Blue MINI Cooper

Blog

  • 50,000!

    Well it was inevabitble, finally hit 50,000 miles yesterday.

    50,000k miles!
    50,000k miles!

  • Hamann eBrake handle and Custom Squirrel Center Caps

    FINALLY! Finally! Finally! The Hamann Aluminum Emergency Brake Handle FINALLY arrived today. This was ordered back in Feb or March I think. I’ve been driving with a half removed/broken handle for the last few months.
    AND my custom ordered wheel center caps from Aesthetic Creations came today too! I had them do my “Hamman” Squirrel logo on them in silver with the rest black. They look great! Got the front two on today, probably do the rears tomorrow and maybe try to do the BBK for the rear too.
    Hamann eBrake Handle
    Hamann eBrake Handle
    Comparing Custom Center caps to the original Motegi LC5s
    Squirrel center cap in place
    No comments about the brake dust please, I need to buy a wheel brush! 🙂

  • Is it done?

    Not a lot going on right now. Brake lines are in at Detroit Tuned for the rear BBK.
    Haven’t had time to go get them yet.
    All the interior leather is in place, still waiting for the Hamann eBrake handle from BavAuto.

    Costs me $50 to fill it up, but its only every 3 weeks, so thats not bad. Most of the time I pull up to a pump its at $90 or something.

  • 4th of july

    Well, thanks to Ed, Chris and Nikki for stopping by. (as well as my extended family)
    Clawson put on the best fireworks show we’ve seen since we moved here.
    Bummed no one else showed up, but oh well, we had a damn good time without you.

    whats missing:
    Hyper Blue Mini Cooper Alone

    (the shots with eds in front didnt turn out, but imagine it there, and then all the rest of the empty spots, being held all day, for Minis that didn’t show)

  • Redline Leather finally in!

    Since it appears that Mini made the door armrest plastic from Kevlar, I had to have them professionally reupholstered. So now my interior has the Redline downtubes, doorbar covers and FINALLY the arm rest covers. They (Shelby Trim) are doing the center armrest tomorrow.
    I’m very happy how it turned out, the narrow blue stripe with the orange stitching looks great.
    Also blacked out the lower speaker grills. I’m not 100% happy with how they turned out, and am looking into some aftermarket grills to use. And for those of you with really sharp eyes, I blacked out the door button inserts. The little plugs that fill in the otherwise gaping holes where two screws are.
    Redline Leather custom mini interior doors
    Redline Leather custom mini interior doors

  • More Chrome

    Put on my chrome spark plug caps today. I really need to call the chrome plater guy and get all the bits to match. Dark Chrome for everyone! Painted the lower speaker surrounds black too, pictures once I pick up the re-wrapped arm rests from Shelby Trim.
    Chrome Spark Plug Caps

  • Jan Tune Results and Disney ‘Cars’ window shade

    Jan from Revolution Motor Works was in town this weekend doing Dyno tunes at Monkey Wrench Racing, so you know I got one. With all my mods, before he started it ran just over 200 HP on the Dyno. Final results from some Fuel/Air ratio and other tweaks:
    208.5 Whp and
    170.1 FtLb of torque on a nice fat curve. They weren’t able to give me the digital graphs, so here is a scan of the print out. I had to enhance the lines to make them visible:

    Also picked up a State Farm Disney ‘Cars’ Sunshade. It came with red eyes (as Lightning McQueen). I trimmed it down and painted it black (like everything else 🙂 )

    And for those that want to know, here’s the paints I used: Pactra Lexan RC Car body paint, and basic Rustoleum Plastic paint:

    I ran out of the Pactra paint so I finished it off with the other. Once it dries, I’m going to go over the creases with a fresh black Sharpie marker to get rid of all the red peeks.
    Here it is in Chakik: A bit too tall still, need to trim it.

  • Detroit Tuned Spring Clean Up Party

    Wow, what a great day today was. Got the John Cooper Works wheel installed (albeit with tripping the air bag light), hung out at Detroit Tuned for the “clean up” party on a beautiful day, with old and new friends, then capped it off with the Red Wings 2-1 win over the Penguins to bring Lord Stanley one step closer to being home!
    Thanks to everyone at the party today for being so friendly and welcoming to me and the dogs, and especially Chad and Tori for having us over! You ALL rock!
    Cala the dog guards Chakik a 2005 Hyper Blue Mini Cooper S Convertible

  • I can see clearly now, the chrome is gone

    Finally tore apart the dash and painted all my chrome line interior trim rings 🙂

    BEFORE: with chrome rings
    Chrome trim rings

    AFTER: nice and dark… it looks much more different in person. Also note custom shift knob and ‘dragon’ cig lighter

    All trim rings blacked out.

  • Pulleys, Pulleys everywhere!

    Just got back from a nice morning/afternoon at Detroit Tuned.
    Added on a 15% supercharger pulley, 2% crank and the 5% alternator pulley. Also accidentally got a Milltek exhaust installed.

    HOLY COW! Not only does it feel a lot faster, but the supercharger whine is crazy now, and the growl from the exhaust just adds to it. It’s going to be really hard not to redline Chakik to every shift now.

    [For those of you keeping score, I went with the Alta V1 15% Reduction Pulley, and the Alta 2% Crank and ALTAnator units. The Milltek tips were blacked out as soon as we opened the box]

    [pics later]