Yes. I have the Brembo Front and rears off of an R56 laying in the garage. Unfortunately one of the Front calipers is toast. I don't have the rotors but I think the rear rotors for this setup are 260mm.

I already have JCW brakes (i.e. regular R56 brakes on the car). Do you know if the emergency brake cable bolts right up?

I have SS "hoses" for both an R53 and R56 so hopefully I'm covered.

 

ECSTuning,

Are there different Whiteline adjustable rear links for the R56 and R53?

 

Your car is looking great! ...can't wait to see it all put back together.

From what I've seen on the R56 trailing arm conversion, the R56 wheel speed sensors dont work and you get a warning light so you need to use R53 sensors. The problem is the hole for the sensor is larger on the aluminum trailing arms so the R53 sensor is loose.

I found some adapter bushings in Europe, but I'm trying to see if I can figure out something local first. I've had everything else for this conversion and a Hotchkis comp rsb for over a year, but haven't had the time to do the install.

 

The JCW front caliper for the R56 will need the R56 brake lines , they make to the R53 main hard line. Brake cable on the rear are a little different on the R56 JCW to R53. But since you are doing the R56 rear end it should mate up. The Rear R56 Brake lines will be needed also.

R53 Rich mans Brembo 4 pot JCW brake kit conversion


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...w-jcw-bbk.html





R53 to R56 poor man single piston JCW

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...rakes-kit.html

End links : Same for R53 rear to R56 rear KLC106.

 

Enjoying your thread and the progress you are making. I'm in the same boat with my 2004. Just decided to hold on to the car, got the front bumper resprayed and a new front windshield myself. Fortunately the rest of the body is in good shape, but I do plan to clay bar the rest of the car soon. Yours is coming along great and looks good. Cheers!

 

Nice. I'm debating whether or not to black out behind the lower grill. I noticed you left yours red in the picture do you like it that way?

 

You might also want to black out behind the upper grille, too. You can see the body color behing the JCW grille, especially the vertical support right in the middle.

 

That's funny you mentioned that. Was just taking pictures the other day planning my next mods list. Painting the inner part of the bumper and grill inner support bracket is next. Cheers

 

I'm painting mine too. I hadn't thought about it because it has always had a license plate mounted on the front that covers most of that grill. But I'm going with a tow mount license plate after it's repainted.

 

They had some other work come in so it sat for a while but now they are working on putting it back together. It's getting close.



I love the color matched cowl vents.

 

I picked the car up yesterday. It turned out great.







Unfortunately the weather in PA was pretty sloppy so it didn't look this good when I got it home. But as soon as we get some good weather I'll get some more pictures.

They were surprised that the small bubble under the taillight was all the way through. Does anyone know why they rust so bad there. Would it help to grease the inside of the quarter?

 

I am looking to do this but did the price include you or the body shop take apart the car like bumpers and all the black trim I want to do this but would like to spend around half that on mine but I have a few chips in the front and the rear lights are really rusty (not missing metal completely but all the paint and primer is gone, so we are friends with a shop so hopefully I can help and bring the price down a bit hoping it will be around the $1k mark if I take it all apart and clean and buy the paint because I love mine and would love to see it shine again..


Looks great!

 

I drove it in and had the new trim shipped directly from ECS tuning to the body shop. They R&R'ed, the windshield, all trim, bumpers, lights etc. There were a couple of dings the rust repair under the rear tail light etc. They did a couple extras like painting the cowling vents and transferring the guts and washers from the existing headlights to new housings. The "paint and materials" were $600 and the was labor $1900. The new windshield was $225.

 

ok thank you I am hoping to get it in for a quote the 19th so I will get back and I can see if it will be worth it. It may not make the cars resale value go up by much but its an 02 so maybe one day but I never want to get rid of it since it is my first car and love it!

 

I don't expect to get my money back from a resale perspective. I decided that it was worth the money to get another 5 years, hopefully, of commuting in a respectable looking car that I can track a weekend a month.

I looked at getting another car to use as my daily driver but since I only wanted to spend $10-15K most used cars I would be interested in have more miles than my Mini. Plus with three kids it would be very tough to get another two door anything if I'm spending real money.

If it weren't for the kids I have a two seater, commuter/track car. But there are just too many times I need to pick kids up etc.

I thought about doing the prep work myself but never priced it. The body shop is one I have a lot of experience with but they are three hours away in my home town. I would have had to trailer the car up and back and decided it wasn't worth it.

 

Watch getting addicted to your first car.




1968 Barracuda

Under that pile is mine. A 1968 Barracuda. I started to restore it again about 20 years ago then life happened.

 

Thanks I will I dont know why but even though my mini has a ridiculus hard ride and lot on the freeway it is still awesome to me..

And your mini is looking great to I am not a fan of the older light blue but that looks awesome with the rims and black highlights.

Hey its never to late to get that Barracuda going!

 

Car looks great - the new trim makes a big difference. I was wondering what would work best to refinish the trim, as mine is all faded... Maybe I should just buy new trim for the car.

How much for replacing all of the trim? Now that you replaced it, what are you going to put on it so it doesn't fade in the future??

 

My car had a bad repair done on the quarter and they blended the rear bumper. Unfortunately the newer trim on the rear quarter stood out and when they blended the bumper they didn't remove the trim and it had some overspray on it. The pieces on the front fenders were by far more sun damaged than anything else and the lower front spoiler had some damage.

Over a couple of beers one night I decided to go all new trim

All of the trim including the roof drip edge, top windshield gasket, gasket for trunk handle and the adhesive for rear spoiler was $1,100 from ECS Tuning.

I researched protectants and I purchased 303 aerospace protectant. Ask me in 5 years I'll let you know how it works out.

 

Other things that made a big difference in my opinion.

#4 The painted cowl scoops. I know they aren't really functional possibly even cut down on the total air that can get into the cowl but I love them color matched. The stock ones stand out too much on anything but black and silver.

#3 JCW grill. I had the fake JCW grill that's glossy in the car and I never liked it.

#2 CF hood scoop. It was looking very tired now it looks better than when it was new.

#1 The headlights. Mine were going downhill quickly. These ones are out of an 06 and were in much better shape. Actually finding these headlights were what set this paint job in motion.

The headlights are what I'm most concerned about protecting.

 

I priced it today and was quoted $900. Is that the going rate?

They wrap entire cars in in Xpel I asked about that as well... $4900.

 

"I researched protectants and I purchased 303 aerospace protectant. Ask me in 5 years I'll let you know how it works out."

- would be an interesting test. I guess the plastic just cant handle the UV.

"They wrap entire cars in in Xpel I asked about that as well... $4900."

- $4900?? Never heard of this stuff, but a tad expensive...!!!

 

I went to an auto show they had the Xpel stuff on a Mclaren P1 its amazing stuff but crazy money
light scratches some how come out with water its cool

 

I'm in Frederick too!!! Who did the paint?

 

I took it to Chuck Swaney's West End Auto Body in Johnstown PA. My family runs a garage in Johnstown and we've been friends with the guys at Chucks for years and I know the work that comes out of Chuck's shop is very good and is done right.