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Ive put my seat change planning on hold, along with pretty much all of my MINI mod stuff. I'm finally making serious progress on my Mustang project, so MINI is relegated to its intended purpose as a DD. The split stitching in my DS seat hasn't gotten so bad to be noticeable yet.
Now get out there and get some miles in those seats!
First longer drive - was out for about an hour or so. Man, I feel glued to these seats around corners. Initially, I thought they felt a little restrictive, but they are pretty comfy and the glove-like feeling of the seat wrapping around me is starting to grow on me.
I do have to get back in there and recline them a little though. The bolts that Cobra supplied with the runners are too long to lower the rear of the seat down to the lower holes - the protruding extra bolt length hits the seat shell. So I think I will find some shorter bolts for the rear lower runner mount so I can just use the lower of the two holes on the side mounting plates. The other little niggle is the headrest. In the current configuration, the headrest just feels to far back to be useful. I have to sort of push my upper back and neck back into the seat to utilize it at all, which isn't super comfy. Hopefully, when the back of the seat is lowered a tad (I think the holes on the side plates are about an inch apart) it will make the headrest more useable.
Have started thinking about making bolster covers already! Cobra doesn't offer anything, but I think I can make something with some velcro tabs on the inside that will secure the same way the seat cushions do, and some velcro tabs on the outside that will wrap under the seat. There is no velcro under the seat, but the seat shell is exposed under there, so I can just use a couple pieces of stick on velcro under there.
Really loving these seats. They fit me well, they fit the car well, and they really make the interior look awesome.
Ive put my seat change planning on hold, along with pretty much all of my MINI mod stuff. I'm finally making serious progress on my Mustang project, so MINI is relegated to its intended purpose as a DD. The split stitching in my DS seat hasn't gotten so bad to be noticeable yet.
Now get out there and get some miles in those seats!
I hear you man. I spent way too much on this car this year. With the seats and the rear suspension/undercarriage work just this year, I am well over the bluebook value of the car itself. And with my other hobbies and projects... yikes.
What is your mustang project all about?
My wife had split stitching in her car - right around the thickest part of the driver's back bolster. She watched a couple of videos on youtube on fixing seat splits and sewed it up. You have to really look to see there is a repair there - looks pretty darn good! Now that I got new seats, I think she wants to have Katzkins or Leatherseats.com make her a new set for the front.
I'm building a 67 convertible. Pretty much all new body, running 347 stroker motor with EFI, T5, 4 wheel disc brakes.
I'm hoping to get the alignment completed this weekend, and waiting for my new ECU to replace the Ford computer so I can start tu ing it (computer, harness, etc is OBD I, and I can't find anyone nearby who can tune that system for me so I'm going aftermarket). Once I'm tuned and aligned, I'll put it back on the road!
Now, back to the thread!
I have considered taking the seats to an upholstery shop to have them rebuilt, or custom skins made, new bolsters, etc. Just putting that off for a while.
Been doing work on hers, so mine has taken a bit of a back seat in terms of work. It's warmed and the snow is gone, so mine is on the road and being driven, but just a couple of things to report on. Thanks to some help from a couple of you'all, got the correct vacuum hose fished out from behind the intake manifold and reconnected and her codes are now gone. I also did the front control arm bushings with the saw method - scored one of the brackets a bit more than ideal, but not a bad job. Took a lot less time that removing the subframe (which I have not yet done, but plan on with mine in the late fall before taking it off the road.
I have been ordering some goodies for mine thought. The plan this year is:
New front bumper (mine has one clip missing and has one pretty good gouge), front bumper under trims;
Painting grills black; retaining the chrome trim though - I dig the retro look of it;
Body work and paint on the front end. Was going to buy a spray setup, but I just don't have time. This year will be doors to nix the couple of rust spots, hood, bumper, cowl, and small 'fender' panels. Not going maaco... this will be a high-end job, I'll buy the materials, and the panels will be painted off the car (including hood underside);
Tune. This is something I have been waffling on, but just ordered some JCW 380 injectors, so the time is right;
Front complete suspension refresh at the end of the fall.
The smaller stuff has just begun. Ordered a lightweight battery that will be here tomorrow. Went with an 18lb Braille 2618. 30lbs lighter than what is in there now. That brings my total weight loss to date up to 148lbs below stock. Not bad. It was time - had my current battery for 8 years I think and it just barely starts the car now.
Already mentioned the injectors... what else... oh yeah - the stripes will be going to dual, wide, space between, and will use matte black after the paintwork is done. I will spray the front grills semi gloss black and have ordered black covers for the Hellas.
The seats are what I will be working on over the next couple of weeks. Cobra got two things incorrect when I ordered Nogaros. 1) they put the blue stitching everywhere that there was double stitching - they were supposed to do only the outermost stitching in blue, 2) they didn't use cobalt blue, but some wishy washy medium blue. I can't do anything about 1), but I can change the stitching color a bit. I went to Joanne's today and picked up a medium blue fabric marker - it's not dye, and is probably not 100% permanent, but the color, when added to the thread that Cobra used generates the *perfect* color match with all of the rest of my blue thread on my DIY leather bits and bobs.
The color in these pics isn't what the eye sees because the interior was a bit dark when I took this. The original blue is the lower stitching color and is a medium blue, not the sky blue that is looks in this image. The top is the recolored thread. The fabric marker has a pointed brush type marker tip and flows pretty good once contact is made. I will need quite a few of these markers to do the thread all the way round. I have done the little you see here (both lines now), and the thread in the seat back cushion and the tip is too frayed to put the dye precisely where it is needed. It does not seep into the leather though - I tested that in a small inconspicuous area before getting started. It wipes off of the surface of the leather with a shop towel. Exactly the color I wanted, will just take a week r so to get it all done. Slow going when you're OCD.
Thanks man - it's just really slow going. We're snowed in here - getting a crazy spring blizzard. 18" on the ground now and not supposed to stop until tomorrow. Was going to go out into the garage and work on it some more, but not enough light with the door closed. Maybe I'll find my headlamp and do a bit more this afternoon.
Sucks not being able to go out for supplies. Wanted to start fabricating the battery bracket, but can't get out for aluminum bar stock or bolts. So, I ordered some stuff online instead. Picked up a battery tender that I am going to permanently install in the battery compartment. Went with a fully automatic NOCO Genius 2 2 amp tender. Will mount the tender either to bracket that I am fabricating, or to the wall of the battery compartment. Will probably run a wire and plug through the rubber plug the battery wire goes through and have it secured somewhere out of sight but easily accessible for a plug in. Will probably take this battery out for the winter next year.
Battery is in though, and it starts the car pretty quickly. What a difference in size and weight...
NOCO sells a pigtail with eyelets (6mm) that will attach to the battery cable terminals, with the plug end that connects to the Genius. I just have that running from the battery through the wall. That stays permanently attached to the battery without having to deal with the tender...
Really interesting. Just got a reply back from the sales team at Braille. I asked them for a list of approved battery maintenance devices as their website says to use only Braille chargers and maintainers if you want to keep your warranty. Anyhow, seems that is not as stringently enforced as their website and literature leads us to believe. They linked me to an Optimate maintainer on Amazon as well....
"ALL modern smart chargers made for the past couple decades will stop charging when the battery is fully charged."
So - would they send one of their own techs around if you need a jumpstart? Or if someone else does that it voids their warranty also? This is an AGM lead acid battery. Should be very durable. Are they saying theirs is less durable than others???
Clearly it is all about $$$ and profits.
I think there may be precedent that they would have to prove that another mfg’s charger caused harm to to their battery, especially if that charger was said to work with that kind of battery. The car industry tried doing this and that failed in court. I have a friend who’s MINI engine failed and a dealership voided his warrantee because of changes he made to the car unrelateted to the engine failure. MINI lost that court. Not quite the same, but MINI wasn’t able to prove what he did caused the failure, which is why they lost. Go to court over a battery, maybe not. But, maybe a small piece of mind for using the NOCO, which, by the way, is designed for AGM batteries.
Going to be an exciting week for the MINI, even though I will not be able to drive it (we just got another 6-8" on top of the weird 2 feet of spring snow).
The OEM JCW 380cc injectors will be here this week - if the USPS ever starts re-delivering mail. That's a pretty quick install. Will also be receiving an ECU with a stock JCW tune on it from @MrBlah . Looking forward to both - even though the first road test won't be until the snow melts and the roads dry out again
Got black stoneguards for my Hella 500's coming this week too in prep for the color scheme switch sometime this summer. Already have the matte black vinyl here somewhere... and ordered a new coil pack from fpceuro... their shipping time is stupid slow though. I doubt I will ever order from them again.
I feel a little bad complaining about the weather here in Wisconsin this Spring. At least we don't have 2 feet of fresh snow on the ground.
I'm looking forward to your impressions of the ECU upgrade. That's on my list for after the suspension is updated. Does the facelift ECU from Mr. Blah require changing keys?
I've done more snow moving in the past week than the entire rest of the winter. We were literally snowed in for 2 entire days. University was closed from Tuesday on. Was nuts.
I am not sure if it's a facelift ECU or a pre-facelift one. But, it was coded to my car's VIN, so it will be 'drop-in'. No re-key, no immobilizer problems. I'm looking forward to the impressions too! Just won't be able to road test it for some time - DRAT! Blasted snow!
I have been wanting to add these injector since I don't know when... 2006 maybe?
...and at $95 a piece, had to do it.
Vacuumed around each port prior to reassembly to make sure no grunge got down into the manifold. Was pretty clean because I've only really put maybe 1500 miles on it since rebuilding the head. The injectors popped in pretty easily - I feel like much more profanity was involved last time I had the rail off and tried to re-seat my injectors. All back together, but can't test it out ATM - the wife is taking a snooze and the bedroom is directly above the garage. And those Borla mufflers are pretty loud. Waiting on a coil pack that is supposed to be delivered this afternoon anyhow. Who knows if/when it will show - still a lot of very narrowly plowed messy streets. We shall see...
And of course, a vacuum line connector let go on my repaired fuel pressure regulator line, so a 30 minute job turned into an hour plus job as I ran to O'reilleys for a piece of vac line and a coupler.
it's a facelift ecu with the US JCW 210 tune. I did have to modify it to remove the immobilizer code, vin change and I changed the gear ratios so cruise control will work in a pre-facelift transmission.
Thanks for the info! Perfect! I think that will make a real, quite feelable difference!
On attempted startup, engine wouldn't catch. Figured it was probably a vacuum issue. I have one of the molded fuel pressure regulator vac lines on order, but I have some small vac line and boots around, so I replaced that line, and the boot that tees off from the vapor recovery line (that one was a cracked mess). Put it back together again, and started right up. One more mod complete!
Installed to facelift JCW ECU today from MrBlah coded to my VIN. Started right up no problems and idled and revved beautifully. We're getting another 'blizzard' today. Apparently one that's all rain though. We were supposed to get another 12-18", but it is raining like hell - so no road test or butt dyno to report yet.
So, maybe, a bad tune on the ECU... Fixed now, hopefully...
No, the initial startup after changing out the original 320cc injectors to the JCW 380cc ones was because I must have tugged on one of the vacuum lines and ripped the dry-rotted vacuum line boot. I replaced that original boot, put it all back together and it started right up. That was earlier in the week. I've never had a tune of any sort on this car until today...
The drop in facelift JCW210 hp ECU was coded to my VIN. Put that in this morning and it started right up without any issues. This is the first tune this car has ever had. Looking forward to the road test - when it eventually dries out here. Weird spring. I blame the groundhog for dying this year - no he didn't see his shadow. But that was because he was dead.
^^^ Anxious to get my ECU tuned by Adrian. Received ordered interface adapters and ready for him on that aspect but also ordered 380cc injectors 14April from same source as you that @Oldboy Speedwell posted, however I apparently waited too long. Still not shipped, thus be coming from Germany. As is said; "he who hesitates...". I'm hopeful combo of injectors and ECU tune will resolve my cold start and lean Long Term Fuel Trim issues...
08-14-2021, 09:42 AM
