I recently picked up this 2006 R50 for cheap and plan to bring it back to its former glory. It has basically been sitting for years and was filthy. Needs some cosmetic work, but interior is clean. Only has 61k miles and actually runs really well. After cleaning the windows so I could see, I was able to drive it home. The second owner appeared to be an enthusiast and added some mods (BBS wheels, Cross coilovers, swaybars, port/polished head, additional engine gauges, WMW intake, big brake kit that was removed unfortunately). The low speed fan is not working, so that is the first thing to fix.

Plan to document the clean-up/build in this thread. This is my first MINI and always wanted one. Going to primarily use it for autocross and HPDEs.




After first wash to get most of the dirt, debris, and moss off.

 

Very Nice. I like the seats in it.

 

Nice rims

 

Sweet! Looks like that clear bra needs to come off first.

 

Nice find! Your barn find looks far more salvageable than mine!

 

Removed the crusted and cracked PPF. Snake skin look is gone. Definitely a pain, but paint is in good condition underneath. Guess it did its job. Going to do a full paint correction eventually.

 

Barn finds always bring up a memory. If inappropriate, I apologize. An acquaintance's folks passed on so he and family was busy going thru the old home stead. In the barn under the thrashing floor was a large wooden box. They pulled it out to discover an IN THE BOX 1918 model T Ford. It was advertised in the right place and brought them high 3 figures. Barn finds aren't to be sniffled at.

 

Sure, it's not some vintage Bugatti pulled from a barn in the French countryside after 30 years. Personally consider a barn find anything that has been uncovered after being neglected and sitting for years. Interpret it as you wish.

 

Looks like a diamond in the rough to me! Nice find! Once you are ready for some autocross/HPDE, you may want to check out the epic thread under Racing and Competition/Driver's School about the SCDA schedule. It's crazy long (started 10 years ago by a great track buddy who now is overseas), but the main reason you might find it worthwhile is that there's a guy running a Justa (R50) on the track with hardly any mods, and smoking many 'faster' cars. His screen id is gbuff1. He's also a great guy in person...

Good luck with your restore!

 

Thanks, I will definitely check that out. Figure the NA engine will have less maintenance issues to deal with. Know it will lack some power though. Ideally would have gone with an S, but couldn't pass it up for the price and had some of the mods I would install anyway. Should be fun on the track.

Also, fixed the low speed fan. Mounted a resistor to the crash bar using aluminum plate affixed with existing nuts.

 

Park Lane ...

 

I'm mostly responding to this thread to subscribe but I LOVE the interior! I'm also slowly building a low budget R50 so this peaked my interest. I'd love to see a more thorough list of mods with pictures.

 

Nice work. I have to do a refresh of my R50 daily driver, starting with the headliner and a patch of rust under the passenger tail light.