" to be a brief diversion from the boat, another Ha!]
The shop was already filled with 30 years of "stuff". Some good, some not so much, along with various projects, some done [few] some "works in progress, [many]. Mostly motorcycles [around 8] and Jeep stuff [2].
So I really bit the bullet and decided to clean things out. Easier said than done. The general rule was, "If I haven't touched it in 10 years it goes".
So far I've filled a dumpster and have quite a pile of metal a buddy is going to scrap. Along with 2-3 good sized fires for any wood stuff.
Even with all of that I'm maybe 1/3 done. My kids should be thanking me.
Not Mini related but some photos of my task.
Full dumpster and a growing pile of scrap. The dumpster is coming back for a second round.
Tractor shed somewhat organized. Still more to go. Who knew you could actually get a tractor inside a tractor shed?
Waaaay TMS!
Yep, there's more.
Engines. VW, SBC, SBF. '77 Triumph under the blue cover. Plus not one but two 6 cylinder. Jeep engines.
Everything off the workbench. Top of bench and the wall behind sanded and ready for varnish. [When I built it I never coated it and it was really scuzzy]
Various shop manuals that were on the shelves. Thinned the books out by about 3 storage boxes worth.
Tools a little more organized but a ways to go.
Looking better. Ran out of varnish, [Linseed Oil Varnish] Top of the bench needs another coat. Remaining shop manuals organized.
Rebuilt engine that's "supposed' to be in the Triumph...
Before sanding shot of the best "shop dog" ever.
Sleeping on the workbench while I was sanding it. Nothing fazes her!
Making old furniture no one wanted disappear...
So that's what I've been doing instead of having fun working on the Mini. As for the projects, I thought I would be retired a few years ago and would have some chance of getting "caught-up". Now I'm going to need to live to be a 100!
I did manage 1 or 2 Mini things, so stay tuned, stay safe and wash your hands!
robj
The dumpster brought back memories of my old house that had a huge barn style garage that was basically 3 car wide but extra deep with a full floored loft. After about 25 years of living there and collecting stuff I never used plus some things old roommates left behind. One day I just decided enough is enough. Told the wife of only a few years, I'm getting rid of everything and asked if she would help. Ordered what looks to be the same size dumpster as you and in less then a day filled it. Next 1 was bigger (twice the height sides) it got it about 3/4 full. Why do we hold on to things for so long and never use them, is the mystery of lots of us humans. Thanks for the reminder not to let the new house garage get cluttered. After 3 years and besides an over abundance of rims I'm doing good.
