My wife's Mini R57 convertible. Sold!

[mk2_craig]

A few more anxious days followed but eventually this reappeared:

Straight back to the footwell:

 

And plugged back in:

 

Negative lead back on the battery:

 

And....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got windows

We got turn signals

 

We got power roof.  This is going well!

Quick test run.  We also got a symbol I've never seen before, so that's another free fix 

And it even seems as if the blower is back to proper strength.  I wonder if the state of the old battery had latterly caused this to be limited.

 

Anyway, that brings us pretty much up to date. 

[Parky]

Start stop usually appears when the battery hasn’t enough oomph to restart in traffic.  I do the Autoshite long term definitive fix of turning it off and never using it.

[Parky]

On 4/27/2021 at 6:55 AM, hairnet said:

bad man - do you hate them too?

 

I actually love them.  I have had three of them, two fault riddled and the one good one written off by a dopey twat nearly killing me in the process.

The fault fixing bit was actually fine as TADTS and as a result the forums are full of decent advice and recommendations on how to fix.  

Would I have one tomorrow with a misbehaving CVT gearbox, a mismatched interior, and body damage?  Of course I would.  If I was living in the UK that is.

[cort16]

I'm not sure if was these or the earlier mini floppy tops but there was an option you could specify, which told you how long you'd driven with the roof down.

Other than ironing a crease in your jeans there's nothing as cool* as a gauge to show everyone how much fun you've been having.

Here it is

[hairnet]

Wtf lol

Richard I worked for them as it came out seats get nil peas steering was good ride is shit

Not quick enuff either

[mk2_craig]

On 28/04/2021 at 08:40, cort16 said:

there was an option you could specify, which told you how long you'd driven with the roof down

Ah yes.  The OPEN-O-METER!!!!  Sakes man.  

[horriblemercedes]

7 hours ago, cort16 said:

I'm not sure if was these or the earlier mini floppy tops but there was an option you could specify, which told you how long you'd driven with the roof down.

Other than ironing a crease in your jeans there's nothing as cool* as a gauge to show everyone how much fun you've been having.

Here it is

It has been driven for over an hour with the roof down but only covered 3km? Who was driving it?

[mk2_craig]

5 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Who was driving it?

 

 

[camryv6]

19 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

 

 

Why as a 47 year old adult do i find that entertaining, and good at her for having a go and doing it ?

[AnthonyG]

On 4/28/2021 at 8:40 AM, cort16 said:

I'm not sure if was these or the earlier mini floppy tops but there was an option you could specify, which told you how long you'd driven with the roof down.

Other than ironing a crease in your jeans there's nothing as cool* as a gauge to show everyone how much fun you've been having.

Here it is

Is this a real thing? It sounds a lot like one of those April Fool ads that BMW used to do...some of them were quite plausible. 

[cort16]

8 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Is this a real thing? It sounds a lot like one of those April Fool ads that BMW used to do...some of them were quite plausible. 

No  amazingly it’s real

[mk2_craig]

10 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Is this a real thing? It sounds a lot like one of those April Fool ads

I gotta say, that’s one hell of a gimmick. Presumably intended to divert attention away from the rest of the car’s shortcomings! It’s right up there with curry hooks, briefcases in the dashboard and integrated shopping trolleys in the boot. 

[cort16]

11 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

I gotta say, that’s one hell of a gimmick. Presumably intended to divert attention away from the rest of the car’s shortcomings! It’s right up there with curry hooks, briefcases in the dashboard and integrated shopping trolleys in the boot. 

Their must have been a fair dose of the columbian marking powder on the go on  what ever brain storming retreat they were on when whey came up with this.

[Matty]

Seems like tempting fate buying a convertible when your first names Rainy

[mk2_craig]

So, having done the roof repair, renewed the brakes, and resolved the battery-related shenanigans, you'd expect this to have been 100% reliable, right?

Actually yes.  I even felt brave enough to take it out in hours of darkness, which revealed it has that customisable "mood lighting" (customisable in five steps from blue to red via purple at least).

Not really getting the full effect in these photos but anyway.  The car is gradually clocking up the miles without issue.

 

Next job was to tackle the rear indicator bulbs.  Doesn't look too bad here, but in reality these were practically white.  

 

Whipped out the driver side:

Yeah, that's seen better days.  What about the other one?

More or less the same script.  I bet these are original to the car.

End result:

 

You'll have to believe me when I say that this was a decent improvement, even though it looks only marginally less yellow than the "before" picture.

 

 

 

 

[Crackers]

9 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Pondering whether to repair and colour-code the existing arches and valances, rather than replace the damaged ones - but this doesn't seem to be a common thing to do, and anxious that it might look a bit strange.  Thoughts, anyone?

You don't see many colour coded Coopers, but I think they look smart. 

[Rusty_Rocket]

My JCW has colour-coded arches... I really don't like them!!! 

I think part of MINIS character is the black arch trims (it's a nod to the 80s era-onwards classic Mini?) but each to their own! 

I wish mine had black arches and a black roof. Someone paid extra for all this when it was new! 

[Split_Pin]

A touch up pen and some decent black trim dressing will hide fix that scuff.

[mk2_craig]

 

This things been dependable.  I did notice some fraying at the edge of the roof above the drivers window:

So decided to have a go at repairing it,

 

 

 

Pretty happy with that. 

[purplebargeken]

What a MINI adventure!!!

[mk2_craig]

Right then, where did we get to?

Ah yes, the "trim tray".  It's held in place by four of these clips that were ok on early 1980s cars door trim panels.  They're useless for ensuring that Mini plastics have got any long-term chance against gravity.

 

I took the clips off, then drilled through their locating mounts from behind.  I did tidy up these holes after this photo, courtesy of a countersink bit.

And the reverse side again.  

Screw receivers where the trim clip things in the first photo previously fitted.  This being a section of the convertible top frame which holds the motor for the "sunroof" section:

With that done the cover could be fixed back into place. 

The holes in the plastic are barely noticeable.

 

Further improvements to come!

 

[Aston Martin]

It has never rained in Jersey, lob the roof into the sea.

[mk2_craig]

With the car set to continue with us for some time yet, it was time to do something about the wheels. 

Forcing the issue was the rear tyres which had gone hard.  The front tyres were showing signs of going the same way.  I'd been avoiding doing anything about fresh rubber because the original alloys were kerbed and I couldn't find anybody locally who wanted to refurbish them.  I figured the better option was to try and find some usable second-hand ones.  I looked at quite a few potential replacements, however a cheap set of older Bullets came up so I bought them with the intention of repainting them myself, then getting fresh rubber fitted. 

The tyres were ok, this would buy a bit of time to get the rims back to original silver.

 

The plan fell apart when the tyre place gave me the news that one of the original wheels had a flat spot on the inside edge:

 

 

Game over for that one, then.  To keep the car mobile while still allowing four wheels to be stripped and painted, I briefly considered whether getting another one of the same style was viable, but I was going off the idea of overhauling a set of rims myself and the costs of getting a professional job done were looking out of reach once new tyres were factored into the equation.  Time to search for yet another set then:

 

 

Got them straight on the car, that's made a big difference.  This is starting to look quite respectable now.

 

We're now overstocked on old wheels and tyres though!

[Aston Martin]

I believe it was 9 minutes between my suggestion and purchase of the alloys. 😂

 

The car looks a hell of a lot better.

[beko1987]

I've found it cheaper to just buy 4x wheels and good tyres in similar circumstances before (ex cracked a 'penta' alloy on her zafira, which are mega ££. Add in all the tyres had cracks in various places... 

4x vectra alloys with really good tyres that saw the car out were far cheaper a fix, and had a nicer/cheaper/thicker tyre size too which made the car much nicer

[mk2_craig]

Spot the difference:

 

 

 

 

 

Yes that’s right, those bonnet stripes have finally gone. Blown off the car by Storm Ciaran 

[JMotor]

Looks much nicer without the stripes. 

Doesn't take much to change a look of a car.

[mk2_craig]

 

Hey, who wants to guess what fault presented itself last week, based on this photo and only this photo. @Aston Martin you can’t play 🤣😂

[Jenson Velcro]

Window winder mechanism going twang?

[mk2_craig]

Got it in one. Three cables in the mechanism and the one that has failed has chewed up the pulley which is directly turned by the motor. So it's new regulator time.

Now, where do I get a replacement from?