Hello! Officially starting my build thread, as I am in the process of getting started with parts being ordered and arriving.

My car is a 2002 Cooper S. Currently have just over 110k miles on the odometer, but the engine was replaced by the previous(original) owner back in 2008 under warranty. Bought the car at the beginning of Feb 2018 for what I consider to be a great price. The list keeps getting longer with parts though that need to be replaced that were neglected. With that I am choosing to upgrade instead of staying with OEM.

So far since purchasing the car, I have had the alternator, serpentine belt, and belt tensioner replaced. Those were unexpected items outside of the list I had known previously about. But now I have changed the transmission oil and have ordered parts so that I can start rebuilding the suspension. I am not a mechanic but I intend on using this car to learn a lot of maintenance, and also to make it a fun project. I live in Southeast Michigan and would love to get together with a group in the area if there is anyone on here that could point me in the right direction. Really enjoy meeting new people with similar interests. Hope you enjoy following along with the build as I piece it together bit by bit.

Cheers,
Ken

 

To start, here are a few photos from the first couple weeks of owning my R53.

 

Out with the old(right), in with the new(left) Hella 500! Waiting on brackets.
Old all season tires, the left was on the front, the right was on the rear. Both fronts were the same, along with the backs matching.

 

Chocolate milk? Nope, old trans oil.

 

New Koni Yellow struts
Powerflex control arm bushings, new control arm brackets, new inner/outer ball joints, new tierods, new strut mounts.
H-Sport rear control arms
Detroit Tuned 'Stubby' antenna
What a better look with the new antenna!
Just waiting on the springs to come in then I will dig get everything in place in one shot.

 

Nice! Looking forward to following. I'm interested to see how everything comes apart on another midwest car. I just ripped apart a 2004 that had some rust issues. I didn't take the struts out of the knuckles though. I'm willing to bet that's going to be in the near future for me. Shoot me a PM if you get stuck. I'm in SE Wisconsin, just a bit too far away to lend a hand.

 

Another rust belt car here. My son's '02 R50 needed new front struts when we got it 2 years ago. Ended up snapping the nut off the strut bolts and decided to get some used steering knuckles rather than trying to drill out the bolts.

The lower ball joints were equally impossible to get out. One of the new(used) knuckles we sourced locally came with a lower ball joint we couldn't get out but fortunately it was still good. The other knuckle came from the pacific northwest without the ball joint so we put in a new one.

How do the break lines going to your back wheels look? On my son's car they are looking suspect (splitting layers, rusty, flaking) and will likely need changing soon.

Life with rust is hell

 

 

Shoot me a PM, I am keeping an entire list of everything I am doing to the car, both maintenance and after market. I can probably add it into a Google Doc spread sheet to allow viewing.

 

Putting renewed life into a Gen1.

 

I'd be happy to share my R53 build google doc with both of you if you're interested. Shoot me a PM with your email.

I didn't really go into detail regarding parts on my build thread, but kept fairly meticulous notes regarding parts and time spent on the car.

 

Which brackets are you using for the Hella 500? I have a pair of PIAA 540 driving lights (about the same size as the Hella} that I want fit in the original rally light location. I don't know if the factory fitted brackets are going to be strong enough for the PIAA's as the rally lights used to vibrate really bad. I want to keep them in the original location if I can so that I can utilize the factory wiring.

 

The brackets that I am going to be using are the OutMotoring V3 Light Brackets. I am going to remove the factory lights and re wire as I don t like the current wiring of having to have the brights on in order to turn the accessory lights on. I saw at one point that Mini Mania offers a replacement bracket that is a bit stronger than the stock ones. Might be a good option for you to look into. My other thought was to run the VIP Custom Parts bracket, but the lights sit in front of the upper grill which I feel might be a loss of air intake.