My 40K mile 2005 MCS rescue
 

First. NEVER buy a car sight unseen. I purchased this one via text message from a little car dealership. They did a masterful job of photographing it and concealing the fact that the paint was faded. While this car may have very low miles, it was obviously parked outside in the sun its entire life.

When I was there to pick it up, I just laughed at myself for being an idiot. I wanted the car, I could have haggled the price down some. So be it, I have a friend who owns a body shop, he gave me a nice deal on a full respray.

I am the 3rd owner, it started life in Honolulu Hawaii then made its way to Jupiter Florida where it changed owners and now I have it. I have a ton of maintenance records on it which I was happy to see.

This is my 3rd Mini I purchased a 2003 JCW new in 2003, then we purchased a 2006 JCW in 2015 and drove it 2 years when we had to sell to get something more economical (an i3) to facilitate 600 miles a week in commuting.

Now that is over so we are back in a R53 for the third time, this one is staying. My niece has a newer 4 door Mini and loves it, she is very active in the Mini social scene. We have plans to go to some cars and coffee with her in the future.

First the car, as the dealership represented it:
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...bjphTPZ-XL.png

When I got it home, ignore the classic pickup it is my nemesis. (that is another thread) See the problem?
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...TnK55G9-XL.jpg

How about now? Yeah it is like 3 or 4 different shades of electric blue.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...zP26Zbh-X3.jpg

Since both my R53 Mini's before this one were JCW's I was a little bummed that the SC was muffled, I fixed that. More go fast goodies are planned. Not in a hurry, right now I just want her to look like a 40K mile car should.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...ZK6Cr6h-X2.jpg

Getting ready for paint.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...8FRmCbh-XL.jpg

Tear down found a lot of rotted parts the sun did a number on, I just placed a lot of orders to get many parts for the exterior to make her look new again. We are also going to black her out, so some parts I did not need were ordered s we can get rid of the chrome.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...MHDFWRQ-XL.jpg

I was told it has been primed already, it was dropped off 24 hours ago. I said something to the body guy that he moves fast, he replied, the car is tiny it is not taking much work to complete. LOL!

Poor girl has had her share of door dings. I suspect she lived her life in an outdoor condo parking lot.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...x3SMs4J-XL.jpg

My plans are to put a cat back on it. then a 17% pulley with a upgraded intercooler.

Then possible some JCW or equivalent injectors and a remote tune.

Question: I think I am going with the Milltek Cat back, should I go resonated or non?

Great story that I'll be following! I agreed to purchase sight unseen (only lousy CL ad pics) but no cash outlay until eyes-on after prox 1.5 hrs drive to get there.

As to the Milltek cat back, curious how others will comment but I'd say, depends whether you'll install a hi-flow header/cat and what your tolerance for add'l dBA inside the cab. I have the non-res version pipe on now but would prefer the resonated (which I removed but still have) if not for inadequate clearance between top of res can and tunnel heat barrier foil (just below shifter box). Root cause relates to cat flange angle rather than deficiency with Milltek products. Lots of pics with back and forth project descriptions within my own thread topic.

I started on your thread a few weeks ago trying to catch up. I would have loved to find a low mile MCS like that. Nice score!! At 40K miles I felt like I found a rare bird.


I have to give a shout out to Way Motor Works.

I visited with the body guy this morning and we formed a punch list of parts that disintegrated upon disassembly. One being the front air scoop for the intercooler.

I placed a sizable order for exterior part with them. I put a note on the order to please ship the Air Scoop separate if the order is going to be delayed due to parts not being in stock. We need it to the body shop by Saturday morning the latest for paint.

A girl from Way called me about 1 hour later and informed me that they have the scoop but the order was indeed delayed and we missed todays UPS pickup.

She then offered to send it Fedex overnight and absorb the cost into my quoted shipping charges.

I just got a notice with a tracking number that it's on its way.

Respect.

Looks like your well on your way.

I'll let my shipping girl know that you appreciated her help. She is loves to help nice people out. I even think she's got a bigger box going out later today for you too.

Let me know when you are ready for the mods.

And yes the Milltek is by far the best exhaust option for the R53
https://www.waymotorworks.com/millte...w-exhaust.html

LOL!! I think she was thrown off my my willingness to pay for the shipping without giving her any grief.

I already have the 17% pulley and belt from you, (as well as the DDM intake) as I did some reading I decided to hold off on that until I get an intercooler to install at the same time.

I am trying to decide between the Airtec and the Forge.

https://www.waymotorworks.com/airtec...r-r52-r53.html

https://www.waymotorworks.com/forge-...r-r52-r53.html

Always good to see an R53 being rescued. Nice find on the monochrome EB! When it’s done you’ll have a very clean low miles car which will be a blast for many years to come.

I had a resonated Milltek on a prior build and it was solid kit. You can always remove the resonator later If desired, but I’d start out with it included. Will be a different tone than your JCW, but similar (maybe slightly higher) volume.

Actually people say that all the time, but then we call them back with the overnight quote the whine and complain about how much it is. No one ever thinks that when you overnight something you basically buy it a seat on an airplane and it's not cheap.

I really like the Airtec for the intercooler, and I actually have 2 left in stock right now.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/airtec...r-r52-r53.html

Thank you for the kind words.

Also, thank you for the input, I will go with the resonator for now.

Damn you!! I am trying to slow my roll on the spending.

I am going to get this first then next month or month after get the cat-back.

Ordered.

LOL!

Today was paint day. The paint guy I used painted my sons E30, except it was a quick and dirty job, it came out perfect to be honest. The paint guy wanted better than perfect. So he bought this paint booth for $700.

I knew he was painting Saturday morning, I left him alone, I had to work in the office Saturday morning, then I have a lot of projects I need to take care of around the house.

I was done around 2PM and I had to run to my storage to put some car parts away. When I got there the paint guy was still there. I got a peek at the car while it was drying in the paint booth. These pics do not do the paint work justice the car pops!!

The paint booth is really cool it has a clean room / paint mixing room at one end.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...F8vkdJP-XL.jpg

This is the end with the clean room, it is like a giant bouncy house.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...Pj3TLTJ-XL.jpg

What do we have here?
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...sXxSnGx-XL.jpg

These pics just do not do the paint justice. It is amazing and looks like it glows.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...f9X7QJt-XL.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...BvQMzbk-XL.jpg

You kind of get an idea of how deep the paint is here.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...SB5g8dm-XL.jpg

The paint guy sent me these pics later on.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-.../i-dZ5Mv2T.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-.../i-KSJ9RhH.jpg

Wow!!! :thumbsup:

The car looks amazing! And he even painted the bouncy house to match.

Thank you, we are really excited over how it turned out.

My friend purchased that bouncy house just to paint this car, he also called in a favor from a friend to spray it.

He told me he is good at spraying cars, the guy he called in is on a whole other level and works are a really high end paint and body shop.

The paint sprayer said that the $700 bouncy house paint booth was really nice and was as nice to work in as his 100K paint booth in his shop.

We are blacking out all the trim, after seeing the car, I think the blacked out trim is really going to set this car off.

Today was black out the waistline trim day. I am not really happy with the condition the trim is in, the rubber is dried out.

I am probably going to buy all new trim and do this again in a couple of months. The shop is putting the car together this week and I do not want to hold him up.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...696a1f2a89.jpg

The rubber is almost gone on the trim on the back of my Cabrio. Replacing that is on the to do list.
Car is looking fantastic!!

Progress has been slow, I am really slammed busy at work so I have not had any spare time, I barely have time to track down and order the pieces I need. Of course, supply chain issues are delaying key parts and hindering re-assembly.

The OEM tail lights were at the end of their life. The passenger one was actually falling apart. I had ordered these before I even picked up the car from the dealer as the pictures on the dealers website indicated they were done before I put my eyes on the car.
I have a black Cooper S emblem for the back, we are going to wait a couple of months for the paint to finish curing before applying it.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...b5jtTd3-X2.jpg

I also have some flat black Mini wings on order from England. I have some ebay black headlight rings coming, I found some replacement headlights with black trim, except they eliminate the sprayer so I am debating them right now.
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-helix-pa...ini01hl-b~hlx/

My one buddy had a EB R53 when they were new at the same time I had my Chili Red JCW. We actually became friends 20 years ago over Mini ownership, he drove to my house from Tampa and we had a little rear sway bar install party at my friends shop who let us use his lift. 20 years later we are still friends and meet up from time to time for beers. He is having a hard time with the black out I am attempting on this car, he says it feels wrong. He thinks white would be better, I think the stark contrast of the black on the EB is stunning. See!! Friends can disagree and still be friends. LOL!!

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...xTkp9rc-XL.jpg

We are waiting on the roof line trim, it is due to arrive Saturday, it took a long time to get that. I am hoping to bring it home Monday, then next weekend the intercooler is being installed.

Wow that turned out beautiful!
One day I hope to have both my Mini's looking that good.

I have to admit, getting a full re-spray kind of ruins the fun of owning the car. I used to own a 1987 Mazda RX7 that was heavily modified. As in, a 1993 engine was swapped in and a ton of go fast modifications were done over a few year period resulting in a 2600 lb car making 560HP.

Then I decided to have it sanded to metal and re-sprayed at the cost of $6K in 2011. After that I was paranoid to take it anywhere. I took it to work one day. When I walked out after work, some a-hole had backed into my bumper, scuffed the paint and left without a note.. that made me mental after that. I never took it to work again and started to be that guy, the one who obsesses over the car making sure it was perfect... It ruined the fun.

When I commissioned this paint job I told my friend I did not want perfection, that ruins your enjoyment of the car. I just want it to look nice.... yet here we are chasing perfection. and ruining enjoying the car.. I do not want a garage queen that is polished with baby diapers.

I actually saw a couple of flaws in the paint work and was happy, I want a driver car. Once I have it home I will see if they will show up in pictures. We are still waiting on parts for her, hoping to do final assembly on Monday.

If my research is correct in 2002 the initial Mini's had black scuttles instead of chrome that would appear in 2003. I sourced some black scuttles and installed them with amber lenses. I am digging the look.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...rL4dqpL-X2.jpg

The flaws certainly don't show up in the photos. Really beautiful. I hope you're able to enjoy it anyway.

Thanks dmath, I will try to get some pics of the imperfections, they are small, there is a run mark next to the gas cap opening and the front leading edge of the hood looks a little wavy, there might be more, I just saw those two so far.

I tossed the rims on Saturday and the roof trim showed up, I was tempted to toss it on but the pain guy wants to. LOL!! He insisted I let him finish his job.

I also tossed on the door handle and gas cap covers to black them out. We are VERY close to being done with the exterior.

Next on the list is to install the intercooler, pulley and belt. The Milltek cat back has been ordered along with a sway bar. Way emailed me over the weekend to talk me into a cheaper WMW bar that is as stiff and lighter than the 22mm bar I chose. Not often a vendor tries to down sell you.

I have a few projects lined up now to do.
I also purchased the OBD2 to USB cable and will attempt to talk to my ECU so I can get a remote tune done.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...c05bdbff98.jpg

What did you use on the trim? It looks great.

For the waistline trim I used this:

Everything else I tried to source actual black pieces.

Door Handles and Gas cap are just covers. The door handles were glossy, we used some scotch bright to rough them up then painted them more of a eggshell of flat black using this:

The last pieces arrived today to finish the exterior on the car, finally!! I hope to have them all installed tomorrow.

Now on the performance upgrades.

I have a DDM Works CAI installed.

I have to install:

- Airtec TMI
- 17% pulley
- Milltek resonated cat back
- MSD Coil
- Nology Wires
- NGK 2667 BKR7EIX Iridium Spark Plugs


I am very hesitant to install the 17% pulley until I have figured out if my fuel will keep up with the upgrade. The rest will not impact that as much.

So what is the next move here? I have been reading a few threads today and cannot seem to come up with a valid plan.

Should I upgrade the injectors, THEN put on the pulley THEN get it tuned?

I did purchase a USB to OBD cable and software, my plan was to get a remote tune performed by the guy here that is going them (screen name escaping me at moment)

If yes for injectors what size? Will 380 be good? Will the 340's be enough or do I just go 500 and be done with it all? Concerning the go fast goodies, this is the extent I am going with this car. The only other mods way down the line will be a header and high flow cat.

Oh, I also grabbed a rear sway bar and I am keeping the stock brakes, I ordered some Hawk Street/Track pads and some powder coated Power Stop calipers. I am not doing much else to her suspension wise as there are no plans to track it. Just making a fun little car to rip on the streets with.

Not much has been accomplished this past weekend, we had a really busy day Sunday and I had to work Saturday. Well, I worked Sunday too but it is was just office work.

The front belt line trim is proving to be a major PITA, the clips I ordered were for the trim not the car. I needed to clips on the car, I ordered the correct pieces Saturday. I hope to finally have it complete by this upcoming weekend.

In the meantime we finished the black out trim. That is 99% done now. The only thing left to do is the CooperS logo on the back, letting the paint cure some more before sticking that on.

I also started installing a Kenwood radio and Sirius adapter. I am not 100% happy with this unit and may pull the deck back out and put in a different one down the line, it will do for now, it ticks the boxes, bluetooth, hands free phone, sirius, & usb. The interface is archaic I would prefer a touch screen like I mounted in my FJ Cruiser. I was worried about taking up too much space on the dash with a touch screen. I will do more research on that on here. This worked better than the stock unit. the stock units volume knob was not working.

Anyway, the headlights and Mini logos are all blacked out now. Next weekend the TMIC is being replaced and possibly the Cat-Back installed if I have time.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...a9c1186ab4.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...b13644498c.jpg

Kenwood Installed, synched with phones etc.. I just need to run the Sirius antennae.

am debating the side pillars. Kind of, no not want..

Wondering if there is an elegant delete option.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...6d16d80e88.jpg

Before:


After:

Yes - The tire stopper keeps moving around. The morons that resurfaced the parking lot never secured them back down. Sometimes they are sitting sideways in the parking space. LOL!

She is pretty dirty in this picture, we have been getting a decent amount of rain here, she is getting cleaned up this weekend.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...b24feb471c.jpg