On our way to a party we hit the railroad tracks on 15 Mile Rd just west of Van Dyke too fast, heard a horrible sound. I pulled over and expected to see the front bumper gone, or at the very least the splitter missing. Turned out we snapped the engine mount bolt and then an axle exploded. You know its not good when Chad from Detroit Tuned says “Wow, I’ve never seen that before”.
Thankfully the parts were in stock, so we should be rolling topless again soon.
Category: Chakik
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Broken Engine Mount
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R52 Bumper Options
All leads to a Hamann bumper have turned up nothing. I was in touch with aftermarket suppliers in Japan and Australia, and no one has one anymore. So we need a plan D for a new bumper. I can patch up the current one, or looking at some other aftermarket options. The problem with most of these is the cool ones are only in Japan, so shipping is more than the bumper.
Option 1: Hamann Bumper, last place waiting to hear back from:
http://www.bodykits.com/Hamann/Front-Bumper/Front-Bumper-Spoiler/533589/
Option 2: Garbino. I quite like this one. Japan only.
Working link as of 5/20/16 http://autostreak.jp/?pkey=item_info&i_code=GBN93911110001&car_url=bmwminiR50
http://autostyle-usa.com/?pkey=item_info&i_code=GBN93911110001&maker_url=garbino
Option 3: Albert Rick. Also Japan only
http://autostyle-usa.com/bmwminiR50/ALT93911110001/
Another Japanese option, it may be the Garbino, looks really similar. I almost like this one best, I really like the vents it has. No response from the site as of 5/21/16 🙁
http://www.trendy-auto.com/r-53.html
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Wanted: Hamann Front Bumper
So apparently Hamann is no longer making the front bumper for first gen MINIs. Putting out an APB to see if the wonders of the internet can help find one! REWARD!
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MOTD13 Photos
More photos from this years Dragon. Including some nice Killboy shots.
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Koni shocks for my R52
Finally! So after many years of my tires rubbing over the slightest bumps due to being lowered, I am having Detroit Tuned put a set of Koni Yellow shocks on the car before this years dragon. Not sure why we waited so long for this one, its one of the very few stock parts that remained on the car, and one that actually needed upgrading. Looking forward to seeing how it handles at the Dragon this year. See you there!
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Orciari Cowl Scoops
A recent thread on LXM was looking for the cowl scoops that I’ve had for a while so I thought I’d post them here.
They were made by Orciari years ago but are no longer available from them. eBay has them once in a while, the key search terms are “Mini Cowl Scoops”. They are usually listed for around $200, so they aren’t cheap. They seem to be going up as more people with R53s are looking for them and they aren’t being made new anymore. If you find them cheaper, buy them and resell them! 😉
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Out for the Season
Dropped off at Detroit Tuned yesterday for the winter.
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Winter Storage
Drove the convertible with the top down today, most likely the last day before it goes into storage at Detroit Tuned for the winter.
Next up is getting some winter tires for Rocket. You’d think I’d have kept the set I had on Chakik, but I didn’t really plan on having 3 MINIs when I sold those wheels. Rims are waiting, just need to pick out the tires.
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Clean
I felt guilty after Amy cleaned both of the hard tops today, so Chakik got a bath as well. I did a test and didn’t dry it, to see if it would get spots. It did. So dry your matte paint people.
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Blacked out center cluster
Finally, finally finally! I’ve been wanting to black out the center gauge cluster for YEARS, Detroit Tuned tinted the glass on it to help, but I finally found a spare online so I felt comfortable enough to paint the face. Left only min/max markings on it. Looks amazing!
