What did you do to your Mini today?

[1975_mini]

Installation done

Edited February 18, 2018 by 1975_mini

[wyretrip]

Haha.. left the lady there! Looks great! Even better now that it is in the car!

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

Looks awesome

 

[1975_mini]

1 hour ago, wyretrip said:

Haha.. left the lady there! Looks great! Even better now that it is in the car!

Needed something to fill the blank space. I will redo it to fix it, if I decide to leave it. 

[agranger]

On 2/17/2018 at 6:34 AM, 1975_mini said:

Very noce, so you did the “Jody mod” on your headlights. Was it fairly easy

Sorry... I saw the notification and forgot to come back to answer the question.  Yes... I did the Joey Mod front and back.  The front requires removal of the trim ring, removal of the whole headlight assembly, careful application of a heat gun and gentle prying (plus 4-5 clips) to remove the front lens, painting as you wish, reheating and smooshing it all back together again.  The rears need to be dremmeled (cut) apart to do the same thing, then lots of epoxy to reseal.

In the images, below, you can see 1)the rears where I cut around the sides and re-epoxied everything back together  2) the headlights w/ a screwdriver pointing to the clips you have to mind carefully 3) Installed headlights after the mod  4) a before and after pic of sanding/polishing out the headlight lenses  5) A tail-light pic with a a new lens in the front, a Joey modded lens in the middle and one of the old lenses (UV stained/hazed) in the back 6) the rear end w/ the joey modded tail lights installed.

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by agranger

[1975_mini]

Got working on the honey do list today:

first on the list NM sport springs,

 

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

I'm sure she'll love them but you didn't paint them orange.... 

[1975_mini]

1 hour ago, TGGRRR (Ali) said:

I'm sure she'll love them but you didn't paint them orange.... 

I was considering having them powder coated. Maybe some orange calipers when I do the brakes. 

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

32 minutes ago, 1975_mini said:

I was considering having them powder coated. Maybe some orange calipers when I do the brakes. 

I want orange calipers so badly on Tigger

[1975_mini]

11 hours ago, TGGRRR (Ali) said:

I want orange calipers so badly on Tigger

https://www.amazon.com/G2-Temperature-Caliper-System-ORANGE/dp/B004BQC4KS

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

14 minutes ago, 1975_mini said:

https://www.amazon.com/G2-Temperature-Caliper-System-ORANGE/dp/B004BQC4KS

I have the paint, haven't had time or understood how

[1975_mini]

9 minutes ago, TGGRRR (Ali) said:

I have the paint, haven't had time or understood how

fair enough

[GreenCactus]

11 minutes ago, TGGRRR (Ali) said:

I have the paint, haven't had time or understood how

I've done it. It's not hard, just a little tedious. Since you have a garage and a second car, it will be easy. Once it warms up, we can schedule a weekend and I'll do it for you. The hardest part is putting it on jack stands (someone else will have to do this, it freaks me out and I can't even watch). 

Edited March 26, 2018 by GreenCactus

[1975_mini]

3 minutes ago, GreenCactus said:

I've done it. It's not hard, just a little tedious. Since you have a garage and a second car, it will be easy. Once it warms up, we can schedule a weekend and I'll do it for you. The hardest part is putting it on jack stands (someone else will have to do this, it freaks me out and I can't even watch). 

I can jack stand it of you, and have stands if mark doesn't have one for each corner. It is a bit unsettling the first time you jack up a MINI. The combination of the short wheelbase and stiff uni-body means when you jack up one corner the whole side lifts up. You can see in the one photo I still always lay the tire under the car when it is off, as and extra safety to catch the car it a jack stand was to slip.

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

4 minutes ago, 1975_mini said:

I can jack stand it of you, and have stands if mark doesn't have one for each corner. It is a bit unsettling the first time you jack up a MINI. The combination of the short wheelbase and stiff uni-body means when you jack up one corner the whole side lifts up. You can see in the one photo I still always lay the tire under the car when it is off, as and extra safety to catch the car it a jack stand was to slip.

that would be great! I need help. Probably need new paint too since this stuff is years old. I think we need to wait until it's warmer

[Edge]

14 hours ago, 1975_mini said:

I can jack stand it of you, and have stands if mark doesn't have one for each corner. It is a bit unsettling the first time you jack up a MINI. The combination of the short wheelbase and stiff uni-body means when you jack up one corner the whole side lifts up. You can see in the one photo I still always lay the tire under the car when it is off, as and extra safety to catch the car it a jack stand was to slip.

Ya know... when I first read this, I read it as shown above (without the words that are struck through)... and thought you were trying to be funny.

[1975_mini]

The Countryman projects continue: today I switch out the stock rotors and pads for EBC performance rotors and red stuff pads.

Fun fact for anyone looking to tackle this project on a countryman or guessing Gen3s, the project is very easy but BMW/MINI has made it that you almost every form of fastener possible. There are standard metric hex bolts for the caliper guides (you also need narrow open wrenches to fit the backside) and FRONT caliper carriage, metric allen head screws holding the rotors, but just to be crazy the rear carriage bolts are echo heads (female torx).

Now to get them fulling bedded before the dragon.

Edited April 13, 2018 by 1975_mini

[1975_mini]

Was tried of the chrome headlight washer cover. A little vinyl and all better. 

 

[Revwillie]

I replaced the upper engine mount all by myself today.  You know, that oil-filled tin can that springs leaks.  That.

I thought I was being clever when I jacked the mini up, slid my donut spare under the oil pan, and then let the jack down. The donut held the weight of the engine fine and didn't damage the oil pan.  However, the width of the donut plus 3/4" of cardboard and paperboard as a shim was only enough to hold the engine up to the height of the old, collapsed engine mount.  I should have added more shims to push up the engine a little higher so that the new engine mount would allow the mount bracket to rest in the correct position.  There wasn't much I could do to lift the engine and the donut, but some profanity and patience got two of the four bracket bolts threaded which let me draw the engine up close enough to thread in the other two bracket bolts.  After that, I celebrated by letting someone else change the oil and the oil filter....

Live and learn.

 

 

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

I just had a full bonnet clear bra installed

[Revwillie]

After driving for a week on the new engine mount and re-torquing all the bolts, I added a VIP engine stabilizer to keep the engine mount company.

 

 

[1975_mini]

Today’s project was to replace the drive belt (aka serpentine belt). Was pretty easy, once I had the light bulb moment and used the floor jack to unload the the tensioner. 

Had to do this weekend because the dealership failed her on inspection for a worn cracked belt. Which seems odd as I had not heard an squilling on start up or any other time. Once I got the old one out it was pretty clear someone wanted to make $200 for a belt replacement. 

Jokes on them $15 and and hour of my time. 

[wyretrip]

1 hour ago, 1975_mini said:

Today’s project was to replace the drive belt (aka serpentine belt). Was pretty easy, once I had the light bulb moment and used the floor jack to unload the the tensioner. 

Had to do this weekend because the dealership failed her on inspection for a worn cracked belt. Which seems odd as I had not heard an squilling on start up or any other time. Once I got the old one out it was pretty clear someone wanted to make $200 for a belt replacement. 

Jokes on them $15 and and hour of my time. 

Nice! Was there a special tool necessary for this? I always heard the serpentine belt was a very expensive maintenance. Glad you could knock it out yourself!

[1975_mini]

50 minutes ago, wyretrip said:

Nice! Was there a special tool necessary for this? I always heard the serpentine belt was a very expensive maintenance. Glad you could knock it out yourself!

No special tool needed unless you are doing a gen1. 

It is $200 to have the dealer do it, but the belt is only $15 all the cost is labor. 

It is pretty straight forward project:

- undo front passenger inner felt wheel well inner, and fold back to expose the engine. 

- unload the tensioner, and engage to pin that holds it up. This is the most difficult part, if you try the muscle it with a pry bar. I put the pry bar in place with the handle on the pad of the floor jack. Pump up the jack and let it do all the work, push in pin and release the jack.

- pull the friction wheel tab that drives the water pump, to back it off the belt. 

- slide old belt off pulleys and slide new belt in. 

-push friction wheel tab back in, push up on tensioner will release spring loaded retention pin and lower on the belt

- reinstall wheel linner and you are done

takes about and hour, in the garage. 

I have not check if it is the same on gen3s, but like only minor differences. 

[1975_mini]

Roxy got a bit of a new look today. I though the red “look at me” stripes would grow on me. They did not, but wanted to keep the stripes. So the solution matte black to give a ghost stripe look. Before and after pictures below.