[big jim]

I’ve mentioned this car a few times in the thread about my R53 and so as to not get confused between work done on this and the other one I thought I’d start a new thread

this was the first mini I bought and the one which caused me to get the cooper S as I wa buying bits for it and found the Cooper sat in a barn at someones farm!

I gave £1100 for her from a bloke I buy bangernomics cars off, when i chose it it was a toss up between the mini or an immaculate 1999 rover 45 for £400 which in all fairness was in near original (rust free) condition with 60k on the clock, the issue being is have ran it into the ground on my commute which would have been a shame, hopefully it went to an enthusiast

anyway this is it the day I got it


Then the mods started, not to everyone’s taste I recon but I went for chrome on it, totally the opposite to the cooper that turned up 2 months later, did the usual, white mirrors, white wheels (upped from 15 to 17), bonnet stripes, spotlights






And this is how it looks today, gave it a wash and polish earlier (first time ever, normally its bunged through the car wash)






This car is more ‘showy’ than ‘performance’ but I have done a few bits and bobs on it, it has a k&n 57i induction kit and full stainless scorpion exhaust as well as having a superchip bluefin fitted and a pedal boost box, the BHP has risen from about 90 to 130(ish) BHP, basically it’s a cooper now!



at one point I fitted eibach lowering springs to it but it rode like a dog so I switched back to normal springs, I may look at coilivers again at some point but I don’t feel like I want to do much more with this car really

as I say it’s more showy so the latest mod this afternoon was to start a quick boot build like the Cooper, basically using the same components I’ve used in that amp and speaker wise

the headunit in this one is the double din pioneer which went in without modification of the dashboard



The bootbuild is using the other 1/2 of the Fli bass box I cut in half last week, the beauty of this one is I’ve not got to work around the battery in the boot, the downside is I’ve got to run a power cable from the engine bay!

The start, board for the amp, stays for the speaker


I then marked out the false floor in cardboard before cutting a piece of MDF to suit


Marked some carpet out


and cut it to suit


Then cut the hole for the amp to poke though to sit flush with the floor


and the amp in place


unfortunately I’ve run out of spray mount glue or I’d have carried on with the bass box, put the rear panel on and carpeted it, I’ll have to do that over the weekend if I can get some glue, then of course it’s running cables along the length of the car and when they arrive fit the replacement speakers, they will be running off the headunit, just the sun will run off the amp

so there we have it, my other car, I keep saying I’m going to sell it as I use the cooper more but then we have days like today where its great to have a convertible, not that we’re allowed out to enjoy the sun on the open road

 

[Maccmike]

Look really good with those wheels and roof down

 

[big jim]

i got the wheels off Dave^ on here

they certainly change the look of the car, the white crown alloys ive taken off are waiting to go to the refurbisher to get powder coated black and they will be going on the Blue car when lockdown is over

 

[NigelStap]

That looks rather splendid.

Find a nice three spoke steering wheel. You should get one with airbag for under £100 as you don't have the stereo controls.

Simple job to change. Took me less than an hour, quarter of which was waiting for the airbag capacitor to discharge. Good advice on Pelican Parts for this job.

 

[KeithyCoop]

It should have a 3 spoke wheel as it’s a R52

 

[NigelStap]

Skinflint spec facelifts and convertibles can come with the two spoke wheel.

 

[Mike8080]

My old R52 One only had a 2 spoke which I changed to a 3. Makes such a difference!

 

[big jim]

To be honest I‘d like a wheel with stereo controls, if it’s not a hard job to do, ok let’s be honest, if it’s not a hard job for Sean to do, I might have a look on ebay for one!

speakers should arrive today to swap over if it’s not raining

 

[CarsOrBikes]

I have a mfsw here with no airbag

 

[big jim]

I’ll message you tomorrow about it

 

[big jim]

all the bits for the stereo build have arrived but typically ive got a week of nights this week and its raining so it will have to wait until friday at the earliest for me to make a start on the bits in the car, i will however get the bassbox finished by fixing the back panel on and get it trimmed up ready

ive gone for a set of componant speakers for the front but a set of mid range/bass for the rear, i can add tweeters to them if i choose to once i see how it sounds

 

[NigelStap]

You probably don't want tweeters in the rear. Need to keep the sound stage in front of you.

 

[big jim]

That’s why I went for straight forward mid/bass speakers, no point with tweeters unless they can be pointed toward the front which is pointless really

just discovered on the way into work that the front speakers on the blue car have now stopped working, only one tweeter working on the drivers side and the main driver very quiet, and nothing out of the passenger side, will have to investigate that too, I’m wondering if the crossovers have got wet in the bottom of the doors

 

[JKo]

Looks very nice with those wheels!

What's the headunit model? Looks expensive...

 

[big jim]

The headunit is a pioneer evo62, i in got it the Halfords sale using a discount website we have at work where you can buy x amount then get 10% off what you buy, ie £90 for £100 of vouchers, I then bought it through topcashback website and got more off again

It should have been about £420 iirc but it came down to about £310 once I’d used the vouchers and codes!

it’s a very good headunit, the only difficulty in fitting being the screen has a cable that runs from the unit to the screen which runs over top of the main unit and through a slot in the cage and the mini has a solid plastic ridge at the top of the stereo hole so you have to really push it in bending the plastic, first time is a bit nerve racking as you think you’ve done something wrong but it goes eventually, unfortunately I’ve got to get it back out to run the RCA and amp remote lead to the boot

 

[NigelStap]

Just noticed it's tuned into Heart Dance. Same for my two cars.

 

[big jim]

It’s normally heart dance, Virgin anthems or absolute 90s!

found the loose wire on the blue car, just one of the crimped Connectors had come off at the crossover input, all good now

 

[big jim]

back to the stereo built this afternoon, first up trimmed the bass box, gone for something different with this one


in the boot


And with the little parcel shelf down and roof shut


Then it was on to the speakers, the amp wiring can wait until tomorrow, components for the front bass/mids for the rear


Sound proofed the doors, only cheap stuff but might make a bit of a difference


Cut out the mesh on the original tweeter mounting and fitted the new ones in the hole, held in place with hot glue gun glue




Then I realised I’d dropped a ball with the main drivers, I thought I had 6’ spacers I had but they were for 5 1/4 speakers so I’ve had to mount the speakers on the door card rather than as I did in the cooper, speakers on the mounting rings and grilles on the door card, I’ll have to fill the bit of a void between the back of the speaker and door metal with vibe rubber speaker surrounds







That took me a lot longer than I’d planned so I’ll call it a day for today as I’ve got to be up for work at 3am, hopefully I can get the fronts finished tomorrow afternoon if nothing else, if not weather dependant Monday

 

[big jim]

Got the 2nd front speaker in today nice and quickly then made a start in the rear, the time consuming bit being getting the trim off, luckily I’ve taken rear seats out before so that made things a lot easier, as for the speakers, unlike the R50/R53 the convertible has 6 inch speakers in the rear in their own speaker ring as the hole is shallow and the speakers actually point slightly forward

I planned to do the same as the front and mount the speakers on the trim but it wasn’t until I opened them I found out these particular ones don’t have front grilles!





therefore I had to get the rings off the existing speakers, so I drilled out the pop rivet and removed the old speaker then I discovered the new speaker was 6.5 inches!
Jigsawed round the inner edge of the ring and popped the speaker in place then refitted



Had to leave it at that as I had work but tomorrow will be adding some sound proofing and securing the panels back in on that side, I’ve already run the rca and remote supply from the boot back toward the front as far as the door trim, then it’s into the other side and power cable from the battery to the amp, then with any luck it should all work, it’s sounding alright already even with just 3 new speakers in

I’ve also ordered some black bonnet stripes and black gloss wrap for the mirrors, now the white wheels are off I thought I’d go for the black detail look for a change!

 

[big jim]

Here we go, amped up, Sean told me where to look under the bonnet for a grommet, ran a piece of stiff wire through first then taped the power cable to it and got my lad to feed it through for me, took me about 5 mins, would have been a lot longer had I not asked for advice beforehand!

I’ve managed to order some Unused grilles for the rear speakers off eBay that will match the front ones so I bought them forward onto the panel and will fit the grilles as soon as they arrive


As for the head unit, this is the cable that is a pain to get to fit over the top of the unit, it actually broke my facia plate taking it out but it’s hidden so not a biggie


I’ve still got to fit the rear baffles to the front speakers to get a nice tight seal around them, again just wairing on them arriving

ive also bought some 6.5speakers for the front of the blue car now I know I can fit them to the door card