Yep, two R50’s and one R53. The Pepper White R50 was also special with an Aspen White roof. Production cars were only all Pepper White, or Pepper White with a black roof.
Happy New Year everyone. I've taken about a month off Mini stuff during the holidays, during which time almost 2 and a half feet of snow had built up in front of the garage. It took me almost an hour to dig my way out of there today, not to mention the built up snow on the edge of the drive way from the helpful city trucks who've been ploughing the streets.
This week I'm going to get the seats fitted. Unfortunately, I only ordered one air bag resistor because I was feeling intellectually challenged when I placed the order, obviously forgetting I need one for each front seat. I ordered it quite some time ago and am expecting it to arrive at some point this week. In anticipation I've fitted the rear seat (but forgotten to take a picture, and I've removed the fronts. It's cool to have a side by side shot of the old vs the new (Standard OEM cloth vs Sparco OEM cloth).
I'm so incredibly happy with them, but there's a little bit of me that wishes I'd had them redone in some sort of red fabric. It wouldn't have matched OEM, but I think it could have really worked with the Pepper White paint. Ah well... what's done is done. Perhaps something to think about for a Post Covid world.
I've also received this used electrical harness for OEM driving/rally lights. I already had a brand new harness and I bought this (here on NAM) purely so I could get my hands on the switch (which is no longer available) I'm going to try to find time to install the driving lights this week too.
I'm also going to get a professional to paint my spoiler extension, as well as repaint the hood scoop that I painted earlier last year. I did a great job all things considered but you just can't produce the same quality of work with a rattle can. It's such a focal point of the car that I figure it's worth doing right. Earlier in the thread I said my goal was to get the car to a 9/10 standard and that would be good enough, but now that I've invested so much time, money and effort in to the car I'm resetting the bar to 10. I've learned that this car is good enough to be part of the family for the long haul, so I think it's worth going the extra mile on the details. At some point I'll also repaint the front bumper (where I had previously done some patch work) but I'll save that to be a future project so that I can follow it up with a protective film treatment once finished.
There's a few other things on the list that I'd like to try and get done this week too but I feel like the above is a good start and will set me up nicely to get this car ready for some spring motoring in April/May.
I'm really not sure how I missed this thread, but all I can say is: fantastic work on finding your car in the first place .. and a massive round of applause for all the work you've done to it so far, and all the new parts you've sourced / installed. It is looking bloody fantastic!! As I scrolled down through all of the posts the only thing that bothered me was the R112's on the car .. but now with the R90's, you've got it spot on! I love the R112's - had them on my BRG JCW Clubman and have them on my CB JCW Clubman at the moment . . but when I pick up my new CB R53 I'll be having 4 pristine R85's on there!
I'm really not sure how I missed this thread, but all I can say is: fantastic work on finding your car in the first place .. and a massive round of applause for all the work you've done to it so far, and all the new parts you've sourced / installed. It is looking bloody fantastic!! As I scrolled down through all of the posts the only thing that bothered me was the R112's on the car .. but now with the R90's, you've got it spot on! I love the R112's - had them on my BRG JCW Clubman and have them on my CB JCW Clubman at the moment . . but when I pick up my new CB R53 I'll be having 4 pristine R85's on there!
Thank you so much! It's really nice to hear you enjoyed reading through the thread. It started as a means for me to remember what I had done but the deeper I get, it's really great to read people's comments and see how much they might be enjoying it, and it's been especially beneficial to ask for advice and learn things I wouldn't even have thought to ask about. I've made some good Mini friends here on NAM too - this is an amazing community!
Something I learned today - I guess there were 2 different types of rally light switches (a unique switch for each location) I'm not 100% sure of this, but the switch I received is the one that fits near the TPMS button in the centre console. It doesn't fit in to the gap by the left knee of the driver. @philwarner could you sent me a pic of the OEM switch you have by your left knee, lower left of the steering column so I can confirm? Not that it matters - I've made the commitment to wire straight up to the fogs harness seen as I'm not using it anymore.
I might have mentioned earlier but I had after market heating elements installed in the Sparcos. My plan was to custom wire them to the OEM heated seat buttons in the car. It's a little overcomplicated though as theres a temperature sensor those stock switches are connected to. Instead of wiring to those switches I'm going to use the connections that were provided with the after market elements. They're also a 2 stage heated seat solution and they're 'basically' a very similar button design aesthetically. If it bugs me that they aren't the stock buttons in the future then it's an easy project to swap in other switches.
Stock heated seat switches
Aftermarket heated seat switches that I'll sub in for the OEM ones.
A while back I bought a leap spoiler extension but haven’t been able to commit to fitting it to the car. I’ve been contemplating other spoiler options and had considered a GP style but I kept coming back to wanting the shape of the leap spoiler extension. What I don’t love is the crease at the top and underneath, where it mates with the OEM piece. In particular, I really dislike the the top side edges. If not for these issues, I love the side-on silhouette it gives the car.
An example of the leap extension mounted to a white roof car.
It doesn’t quite span the width of the OEM spoiler and it’s immediately apparent that this is an after market attachment.
A while back, earlier in 2020 I was at a car show in Calgary where a small tuning and body shop called Compact Tuning Lab had some
of their classic projects on showcase. One of them was this stunning green civic pictured below. It had all sorts of period specific parts which had been fused, rather than simply stuck in place. When I asked, I learned that this civic had been built in 2004/2005 - I was in awe that this bodywork haven’t shrunk/split in all this time. They reassured me that as well as having great knowledge and experience, they use the best quality body filling material to achieve this beautiful and long-lasting work.
There’s so many amazing details on this car. You had to be a real Honda nut to truly get it (which I’m not) but this thing was incredible. Take a look at the rear bumper splitter - and even the rear mud flaps.
The roof is simply a beautifully installed carbon weave layer which has been clear coated with a gloss coating, containing a hint of the cars green pigment. They did this in 2004!
It’s not at all relevant for this post, but take a moment to gaze at this engine bay. I’ve rarely seen such attention and passion put in to anything Euro - these JDM kids know what it’s about!
So by now you probably know where this is going. Compact Tuning lab (CTL) are going to fuse the OEM spoiler and the leap
extension so it feels like a one-piece. They haven’t made any promises as there are limits to what’s possible based on how products line up together - and how much filler is required.
Taking off the original spoiler isn’t very difficult but requires some clean-up from the EPoxy it’s attached with. Here’s the OEM spoiler lined up with the Leap extension. CTL said they can work on this over the coming days.
Regarding the driving light switch, AFAIK, there is only one switch. If you are referring to the hole in the euro parcel shelf, that’s for the manual headlight leveling switch used in some countries. Not sure why it’s a different size, but the driving light switch does not fit perfectly.
The hole for the switch is supposed to be cut in the regular knee panel using the template in the instructions. Not sure where the switch is supposed to go with the euro parcel shelf, but maybe that’s the real purpose of the extension cable to locate it by the handbrake.
Regarding the driving light switch, AFAIK, there is only one switch. If you are referring to the hole in the euro parcel shelf, that’s for the manual headlight leveling switch used in some countries. Not sure why it’s a different size, but the driving light switch does not fit perfectly.
The hole for the switch is supposed to be cut in the regular knee panel using the template in the instructions. Not sure where the switch is supposed to go with the euro parcel shelf, but maybe that’s the real purpose of the extension cable to locate it by the handbrake.
Yep, i have seen it in the euro parcel installed here. Its was for euro cars that required it. I think mostly found in MINIs in france as they had some law. Here in the USA i dont know if its wired for it. Since ours work off the level sensors on the front and rear suspension. I hope thats helps.
Thanks to @StuRat I received these awesome parts this morning. A (close to) new front grill JCW emblem, and 4 Original Logo centre caps for the R90s. Thanks for packing these so well Stu, and for including the fun stickers. This badge is in fantastic condition, and if Stu had not told me it had been mounted for a short time, I'd never have been able to tell.
Love these. I'll be heating and removing the MINI centre caps from my R90s and using an epoxy to replace with these.
Got the top of the hatch cleaned off from the removal of the OEM spoiler.
Did a quick test fit of the unfinished single piece spoiler so adjustments could be made if necessary. More filling and sanding work is required.
CTL were able to bring the lip a little further of the end of the OEM spoiler than would be normal because of the filler.
Had to switch to this stubby antenna as the original won't fit when the trunk is open.
Spoiler continued to get more work after the test fit. It's not going to look like a true one piece as the extension just doesn't span enough width of the original spoiler, but it should look slick.
The rear seats are now installed.
I'm going to abandon the fog light harness. Custom wiring each light to the OEM fog light wiring. This would mean the foglights will only function with low-beams, but the plan is to trace down the trigger wire and connect it to the ignition so they'll function with no headlights, lowbeam or hi-beam.
I'm going to paint the mirror caps black. Thanks @JackMac for giving me the inspiration to do this months ago!
I began work on one of the R90 wheels tonight. The goal is to sand the clearcoat off the lips, evening out the curbing damage in the process with a 180. I'll go up to 1000 or so in stages, and once finished will polish the lip to a mirror finish. I plan to finish one wheel all the way so I can learn / master the process before starting on the others. It's my first time attempting to accomplish a mirror finish and I've got my doubts about being up to the task.
I only had an hour and by the time I was out of time I only managed one pass at 180 but I did get all the clear off. I don't want to dismantle them as I can't find new bolts for these wheels and don't want to reuse these originals. Working by hand it's possible to get right up to the edge of the faces, underlapping the paper between the face and the lip to achieve a perfect finish. I used a Dremel with a 180 pad to attack the curbing damage before beginning passes with paper, by hand. I could probably have done with something a little harsher to work on the curb damage which was deeper than I remembered.
Before - Most of the curbing damage was at 12, 10 and 8 o clock. After - clear is removed and ready to smooth out to around a 1000 I guess?
The rally driving lights, rear spoiler, front seats as well as the scoop and mirrors repaint are all done. I've made a couple of bold decisions here and there as it related to OEM/OEM+ so before I ware out my luck, I'm going to take a break from it for a few weeks, I'll come back with a fresh mind in February. They are wired to the fog light switch in the centre stack and the trigger wire is off the ignition so they can be turned on without any limitations. A 15 year old OEM spoiler getting a bit of a lift Is it big enough? I've gone back to the original antenna and I'll trim it down so it doesn't rub when the hatch is fully open. I'm not a fan of that fatter style shorty antenna I test fit on it a few days ago. A little sneak peak of the front Sparcos
Thanks @krawzdogg I'll take that as a compliment especially as you have such a fine margin of characteristics for the Mini you are looking for. I'd highly recommend you embark on building a really nice one like this by finding an approx. 60,000mile car and dropping 15-25k on it, on top of the purchase price. That way you can build exactly what you want and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing it's exactly what YOU wanted. It doesn't make sense to buy these cars as appreciating assets because you'd be way better of putting your money in to appreciating parts of the stock market instead. I see so many enthusiasts stifle themselves with impossible criteria around mileage/condition/resale value and end up being owned by their 'investment'. For me, spending anywhere south of $45k on this Mini is totally acceptable because when I'm done with it, it'll be better than new (despite what the numbers on the ODO say)
I never plan to sell it - and if I have a change of heart on that in the future it'll be very easy for me to justify the cost of my sale as I've tracked every dollar and cent that's been spent and invested in to the car, including my time.
So...I’m guessing you aren’t going to sell me the car? Haha jk. I just assume that regardless of which mini I end up buying, I’ll easily end up putting over $10k into it to make it how I want. I’m just a perfectionist and can’t stand when my cars aren’t flawless. I never really buy cars as investments, because the insurance and maintenance costs easily cover the possible future appreciation. Finding a low mileage car in excellent condition is basically based on the fact that I probably won’t ever sell it because I have very little hope that mini will ever produce a car in the future that I actually like and want. I did find a 2013 with Recaros and 90k miles. Definitely needs some work but it would be fun fixing it up and maybe making a thread like this one. 90k miles is a lot though...it’s almost 100k, which is scary haha.
@krawzdogg Totally understand how the mileage can feel scary - but these cars (like many) are basically like lego. Find one that hasn't been in an accident and you're laughing. RE. Mileage, what can go wrong? I'm just going to replace stuff that isn't even broken so that it's all new anyway. By next summer I'll likely have new almost everything. The head in my motor is fine but in 10 years if I've 'miled it out', I'll just rebuild the motor. Increasing mileage isn't really a permanent thing and when enthusiasts can get over that I've found they feel liberated.
I wouldn't care about 90,000 miles on a car I was looking for as a fun car, as long as the base is there to work with.
Installed a test pipe in place of the resonator. Had this done at the shop while they were modifying the spoiler. Pop Pop Pop!!! Pulled out all the garbage electrics related to the various aftermarket electrical items installed in the car back when it was new. Alarm / remote start / Bluetooth / navigation etc. There’s about 20lbs of crap in this pile! I think red seat belts front and back could really pull the interior together.
