Busy day - Nice work!
That square looking like box mounted to the headliner above the back seat is/WAS the immobilizer sensor.

Having similar mods myself; I can share in the exhillaration you must have felt with the noticable increase in power.

 

Good Job!!
The wife, son and I redid ours in the R50 and you save a ton of cash with it being a DIY project. Mine won't pass concours either but it works great for me too.
We have both come a long way on our Mini's.

 

Took mine to a local upholstery shop in Oxnard, CA, he charged me $200 and was done in less than 2 hours. Looks great and definitely worth MY time.

 

Here in western Wisconsin, we don't have as many options as in California (a dream environment for car restoring). I researched the local shops and found only one I would trust to work on my car. Having seen posts here with prices similar to what you paid, I was expecting $300-ish, allowing for everything being more expensive since the pandemic. They quoted $750. After some thought, I decided it just wasn't worth it. I could have gone to Minneapolis for more options and likely a better price but that's a 5 hour round trip. In the end, doing it myself seemed the best choice.

@Here2Go was there anything connected inside the immobilizer sensor on your car?

 

Yes. -
This "black box looking thing" (pic)
However, I must make a description correction: it is actually the *Ultra Sonic Alarm Motion Detector Sensor*


This is an image I pulled off of Ebay of what it looks like.

Like every other component made of plastic on my Mini - the plastic securing tabs broke. I had to glue the cover back in place after I re-did my headliner. So I am unable show how it appears mounted in (my) car.
If you have the factory alarm installed (the siren is mounted on passenger side, under the hood next to the ABS module), also recognizable by the little red end on the wiper stalk, you may be able to score the sensor from a salvage yard.
I can tell you; In my local area, they were plentiful. Every Mini still had them in the cars.

 

Is true, you can find most anything out here. I moved here 17 years ago from Lombard, IL (lived there 5 years) but previously lived in Madison for 7 years and worked a lot of Western WI (Up to the Dells and over to Richland Center. Agreed the choices for mods are much smaller than out here.

 

For your convenience, Here's a quick snap of where the alarm siren is located. If you do indeed have the factory alarm installed.
The siren is housed within this metal box

 

@Here2Go Thanks. My car definitely doesn't have that. I think the euphemism for my car is "lightly optioned." I'm fine with that because it's a slick top -- generously optioned cars tend to have sunroofs. Mine has DSC, Xenons, leather seats and that's about it.

 

Mine is about the same except I have the Harman Kardon setup.

 

@USNAE2 I see that your have a rear brace. Did you do a rear seat delete?

 

No I do not. There is the rare occasion that someone has to sit back there. Only on the right however, as I am 6'5" and NOBODY is sitting behind me.

 

The new (used) rally light relay arrived today. Popped it in, reconnected the switch, and somewhat nervously tested it. Nervously because if it wasn't the relay, I was out of ideas. Turned on the headlights, pushed the rally light switch and the green LED lit. That's a good sign -- didn't happen with the old relay. Pulled the stalk for high beams et voila, we have rally lights! I'm more excited than I should be given that I'll very rarely use them but I like things to work the way they're supposed to. The new bulbs still haven't arrived so for now I'm rocking the pirate look (right bulb is out).

Thanks to those who helped in the rally-light-specific thread I started.

 

I finally got the right side washer to squirt water on the windshield, not as exciting as having the rally lights working! YAY!!

 

Time for an update. I've put close to 300 smile-inducing miles on the car since getting the crank sensor straightened out. I really love driving this thing.

Since I got the car, it's had a pronounced whistle coming from the driver's window when the windows are closed. I researched it a while back and then added it to the list of small projects to do once a lot of the major things were sorted. Yesterday, that item finally worked its way to the top of the list.

It's a surprisingly simple operation. Remove the trim at the top of the door, revealing two toothed wheels, one near the front and one near the rear of the window, an inch or so below the top of the door. Loosen them, adjust the window up/down as needed to make the gap on each side of the window as uniform as possible, and tighten the toothed wheels. Check the result and repeat as necessary. I needed three iterations to get the gaps looking pretty good. Took it for a test drive and no more whistle (or is it a howl?). One more item off of the list.

Next up was the heat -- it didn't work. I'm not sure that having heat in this car is even necessary since I won't drive it in winter but I guess we could have some beautiful, crisp Fall days during which the heat could be welcome. Plus, as mentioned before, I like things to work the way they're supposed to. I verified last Fall that the heater core gets hot so that wasn't the problem. I assumed that it must be the blend door so I removed the glove box to have a look. Moving the temperature control appeared to correctly move the mechanism on the blend door housing. So I took the opportunity to clean the globe box and the area around it and then reinstalled it. Next I checked the dial and mechanism for determining which vents are used. It too appeared to work ok. So I took a test drive and once everything was warmed up, I had heat! Not sure what's up with that since there was definitely no heat in September. I'm not complaining, just somewhat confused. Another item off of the list.

Now on the schedule is a rear wiper delete. I'm going with a kit that ECS Tuning has on their site. It's by Z-Spec. I choose that one because it is very low profile and appears to be well constructed.

The most exciting (for me, anyway) update is that my new wheel/tire package should be delivered by the middle of next week (unless they're on the same truck that was used for ChiefM's transmission). This is about a month sooner than what I'd been told! I won't put them on the car until I ceramic coat them -- might as well do it before they get dirty. I ordered the coating today: Kamikaze Stance Rim 3.0. Based on what I've read and watched on Youtube, it is easy to apply and durable.

 

Miles of


No heat - sometimes related to an air bubble in the cooling system... Maybe? Any rate, good it is fixed. Need heat for de-misting on those cool, damp days.

Wheels...

 

I hope they don't for your sake. My problem is I live way out in the country. UPS or FedX are pretty good since they have a hub about 45 minutes away from my house, anyone else takes a while.

 

@Eddie07S You could be right about the heat problem. I can't recall when I last checked the heat; whether it was before or after replacing the radiator, thermostat, etc.

 

I read an article on the Hagerty website this morning, that named four categories for project cars. They are based on the approach/goals of the project. The categories are:

- Enough to be safe, and that's it
- Only some things, mainly focused on keeping it running well
- Anything it needs, and some things it doesn't
- No expense spared

I think my R53 falls into the third category. So far, I've addressed the mechanical things it needed (cylinder head, brakes, suspension, radiator, injectors, etc) and am now into the aesthetic things it needs (a deep cleaning, headliner, paintless dent repair, paint correction). Along the way, I've done some things it didn't need (chrome trim rings, alloy coolant tank, JCW airbox, 210hp tune). It's all part of the fun of a project car.

 

You have done A LOT. You've proven very persistent and doing fine work bringing your Mini back to a healthy new beginning.
I too am definitely Cat# 3.
Although, I think I'm done for now with mods.

 

Today I began ceramic coating the wheels. While watching videos about the process, I saw and liked the wheel detailing stands that allow you to rotate the wheel. The stand I like best is over $200. I couldn't justify that since I'll use it only occasionally. So I made the one pictured below for about $6 using things I had around the house. It's not nearly as pretty as the others but it works great. The blue tape is a way of breaking the wheel into segments. The product has to be wiped off within a couple of minutes of applying it so I only did one quarter of the front of a wheel at a time.

I would have finished coating the wheels today but I ran out of coating. I'm a little confused by that since I watched the video for that product about 10 times and thought I used about the same amount of material. But it should be possible to do 2 sets of wheels -- I was able to finish 3 wheels and about a third of the 4th one. I've wondered if the bottle I received wasn't properly filled, though I know that's unlikely.

 

Source for the rollers?

I did something similar for painting my wheels with a lazy susan bearing and a precut 24” round piece of plywood.

 

I had the rollers from my woodworking days. Each was part of a roller stand used to make it easier to handle long pieces of lumber when going through planers or jointers, etc. Similar rollers are available on Amazon. Search for "roller and bracket". The only parts I bought were some bolts and bigger adjustable feet.

 

I love those rims!!
It's going to look great with the new rims and tires.

 

Love the DIY wheel stand. I coated my F80 ZCP wheels and had a hard time doing them on the floor; I wish I'd made one of these! The brake dust comes off so much easier now though, so it's worth it!

 

Thanks. I never would have thought of a stand like that if I hadn't seen them in the videos by Esoteric (a high-end detailer and detailing products retailer) on Youtube. Tomorrow I am going to complete the ceramic coating and should get the new wheels mounted on the car.

I sold my R60 yesterday. Before doing so, I removed the coilovers and SPC adjustable lower control arms. If the bolts on the R53 aren't frozen, I plan to put the SPCs on.