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The R53 2006 Competition Edition (64/64) is now completely refreshed.Having only 44,000kms (26,000miles) it didn't need anything critical but I replaced everything that might be tired as well as anything that was cosmetically fading. The key items were:Replace Front Brake Rotors and Pads
It was a fun distraction working on the Competition Edition and it was neat to hand over the keys to her new owner last weekend. He lives about 40 minutes away in a beautiful little mountain town Canmore, AB and I think he'll take great care of it. So far this summer I've been enjoying a few out of town drives in Pepper, including a wet summer run out to the mountains - Big plans for her this coming winter!
And surprise! I wasn't down to 1 Mini for long! I'm starting an additional thread titled: 2003 British Racing Green Cooper S Aero
Hi all,
You may (but probably didn’t notice a whole lack of action in this thread for the past few months. Story goes, I ordered quite a significant dollar amount of parts from Jan at Revolution Motorworks and, as far as I can tell I’ve been screwed over. All but one of the parts was in stock in his inventory when I ordered. He charged my entire card for the order back in April and now doesn’t seem to want to return any of my calls or emails. I let it ride for a while because we did talk around a month ago about switching out an item in the order to accommodate shipping my parts quickly and I’m still sat here with nothing. If anyone knows him and can assist in persuading him to do the right thing, please let me know.
In the meantime, I’ve gotten a bit disheartened with the car because of this whole thing. Hopefully it pans out well in the end but it doesn’t feel good being out 5 figures SOL.
That's terrible to hear. I don't know anything about him, or his company, but a quick bit of Google-Fu shows his company is defunct due to unpaid taxes as of April.
That's terrible to hear. I don't know anything about him, or his company, but a quick bit of Google-Fu shows his company is defunct due to unpaid taxes as of April.
I decided to fit a GP front bumper and side skirts, pairing them with the aero rear bumper. A few years ago I would occasionally day dream about getting an R53 and GP’ing it. I’m excited about how it’s turned out and will try to take some better pictures soon - especially excited about the job the body shop did on matching up the fender flares with the front bumper, similar to what you see here in the skirts.
While ordering parts from Aaron at Outmotoring I also added brand new headlights and tail lights which were the last items on the car looking a little tired.
I took her for a spin with the wifey this morning and grabbed a couple of quick pics with my iPhone. Really happy with how she’s progressing. Now for wheels!
The GP bumper and rocker panels look great with the added “trim” continuing from the arches.
The one thing I never liked with the GP was the front bumper and skirts always looked like an afterthought because of all of the breaks in the black trim. They should have designed it similar to what you’ve done, or just gone body color all around.
Dear @WGJP
i can’t respond to your PM because your inbox is full. Here was my attempted response…
thanks friend. Try autom.shop
he was just starting out when I spoke to him about mine and it looks like he’s changed his Instagram name accordingly.
I'm unsure. I've got a set of R112 I'll throw on and see how I feel about it. I also have a set of R90 that I need to finish rebuilding that might be nice. I'm open to ideas. I thought a set of new LM's might be really nice too.
The GP bumper and rocker panels look great with the added “trim” continuing from the arches.
The one thing I never liked with the GP was the front bumper and skirts always looked like an afterthought because of all of the breaks in the black trim. They should have designed it similar to what you’ve done, or just gone body color all around.
Yes I agree! Not hating on anyone's GP here but they do stand out as a little odd to me without having those gaps filled in.
I stumbled across some BBS RC325 in 17x7 4x100 with a et42 offset. Including deleting my spacers this is an approximate 9lbs per corner weight savings from the R95 OEM wheels I was running - and very noticeable! I really like how it looks and I think I’ll keep this setup for the long haul.
Been a little while since I posted so thought I’d make an update. Since putting in the new wheels I’ve really enjoyed the weight loss. It’s really transformed the car - probably about twice as much impact as going from the 12% JCW to 17% pulley, IMO. I’ve got plans for a few little updates in 2022 but nothing set in stone - little bit of interior, exterior and perhaps exhaust work.
After working in the black JCW Competition edition, I got confident and found another project. It was an original owner BRG Cooper S that I found parked on the street and I left a note under the wiper. I eventually (after a few months) ended up buying the car, giving it an overhaul, and have since found it a new owner.
Pics of before here
I always admire an owner who can drive their car with trim hanging off - seemingly care free. It had the clear tails, with holes cut in the rear bumper for the red reflectors. I think they might have cut them open with a Swiss Army knife - it’s that bad! Car had yellowed protection film that was in brutal shape. Can’t really make it out from this shot but it was horrid. That said - it did it’s job - there were no rock chips - except on the body kit.
I gave the BRG a really good clean. There were quite a lot of dents in the roof - too many to PDR so had it skimmed and repainted (the beauty of not having to worry about colour matching on these cars)
Replaced the engine mount and cleaned up the hydraulic fluid mess. Did the cabin filter, tensioner, aux belt, plugs, valve cover gasket and a bunch of other little things other the hood. While at it I gave it a brake job including rotors. While it was up on stands I gave the underneath a hood going over with degreaser, and I replaced the round metal things with R98s I had kicking around, clad in fresh budget rubber. Finally, pulled the bumpers and side skirts off and had my body work guy fix bits of damage including shaving those horrible rear bumper reflectors, before repainting them to perfect. While at it I tossed on some brand new red tails. It had been smoked in by someone who was probably a 5 a week a friend loaned me one of those OZone machines the dealerships use to clean out smells - wow - it really worked. I ran it for 4 hours and the thing was completely absent of any kind of scent whatsoever.
I advertised it for decent money - more than any Cooper S listing, less than great JCW money. Got half a dozen or so people telling me I was on acid, and one guy (the buyer) who gave me a call. He had a good coversarion with me about its condition and what I’d done to clean it up - he ended up agreeing to buy the car at my asking price and he promptly showed uk a couple of days later - he said it was better than he’d hoped for, upon inspection. So happy for him…and happy I was able to rescue this BRG SRD R53.
Last edited by jacktown; Dec 21, 2021 at 11:21 PM.
Awesome job and it looks amazing!! I would love to flip mini's as a side hobby except I would fall in love and want to keep them all.
Those rims are my all time favorite!!
notice a whole lack of action in this thread for the past few months. Story goes, I ordered quite a significant dollar amount of parts from Jan at Revolution Motorworks and, as far as I can tell I’ve been screwed over. All but one of the parts was in stock in his inventory when I ordered. He charged my entire card for the order back in April and now doesn’t seem to want to return any of my calls or emails. I let it ride for a while because we did talk around a month ago about switching out an item in the order to accommodate shipping my parts quickly and I’m still sat here with nothing. If anyone knows him and can assist in persuading him to do the right thing, please let me know. 
