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Ross' MCS

9K views 56 replies 11 participants last post by  Rosstucks 
#1 ·
I have just joined after purchasing a 2008 Mini Cooper S and I am already loving it. Its going to be my daily commuter so mods won't be too extreme hopefully. I've had lots of modified cars before this so I'm looking forward to learning more about minis next.

Here's my mini



And this was my last car, a BMW 118d that I Managed to squeeze some 19" X5 Tigerclaws on it with a 30mm drop and remapped.



Inital plan for the mini is to get rid of the stripes on the bonnet and the union jack on the roof as they are faded and damaged. Then all the chrome needs to go and the wheels need a Refurb and will probably go black.

After that it will probably be Air filter, exhaust and a remap.
 
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#4 ·
First few little bits started today, stubby Aerial is from my BMW as that's going back to standardish to sell and a black fuel cap





Also the pros of buying a mini is that I can just about fit both cars on the drive. The mini seems to be massive in comparison to the 1 series in this photo



Got more bits to be delivered this week and my Heat gun is here to get the old stripes and Union Jack off at the weekend
 
#5 ·
Managed to get a bit more done this evening in between the rain after work

First up I got the stripes off the bonnet as they were marked and I don't like them.

Before





And after about 10 mins with a heat gun they were off



Next I debadged the rear





Then I put on the black handle covers





Final bit of dechroming was the belt line kit from Lohen I brought



The last job of the day was bringing the black plastic trims back to life again, forgot to take before pics but you can see how bad it was in these photos





And after It was back to its former glory!



Thats it for today. Hopefully at the weekend I can try and get the light surrounds, front grill and badges off to paint black to finish it off
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the comments, I hate all the chrome on minis, they look so much better black. Had a bit of time today and half a can of Plastidip left over from my last car so decided to attack the front of the car.

Took off the light surrounds and grill to give spray them. This is only a temporary thing for now until I can buy the proper black trims as the finish didn't come out too well due to the weather and the fact I only had half a can left!





Had to try and get them to dry a bit quicker with an electric heater on the dining room table due to the weather



And the fitted back on, looks great from far but don't look too close, unfortunately I found that most of the upper grill clips were snapped where someone has tried to get it off in the past so that will definitely have to be replaced



I'm thinking I might want a black hood scoop, in the future. Also have some black badges ordered. Just need to do the rear light surrounds now but as they are more difficult to get off I might wait till I can afford the proper trims to save me taking them off multiple times
 
#17 · (Edited)
The rain finally held up long enough today to Refurb my wheels! Just waiting for some new center cap stickers to arrive before they are out back on the car







Also I didn't realize how easy the side lights were to get off until I was looking to buy some black ones! Once I found this out I popped outside, slid them off and gave them a quick spray of paint. Looks great and saved me £50. Will get some nice photos of the finished car once the center caps are done.

 
#23 ·
As I am off today I thought I would treat my mini to some Christmas loving while I had a chance.

First off I have always hated how rubbish the speakers sound and after a bit of research I found out about the channel swap that can be done. I was a bit skeptical about it but now its done I can't believe how much of a difference it made. I was going to upgrade the speakers but I dont see the need to know. This is what I followed to do it, I didn't take any photos while I was doing it but the connector is in the passenger footwell and I used a TX20 to pop the connectors out on the female side after sliding the plastic sleeve up.



Next up I finally got rid of the union jack on the roof, I got one of these Glue wheels for my drill and it made light work of it. Still a bit of glue and residue on the roof I need to scrub off but overall its so much better





Then gave it a damn good wash





Very happy with how the car looks now. Here's a comparison photo of how the car looked when I brought it to what its like now

 
#26 ·
So I've treated myself to an exhaust system with my Christmas bonus from work. It's a £200 ebay system that I was a bit sceptical about but it went on easily and fits well.

It's definitely a loud system when you boot it or around town, but when driving on the motorway its not that much louder than stock.

Will get a video up soon when the weather is a bit nicer





 
#29 ·
Sorry wasnt very clear on my post I meant the piping from the cat backwards, I haven't removed the cat. So I will be refitting the middle silencer to try and quieten it down.

The next little thing I did today was mod the Dipstick as it has been a pain to read and I found I was actually 2 litres low of oil the other day when I finally got a reading off it. I saw this online and I must say it makes it so much easier to read! I filed 2 sides flat and put some grooves in it and now it works so much better! I didn't really fancy spending £70 on the cravenspeed one and now I'm glad I didn't!



 
#32 ·
Job for the day today was to try and quieten down the exhuast as its just too loud like I've said. I got a reducer pipe off ebay and cut the original exhaust so that I now use just the backbox from the new system. It has done the trick! its now a nice level and sounds better than the full system did!



Gave it a good wash as well whilst the weather was nice today as well

 
#33 ·
Not much has been happening at the moment with the weather being so cold and snowy apart from daily duties, my minis powered through all the snow and cold with no problems but needs a good wash now



Got it booked in for a Decoke next week as I don't think it's ever been done and its getting a little hesitant when accelerating.

After that hopefully I will be starting some Mods as I will have a bit of extra money available. The plan is:

Wheels
Coilovers
Brakes
Remap
 
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