At the end of December, I bought an 03 R53 with no sunroof and 153k miles. It has hideous aftermarket lights and a bad paint job. Pretty sure it needs new clutch hydraulics. The clutch engages really low in the stroke and is pretty hard. But it had a pretty good amount of maintenance records and the owner was a BMW/Mini fan including having a GP.







Going to run in SCCA DStreet Autocross to get back into after I am guess 6 years away while I rebuild my old Civic into an XStreet class car then just keep as a fun weekend car.

Plans:
First: Maintenance work (new belt and tensioner, water pump, supercharger oil, chain tensioner, hoses, coolant tank, radiator, thermostat and housing, knock sensor, clutch hydraulics) plus Bridgestone Potenza RE71RS and Hawk HP Plus front pads, Cravenspeed water temp guage setup, put stock airbox back on with ITG filter. Figure out why the hood/trunk open light won't turn off.

Second: Koni Sport struts, Cravenspeed strut tower defender and under tower indurators, bigger rear bar, replace the lights (got some stock fronts and get Outmotoring LED Union Jack taillights)

Third: Appearance mods. I really want to lean into the retro look of the Mini so planning on doing that both inside and out. Outside: see if I can get a couple door dents pulled out but paintless dent repair place. Add white hood strips, chrome mirror caps, white gumball to doors, maybe couple small tasteful decals. Rota RBs. Inside: replace the mostly dead nav screen with a 3d printed block off plate with Terry clips and vintage stopwatches old rally car style. I have a cool wood shift **** so going to use an adaptor. Cravenspeed shift well cover. Coco mats. Want to recover the seats. Redo the audio with more retro looking headunit and new speakers. (it has a malfunctioning Kenwood unit and some cheap aftermarket speakers). Can I fit an R50 steering with no controls on it into an R53? Does anyone know where to get a set of Rennline RS style door pulls? Also replace suspension bushings.

One day changes maybe: Add set of Konig Rewind with street tires, Miltek exhaust, would love to repaint one day.

 

Started taking the the bits off to do the maintenance.


Found that a snake lived in it at some point.


Someone helpfully wired the foglights around the radiator support so need to redo that.


State of the paint work.

 

Good Find !

 

Kept pulling it apart.




I don't think this is the way you are supposed to do that.




Repaired fog light wiring.


Ordered a bunch more parts

 

good stuff, congrats!

i may have some things you may be interested in possibly . . .

. . . i'm about to revert back to 19mm rear sway bar so will removing near mint 25.5mm WMW bar - - -



. . . i have it on the softest setting but it still gets too squirrely for my tastes since i am just a B-road bomber with lotsa funtime being on mountain roads where i do not want any unexpected rotation!
likely accentuated by installing Powerflex inserts on trailing arms which i think limit lateral movement so those are coming out also & gonna try pressing in new Lemforder stock bushings to the bracket, i had thought that the poly inserts would be a good solution to help old junkyard bushings but it feels to me like they make the arms too rigid

have an MC40 gauge mount
some people love em, some people hate em
i got one but never installed because i like that little cubby hole too much haha



a set of 5 Konig Feathers which were on my car when i bought it

slender 8-spoke so like a postmodern Minilite !

but actually just replicas of Volk CE28

they ain't exactly feathers but they ain't exactly anchors either,
weighed on a cheapo china scale below
16x7 +40offset





not sure of D Street rules
but i have a spare JCW airbox if that'd be allowed & you're interested,
various other stuff like an OMP OD1950 leather steering wheel
Canton coolant tank
new aftermarket halogen headlights, facelift style
Leap and Atomspeed hoodscoops
takeoff JCW exhaust but it's facelift, dunno if you can change hangers between the two?

could dig further & might unearth more little bits n bobs

hit me up if you might be interested

cheers!

 

I sent you a message

 

Replaced the crank position sensor, coolant sensor.

Servicing the supercharger ended up being a bit more of an odyssey then expected because whoever had previously serviced it over tightened the drain plug so it was stripped.




I took the PTO side off and drilled and used an Ezy out.

At least the internals look good on it.


Replaced the oil, the drain plugs with ECS magnetic plugs, gasket and water pump.
Started to put new radiator with seals back in the support and then noticed the radiator rubber blocks to support the bottom were missing.


The calipers had been painted red previously but they were looking worse for wear and I was going to be putting Hawk HP Plus pads on. I am glad I decide to do that because one of the slide pins was missing from the front caliper.


Giving the calipers a refresh with POR15 red caliper paint.


Waiting on replacement for the coolant hoses at the back of the end and the radiator support blocks to get in.


Here is where the to do list sits at.