Finished bolting on what I could. I also finally put my larger intercooler on. I bought one of the low $$$ ones about a year ago and just hadn't found the time to get it on.

Scuffed and did some repair on the rear bumper and rocker panel covers yesterday. Did these first as they need the repair work. Rear bumper cover had a "protrusion" that I used a heat gun and some dollies to get back close. It also had a couple areas that the paint was peeling. Both rocker panel covers had some scrapes on the bottom, peeling paint other blemishes that needed some love.

Still need to do the hood, fender and front bumper. The front bumper has some stone chips but nothing major to repair. The hood and fender will be a walk in the park prepping after doing all the plastic first.

I also finished cleaning all the black plastic pieces for the front and rear bumper and treated them. Trying Car Guys Black on Black on the grill. Not sure how long it will last but all the nooks and crannies are too much to deal with right now.

Ordering my parts from ECS this morning. Once they get here, I have about a weeks worth of work to get them on, getting Koni Reds, sway bars and bushings. Since I am putting them on before painting, it will add a week to the process.

 

Koni Reds and PowerFlex bushings come in today. That should fill my next two evenings.

 

Waiting on some other parts so the suspension will be this weekend.

I have the hood/fender and all the plastic parts scuffed . Time to do the repairs to the plastic. No major repairs, just some gouges/scrapes and smoothing out.

I need to clean up the JCW exhaust and get it on this weekend, turbo to follow later after I get it back on the road.

 

Well I am pushing the paint job off to around the 12th. I am using epoxy primer on all the plastic pieces and it needs to cure 12 - 24 hours before sanding or base/clear coat.

Still have plenty to do. I didn't get the exhaust changed this weekend so there is that. My sway bars are supposed to be in tomorrow so that the shocks/struts. I also have the bushing to change out.

Since my paint job is backed up some, if time permits, I will start prepping the R112 rims as well.

 

The JCW exhaust needed some love before I installed it.

Lots of elbow grease, polish and a wheel on a drill.
One side done, now the other.


Sway bars arrive tomorrow so I will start on the bushing/shocks/struts/sway bars then. After researching how to do some of those things, it made sense to do them all at once.

 

Started on the rear bushings. Got the left rear control arms out to replace the bushing. Used heat, a C-clamp and a socket to get the old bushing out. Worked pretty well. My C-clamp screw end is about the same size as the metal insert. The socket U used matched the outside diameter of the hole. Only issue was once the bushing was out, getting it out of the socket. I got the majority of the old bushing out. Need to clean/polish it before putting the new in. I wanted to use some acetone to clean out the existing rubber, but apparently my wife is out of nail polish remover. I tried all the other things I have in the garage (lacquer thinner, 3m adhesive remover, gas)

I am doing one "corner" at a time. I have the trail arm bushing and shock to replace while I am there. Need to wire brush and spray some of the components as Ohio's winter road salt is starting to cause surface rust.

I also have the upgraded sway bar to wiggle in there. Hoping to finish the rear tonight and start on the front Monday as I have my military weekend Sat/Sun.

 

Finished getting the old control arm bushings out, cleaned and replaced with new. My PoMans press did a fine job.


I also had to get creative on how to get the bushing insert out of the socket I used. 1/2" bolt did the trick pounding it on the concrete.


The PoMans press isn't going to handle the trailing arm bushing. Taking the left side with me to work and using their press to take it out and press in the new.

 

The trailing arm bushing definitely need a press unless you used one of the other methods (drilling and cutting). One corner done.

Subframe and some components need some wire brushing and paint. Dang Ohio road salt. What's one more day in the big picture of things.

BTW, the only down thing so far to replacing the bushing with PowerFlex is I haven't found a video of doing them and it is hard to find instructions. The one thing I wasn't sure of was where the supplied washer for the rear control arm went. I searched quite a bit. Powerflexusa.com was down at the time. Thank goodness powerflex.co.uk was still up and I found it there.

 

I received all the parts I ordered. I completed the rear-end, shocks/sway bar/bushings. Starting the front tomorrow. Still a lot of things to do before paint.

I am working on the R112 rims today. Again, they need much love. The chick that drove this car apparently had no spatial awareness, curb rash on the rims and scraping the underbody. They have been reworked at least once for curb rash that I can tell. Blasting them with crushed glass today. Major rework/repair to be completed by my nephew (he has all the welding equipment and knowledge to get them back to snuff). Want to have them ready for paint the same time as the other pieces.

Need to order the rotors for the JCW brake kit along with new hoses. I will clean up the calipers today, see if they need any touchup or not.

Getting down to only a coupe other parts to take off the donor, a few interior pieces.

 

Really looking forward to seeing your baby restored to its former glory, and even better than before!

 

Life has been busy. Haven't had much time to work on it. Last PM I changed out the front struts. I don't own a pass through socket set so I got creative.
I used my deep impact sockets and found a machine screw that was close to fitting the hole for the ball detent.

I then clamped a vice grip to it. The screw prevented the vice grip from slipping around the socket. Worked like a charm

The stock strut came with a 21mm nut and the Koni had 19.

My next upgrade is the front sway bar. I need to lower the car and use jack stands as my mid rise car lift prevents the front sub-frame from lowering

 

Such a great feeling you get when you invent some new way of doing something, and it actually works.

 

Stock part, thats what the oem MINI bumper has, that's an updated crash or crumble zone, my R58 JCW has those.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Having the R112 rims chemically stripped before a light crushed glass blast. I tried just blasting one with the crushed glass and the epoxy primer they put on those things is WICKED! About 3 hours and got nowhere fast. They will be stripped by this weekend.

I have to finish the front sway bar install and the JCW brake install. Unfortunately, while disconnecting the rear hard brake line from the flex, the hard line twisted and snapped. I was trying everything I know, PB Blaster then loosen 1/8 turn, PB BLaster again and re-tighten, loosen 1/4 turn re-tighten continue in 1/8 turn increments spraying with PB and the dang thing was still seized. I have some brake line repair to include in the project now. Couldn't be the front which would be too easy to replace.

Unfortunately, I have some military stuff again this weekend so shooting for paint over the 4th long weekend.

I really need to get this thing back on the road. Last weekend I had a military thing just Northeast of Pittsburgh, PA (New Kensington). Every time I put the address into Google it took me a different way and those roads were made for the Mini. Sucked in the Avalanche.

 

Welcome.

Maybe try some "Free All" spray. That stuff works also.

 

Free All is what I actually used. I couldn't think of the name. It is great stuff, expensive but great stuff. Everyone knows PB Blaster.

 

Would definitely like to see some pictures of the progress so far........

 

Taking a little break right now. Doing the front sway bar and control arm bushing will be a two night endeavor and I leave for KY tomorrow AM. I get back Saturday so perhaps that evening and Sunday will be drop the sub-frame, install the sway bar, press out the old control arm bushings and install the PowerFlex.

I still need to repair the brake line, hang the exhaust back up and finish the brakes.

Other than the rims, I have everything else ready for paint. Looking at doing that over the long 4th weekend.

 

Lowered the rear part of the front sub-frame last evening. Took the sway bar/control arm bushings out. Everyone talks like lowering the rear sub-frame is a pain, I didn't think it was that bad or too hard.

Getting to the bolts for the bar/control arm bushings is a little tricky. I used this guys video (Project Mini)


He does a decent job on the video but sometimes I just want to add a funny ha ha quip. For instance he tells in the video how to use a 20mm combo wrench as a cheater on the 18mm wrench. I want to add a comment that I had to go to Walmart to get a 20mm wrench as all my bigger wrenches are SAE and you know they don't work on metric stuff. I am glad I had a flex head ratchet. Made all the difference. The angle is funny so I circle the flex head and the arrow is pointing at the sway bar mount bracket.


Went to my friends shop (why I added the L/R and arrow to the front), pressed out the old bushing and PowerFlex installed. The tooling I made for the rear bushings worked fine for the front as well. Getting the new bushing in was a bit of a trick. Ended up using the bench vice and a small plain screw driver to assist the beveled edge in. Once started, it went easy. In the press, trying to get it centered was dang near impossible, it kept kicking to one side or the other. I will finish installing the bushings/sway bar this afternoon.

 

Koni's and PowerFlex on.




Tomorrow night is brake line repair and put the exhaust back on.

 

Rims are stripped (had a powder coat place do it, $100 for the set wasn't bad), lightly blasted, repaired and ready for paint. Wanted to start today but humidity was high 80%. It is only supposed to be 40-50% tomorrow and Saturday. Hope to spray the epoxy primer tomorrow, base and clear on Saturday.

I have some before pics. As you will see, they needed some serious love.





The barrels were no better

 

Carumba - with this restoration you're giving these wheels, and the whole Coupé, some serious love here. Really looking forward to seeing all of this come together. Ambition plus inspiration - an unbeatable combination.

 

This is a rim after wiping it down before the epoxy primer



1st coat of epoxy on


Doing a second coat in an hour or so. Tomorrow is base Jet Black and clear.

 

Now that definitely looks good......I thought you were going to Powdercoat them.......

 

I ended up using some spot putty on them and I don't think it will take the heat when they bake it on. Also, it has been almost 40 years since I did any automotive spray painting. We didn't have HVLP guns or all the different paints we have today. This will be the 1st job I have ever done that wasn't a lacquer or enamel. I considered the rims my "test" shoot before the body panels and Aero kit. If I completely messed it up, I could quickly clean them. Don't want to do that with the plastic pieces. I did get runs on my 1st rim, one small run on the 2nd, 3 & 4 look great (#4 pictured of course, we don't show our B sides). I am wet sanding out the runs this AM and doing a second coat as well. There are a couple cool things about epoxy, pot life after activated 72-120 hours, can be sprayed with base with no sanding up to 7 days later, has great rust protection when used on bare steel, needs good mechanical adhesion so rough sanding and extremely durable are a few. The only real downside is the cure time 12 -24 hours before base or sanding.

Since starting this repair, I have done a boat load of research on DIY for all the upgrades I did and also on the whole paint process. Years ago, you had Dupont or crap paint. Now there are many good paint companies. I went with Southern Polyurethanes (SPI) epoxy primer and Euro 2020 Clear coat. They have a huge following for both those product. They also have a very informative forum. Dupont is now Exalta I am using their Chromabase.

Epoxy sprayed similar to 1K primer and the base coat should spray similar as well. My only concern now is the clear coat. That can be tricky stuff to do and not get runs.