Emily, blue caterpillars is a nice touch. I hadn't thought of doing them in body color. Every one seems to do them in red. I like the blue on Samwise.

I think I'll paint mine body color. Oops, they are already silver. Cool, now I can brag about my painted calipers.

Sorry to hear about the damage to your wheels.

 

Thanks.
Bwaaaa ha ha. Yep, I can see you spent hours getting those things painted silver. They do actually sell silver paint if you want to go through the exercise though.

Thanks, hopefully they will do the right thing without me getting an ulcer in the process.

BTW. It is very impressive what you've been doing with the sound-proofing. Is it just a strange perspective thing in the last picture you posted, or is your boot larger than normal??

Don, how were the races, and your drive to and fro?

Gary, how's your puppy doing?

Did everyone but Don stay home and away from the scary holiday weekend drivers?

 

That would be a truly OCD thing to do. I'm not that far gone, yet.

Be firm, very firm, but polite. Seems to work best. Don't make it easy for them to get rid of you until you get things rectified.

The BIG BOOT MINI. What song is it the donkey sings at the end of Shreck...? "I like big..."

The image was shot with a 12mm lens (actually 12-24mm zoom at 12mm) on a Nikon D2x. That is equivalent to an 18mm lens on a 35mm camera.

 

Emily, the races are this weekend 7th-9th, driving out on Friday AM. I will let you know how it all turned out.

This has turned into quiet thread, perhaps in a week or two SDMike will have some new commentary on Deacon.

All of you have a great week.

 

Hi everyone!!

Sorry for being so delinquent in posting. I'll try and do better

Gary, I hope the pooch is doing better, let us know how shes doing with the healing process.

Robin... great work on the dynamat! I'm very interested in hearing all about your work.

Emily, I'm digging the blue calipers, Samwise is looking great! I hope the tire shop takes care of you, sorry to hear about the damage to the wheels.

Don, Be sure to take lots of pics next weekend! But probably not while working the corners

Well the last weeks has been pretty uneventful, Tigs and I had to prepare for our son's return home from summer vacation, pick him up and try to get him back into a normal sleeping pattern.

Deacon hasn't been on any long drives yet, just abou 750 miles on his XP bar now and hoping to Level UP soon . But he did get his Alcantara wheel and JCW wing on. I do need to order a stubby antenna asap as the RC Car antenna really takes away from it.

I didn't really want to take him out this weekend, prefering to keep him safe in his little spot at home. Just way too many crazies on the roads getting thier last summer party in.

Hopefully he will achieve his break in point by this weekend, Sunday I need to see if I can take a long drive to familiarize myself with a local event. Not sure if I'll be able to go or not since I havn't talked to Tigs about it yet (Hi honey, wanna go for a drive Sunday?)

 

How do you like the wheel? How is it better than stock MFSW? Better feel, or just looks? It does have MF, right?

Craven Speed has two styles. They are only $20 ea. unless you want a custom logo printed on it.

 

I'm really enjoying the JCW wheel. For me, it's both tactile and visual.

The wheel itself feels "fatter" and my hands wrap around it better. The Suede certainly has a very nice touch and feel to it, but is double edged, I like the feel but don't want to gunk it up with oils and residue on my hands.

I make sure to wash my hands before getting in Deacon and Tigs got me a pair of very nice MINI driving gloves, I think they were 40.00 but very soft and supple, thin leather which is good, I don't feel like they impede any feedback from the wheel which was a fear of mine.

Multi function is the same as before, the techs remove the existing wheel and transplant the MF pieces and wiring to the new wheel.

It's not a cheap option, the wheel takes about 2.5 hours to install at the dealership's service department. But in my opinion it is one of those "mods" that's more for me than for others.

 

Mike, what is the hourly at the MINI dealer? I was wondering if CO and Cali are the same on hourly. Hummm.

Did you get the JCW shift lights, pretty neat on the R56. Wow, mods. Glad it's you and Tigs spending the $$$.

Enjoy Deacon and it looks like Tigs is going to put you to work adding bling to her engine compartment. See the other thread by MiniMayBee.

 

The wing and wheel were specd at the time of order and my dealer was very good to me in the deal so I really can't post what I paid.

Having said that I believe our dealers service department charges 150.00/hr here.

 

About right, I will have to check the local rate. Remind me not to do anything special on the MINI, if I drive out to visit my son for a road trip. You never know what will happen in the Spring around AMVIV time.

No more problems with Deacon, no CELs or lose of power after the last little issue?

What did you guys do with Churchhill? Did he go to the dealer for resale or auction?

Enjoy the day.

 

Church is still at the dealership as far as I know. I don't know if he will be auctioned, considering the trade-in they gave me I'm pretty sure they will try and sell him there.

I really hope he finds a happy home and brings the same joy to someone as he did us.

850 miles and no more issues with Deacon. I really am behaving with him as I want to ensure a long and fun filled run with him

Strike that... the only other issue is that I don't have 1250 on his ODO yet

As far as the wheel goes... I think that with the ammount of money people spend on exterior mods such as wheels, intake, exhaust, graphics, chrome, etc... it's not horribly priced even with installation... and it's one mod that you get to feel and touch every time in the car... to me that's priceless.

 

Big thanks to Unixgal for the new Sigpic

 

First class, she is good at those graphics. Nice.

Emily, did you get your wheel issue settled?

 

You're welcome. After the long, epic, wait Deacon needed a prominent place in a signature.

Actually still learning Photoshop as I go. I've had a copy of PS7 for years but never really used it. Being a POOM has "inspired" me.

I'll know the verdict on my wheels tomorrow. I went to the store Tuesday morning and spoke at length with the manager - who was fortunately who I had dealt with multiple times on the phone before getting the tires there. He's arranged for their wheel person to stop by my house first thing tomorrw to assess if he'll be able to make them look as good as new.

 

As I expected, I've been missing quite a bit. My pooch is doing very well. It's been 15 days since her surgery and she is already starting to put her foot down while walking instead of hopping everywhere. We just need to keep her reigned in while tendons regrow. Keeping her reigned in has been my primary duty at home. She isn't supposed to be jumping so we've been limitting her access to our furniture as best as we can.

I've had Demi for just under 5 weeks (tomorrow is 5 weeks) and I've racked up 2700 miles on her already. I'm as MOCD about her as ever. I've accumulated quite a collection of detailing supplies, especially MF cloths/towels. She's been getting washed 2-3x per week.

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well. I really like the caliper paint Emily, it's a nice touch. I may have to spend an afternoon and paint mine gold.

The JCW Wing looks great Mike!

Well, back to work for a few. Then home, try to wash Demi and apply wheel wax before the start of the football game tonight.

 

Got the birch ply floor put in, and the speaker cabinet assembled.

Insulation where the seats were:

Birch plywood floor in place:

6x9 speaker cabinet made of 1/2" thick paper (MDF):

 

Looking good Robin! Can't wait to see the finished work. I remember what a pain MDF is to work with... it's so dusty!

 

Wow, Robin...that's looking FANTASTIC.

I recall those nights Blair and Mike worked on Church's 5.1 surround until the wee weeeeeeeee hours of the mornings. What you're doing is no small undertaking and it's fascinating to see it come together.

Keep the pics coming please!

 

That is such a huge undertaking that Robin is doing... I agree very impressive.

So, Tigs & Mike, what was done with Church's system? Put in Lil'Tiger?

What, if any, sound modifications are you going to do to Deacon?

 

Thanks very much.

Not only dusty, but the dust is toxic. However, I'm prepared for that since many of the hardwoods is use for shift *****, such as cocobolo, have toxic sawdust.

In case you are interested, here is how the floor is tied to the car. No holes were drilled in the car. Existing structures were used.


The board at the back is part of a wooden sandwitch that clamps onto the square loop brackets. There are four brackets like the horizontal ones you see in the photo. The bottom is made up of four pieces of 1/2" plywood -- one for each steel loop. Each piece has a T-nut in it. The top board is bolted on top of the four loops.

In the front, tapered maple pegs go through the steel loops that used to hold the front of the back seat down. Not in this photo, but after the pegs were hammered into place, a wood screw was driven in to prevent the peg from vibrating out.


So, the whole structure can be removed without damage to the car.

 

Ok, just wanted to post an update to my wheel issue. I did actually get my faith restored in the place I chose to go to. The manager had shown me their equipment and it doesn't touch the wheel at all. Looks like the damage around the edge was from the careless removal of a wheel weight.

The repair guy they contract with was at my door promptly at 9am as scheduled. He called the manager after taking a look at the wheel and got the approval to do the repair. He'll do repair on-site at my house next Thurs.

Very good service and response to my complaint, so even though there was a problem, I'll give a thumbs up to Denny at Redwood General Tire in Redwood City for being concerned about customer satisfaction and doing the right thing.

 

I SAW DEACON LAST NIGHT! Parked in the lot at Target. He is beautiful.

 

Whooo hooo!! Glad to hear the good news Emily!

 

That's great. I hope the repair makes it good as new.

 

Hi all,

I'm sitting in my hotel room using the laptop in Hastings. The converted Holiday Inn is not to bad, room is clean but over the pool which is noisy.

Lots of rain here the past two days, so the track access and off course areas are very muddy, but all racing surfaces are dry. I hope nobody goes off in my corner on Saturday, it will be a slog.

Robin, your work is great, it is more than I would undertake.

Emily, great on the wheels. Hope it is done to your perfectionist preference.

Mike, I see Deacon was parked near a target, did you use boat bumpers for protection?

All of you enjoy, not sure how much time I will get on the forum, parties to attend after the races you know.