Was thinking about all of the mods I've done and thought I'd nominate a few of them for "Favorite Mods for the $$."

Favorite mod for less than $5

Hard to beat these vinyl hole plugs from Orchard Supply Hardware ($.49 each):




Favorite Mod for under $30

2 Nominations. First, the Alta Stubby antenna for $29.95. Really changes the look of your MINI and eliminates the RC look. But my favorite is the famous "black belt" or "blackout beltline." A roll of 1/2" low gloss black 3m vinyl tape costs $17.95 for 150'. Actually, since you use less than 20' for a MINI's beltline, the cost is much less ... but I bought the roll, so we'll count it as $17.95. Maybe I should create a new category for Favorite Mod for under $20.



Favorite Mod for under $50

Gotta be my Sirius PnP (Howie fans understand). Although it wouldn't be possible (well, possible but not as good) without the MINI Cooper Auxiliary Input ($39.95).





Favorite Mod for $100

For me, this was easy. My first mod was an an Aero Grill from OutMotoring ($89):



Favorite Mod for $150

Two nominations for me: Tint or Whalen Shift Machine. The only way for me to decide was to think about what I could go back to: No tint, or stock shift ****. I can live without the tint ... Whalen wins!



Now, these are just my favorites. Ask me tomorrow, and my list might change.

Happy motoring!

 

Hmmm.... although I don't have all the pictures to back them up like you do (nice job by the way)...

my favorite under:

under $350

The m7 Understrut System

under $200

The m7 Strut Tower Brace

under $50 (I could be wrong about the price)

Ian Cull's (GBMINI) Auto up circuit with Garage door opener

under $100

The red leather cowhide I bought to wrap my downtubes and armrests

that's all I have for now. There are plenty more but that's all I feel like mentioning.

 

Favorite Ghetto Mod For Free:
iPod holder hooked up to my home-made aux connector... all from old computer parts.





Favorite Ghetto Mod for $4.48:
Custom built and formed IC diverter.

 

... want it!!!


... want it!!!

Got it. Love it. But can't give up Howard Stern. I'd suffer with a crank window before I'd give up my Sirius!!

I'd love to see it.

 

Those are sweet! Love the ghetto mods, too!

 

Under $15: Light-in-sight thingy for my windshield. Never having to crane my neck to see a stoplight above my line of sight is appreciated each and every time I pull out into an intersection to make a left turn. www.lightinsight.com

 

Nice....love that location. Looks great for aftermarket....BUT, not sure if the OEM setup can be beat.

 

Under $250:
15% MINI Madness Pulley installed. Gotta love deals from a local shop.

Under $200:
Custom Whalen Shiftknob. This on the stock shifter was nice, it's even better on my B&M.

Under $100:
Euro Parcel Shelf. It's nice to have some more storage space within a reasonable reach.

Under $50:
Aux Cable. Let's me hook up anything I want to the stereo.

 

Whalen shift ****.... Ii got mine from Joe at Rspeed used for $80 and love it.

 

OEM Sirius certainly can't beat aftermarket for the $$$

And one could argue that the functionality and screen display on the aftermarket units is a bit nicer, but it is nice not to have to add anything with the OEM system.

Anyway, here's my JVC Sirius mounted very nicely. Was an X-mas gift so all I had to buy was the special MINI specific mount.

 

humm...hard to tell on mine, cause i won't do a mod unless i really wanted
to.

but i guess the coin holder with light mod and silver paint on amber bulbs
have been good since they were free mods for me...just used stuff
i had.

others, i had to pay something...so ofcourse they better be good.

 

Thanks. It works great on the dash. Did the same thing in our other car.

The OEM setup is nice. The only thing that I like about the PnP unit is that I can move it from car to car and it gives you a lot of other information that the MINI headunit doesn't display.

Moving from car to car use to be important - until I got Sirius for both of our cars!

 

man, that's some shiitty soldering there!

 

I know!

It was my first solder ever.

Like I said... GEH-TTO!

 

Hey man ... as long as it works.

 

$250 including installation??!!! That's a great price.

Parcel shelf is a great mod ... although it really shouldn't be a mod - it should be standard!

I'm with you there!

 

It was actually less than $250 installed

 

Ok ... that's just not fair!! Most quotes for 15% pulley run ... $400 installed. I think that's what Randy charges at his pulley parties, too.

Although I can't complain. I got my set of Volk CE28s for free ....

 

We had a club meeting one day in my home garage and did our own pulley's, spring/struts, sway bars, light kits etc The pulley isn't a hard mod with the 2 special tools and even one of those can be home made and a few floor jacks.

Less then $5 of 1/4" steel and a piece of 1.5" pipe and a few minutes doing a cardboard mock up and a little welding, and as my G-daughters says, "Ta Da"


I've dressed it up a little with a hanging hole and some red "Dip-It" on the handle

I've got less then $80 invested in my 15% reduction pulley install. R-Speed pulley from eBay at $63 (sorry Joe ) and a belt from the local Car Quest place.

If you've got a local club you might want to check into it and see if anyone has the tools and wants to help.

 

Never really thought of the DIY pulley kit before. Lifting the engine seems a little "out of my league."

How long does it take to DIY?

 

Hey, what sizes are these plugs? Are thes ejust the ones you get like back in the Cabinetry section to fill in screw holes and such?

 

That's exactly what they are. There are 2 holes per side and they are 2 different sizes for my '05: 5/8" and 11/16". Older MINIs have 3 holes per side (not sure what size the rear hole is).

 

The first one we did took about 2.5 to 3 hours, but we had a lot of folks watching and wanting to get in and see what was going on. The second one went rather quickly, about a 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Really surprising to many how easy it was to lift the engine and with the newer (read that as smaller) pulley tool, it should go even quicker.

I did a drive belt a few weekends ago and even with pulling the inner fender well (plastic liner) it only took 34 minutes, start to finish. Pulling the fender liner is the way to go!!

BTW, on the 3 hole door panels - the upper and rear holes are the same 11/16", the forward one is 5/8". HD and Lowes also have these in their hardware isle. I think I paid 36 cents for a pack of 2. Great little mod!


Edit: Wrong info - correction made. Sorry

 

from the looks of it, your soldering iron's wattage is too low or
you didn't wait long enough for the iron to heat up. you got "cold
solder" and your housing/wires melted from you waiting for the
solder to melt.

next time wat you can do is to use a higher wattage iron, or use
leaded solder (your solder might be lead-free which requires higher
temps for it to melt and to 'stick') and make sure to use solder with
flux (radioshack has these 60/40 or 40/60 which are easy to use).

For doing car stuff (non-sensitive electronics), usually you want to
use a soldering iron higher than 55watts (100w ideal). if you are
using a wimpy 25watt, then what you do is to cut the tip so that it
is shorter. This makes your soldering tip closer to the heating core.
You can just hack it, then use a file to make the tip pointy again.
This way you loose less heat and your tip with be much hotter.

'tinning' the wires before soldering to the terminals make it 10x
easier to solder. heat the wire for about 2sec first with your iron, then
push the solder onto the bare wire. the heated wire will melt the solder
and coat itself.

goodluck.

 

Have you tried using a Cold Heat Soldering Iron? Was just wondering if you knew if they were as effective as a regular soldering iron.