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2004 Mini Cooper S JCW - For Free

316K views 458 replies 170 participants last post by  percymon 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi all,

I spent a lot of time following various people's projects in this part of Detailing World. So it only seemed fitting that I would begin my own! This will be a rather wordy and picture heavy project blog of my slightly crusty, non-running 2004 MINI Cooper S Works which I have fondly named "Stouffer" after Harry Hill's blue cat puppet (Seen here)

Background

It's worth making clear that i'm a big MINI fan, although I have never owned one. My Mum has had a 2004 Cooper S for over 9 years which i've always been very fond of - however she is also very fond of it, so i'm rarely lucky enough to drive it! I usually need an excuse - such as "I've just changed the coolant, but I need to test drive it to make sure everything is ok ... BYE". I love the way they drive - a real hoot at (relatively) legal speeds.
In the past when i've looked to change car, the MINI has never been quite suitable as I used to do a lot more miles (mainly motorway) which dictated a slightly larger and less bone-shaking car with an auto box (Golf GTI DSG and BMW M135i). However, as i'm looking to work close to home - a MINI makes a lot more sense now.
After selling my M135i, I have used my Land Rover Discovery 300TDI as my 'daily' since last year - it's comfy(ish) and relaxed, but you simply cannot have any fun behind the wheel - it takes at least 18 seconds to get to 60mph.

I was recently helping a family friend to resurrect her Audi TT which had a flat battery. Coversation turned to her MINI which had suffered head gasket failure in September 2016. She had not had the time to get it repaired, and so it had sat there ever since - gradually turning green under some large trees.
We had talked about putting it up for sale as spares/repairs - but I think the look of genuine horror in my face lead her to say "Why don't you have it?" I was quick to explain that I couldn't really afford to buy a car at the moment as I don't have a permanent job, so I would have to 'pass' on it. However, what she actually meant was that I could have the car for free if I wanted it. Like a kid at christmas, I jumped in my Land Rover and began to formulate the plans in my head!
Here are a few pictures of the car as it stood:




I think we need to address the elephant in the room - yes, that Audi TT is pink.


Picture taken through the window due to missing key (more on that later). Note the mouldy seat!






The car

To the best of my knowledge, the car is as follows (and i'm happy to be corrected here):
2004 R53 MINI Cooper S with the John Cooper Works pack.
It is a 1.6 supercharged inline-4 with 6 speed manual gearbox.
The colour is Hyper Blue, with white roof, mirror caps and bonnet stripes.
From what I understand, the cars left the factory as a standard Cooper S and would have the JCW kit fitted at the dealer which raises power to roughly 200-210bhp as opposed to the standard 170bhp. It comprises of:
  • Ported head
  • Uprated injectors
  • 11% Supercharger reduction pulley
  • Different ECU map
  • Different airbox and filter
  • Larger diameter cat back exhaust

In addition to this, I believe my car has the Chili Pack (including full leather) and ****pit Chrono Pack (extra dials).
It also has some sort of dealer fit sat nav (although the head unit has since been changed) which scared me half to death. There is a button (pictured above) which rings through to something like "MINI SmartNav", you tell them where you want to go and they send the directions to your car! I was very surprised when I pressed it at 11:30 last night and it started calling somebody! I'll stick to using google maps on my phone!

The button for the obscure sat nav. Don't worry, i've cleaned it since.


As you can probably tell, it has been fitted with Works GP type wheels (I'm not sure if they're genuine or replicas) but I really like the look of them so they will be staying.

Getting it home

The first issue was the key (or lack thereof!). In the time the car had been sitting - the only key had gone missing. After a bit of hunting, the V5 document was unearthed. I went with the current owner and ordered a new non-remote key from the BMW/MINI dealer for the surprisingly reasonable sum of £42! This arrived a couple of days later. It does the job, although I should mention that it is the single most cheap feeling, hollow piece of plastic I have ever come across!


I next needed to work out how to get the car home. I was reluctant to tow it with a rope as the journey is around 30 minutes on B-roads with a lot of stopping and starting - and I knew that the MINI would have little to no brakes as the engine obviously wouldn't be running. I found that Screwfix sell a fixed tow bar with spring damper for under £20. It's pretty good, although (as per all the reviews) the cotter pins which hold the 3 pieces of the bar together are rubbish, I could visualize them coming loose very quickly - so I substituted them for some split pins.


I started by removing all of the previous owner's stuff and wiping down the mould from the passenger seat to make things a little less of a health hazard on the way home. The handbrake had been firmly applied all the time it was laid up, so predictably the car did not want to budge. Luckily a couple of quick yanks with my Discovery and it rolled freely.The battery was totally dead (no surprise really!) but no matter how hard I tried, wouldn't accept a charge. As I wanted to be able to have the hazard lights on during the journey home, I popped to Halfords on the way home and picked up a suitable battery for £55 on my trade card.

My Disco and the MINI after getting the brakes freed off


My Dad had agreed to tow me back with his Defender whilst I sat in the MINI, so that evening we went over to collect it. I'm pleased to report that this went without a hitch! (That was a towing joke, by the way...)
The fixed bar attached easily to the MINI's front towing eye, having anticipated that the Defender doesn't have a towing eye on the back - but does have a tow ball, we found a suitable shackle to attach it with. I hooked up the new battery on the MINI and all the electrics came to life.






Part 2 coming shortly :car:
 
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16
#11 · (Edited)
The return journey and initial inspection

Thanks for all the replies and kind words already! I wasn't sure anyone would care about a grotty old broken MINI!!!

I'm having a lot of issues with Photobucket and getting the images not to duplicate themselves all over the place, so i'm doing fairly small updates one by one so not to push my luck!

I'm pleased to report that the journey back was really easy - all I had to do was make sure I stayed roughly behind my Dad's car. The fixed line only had a little bit of 'slack' in the towing eye fixtures, so it didn't jerk back and forth like a rope does. It does feel quite unnatural following a car at a distance of 2 metres (although, being an ex-BMW driver you'd think i would be used to that :devil: )

Once home, we pushed it up the drive and into the garage (having first displaced my Mum's MINI ... that didn't go down particularly well). It was about 9PM by the time it was home, so I closed the garage and called it a day.

So, you bought a car that doesn't work?

As I previously mentioned, I'm not in permanent employment at the minute (although i'm doing my best to change that!) so what money I do earn, needs to be saved and not spent on a money pit currently sitting in the garage!

I'm in two minds as to what to do, I either:

  • Strip it down myself - This has a few pitfalls - Firstly, I have never done this before - although I am mechanically minded and do a fair bit of work on my cars. And secondly, once I have stripped the engine down, I am concerned that I won't know what i'm looking at not be able to determine how bad the damage is.
  • Get my friendly mechanic to take a look - He should be able to do this quite cheaply for me, and will have a better idea of what needs repairing/replacing. Although I don't really have the funds to actually fix it yet.

As far as I am aware the head will need to be skimmed and tested for cracks, gasket changed and reassemble. I'm lead to believe that the coolant got low, it overheated and the head gasket went. So i'll need to ascertain why it was losing coolant (or if the HG was already leaking which caused the coolant to drop).

I want to keep the car regardless of what needs to be fixed, I just have to accept that the worse the damage, the longer it will take to save up the cash.

There will also be a degree of recommissioning work to get it through an MOT and safe to drive. The brake discs have been an advisory on the MOT for a couple of years, so I would like to change all discs and pads for peace of mind. Only one of the wipers seems to have a blade, and the centre brake light doesn't work.

The harsh light of day

My first priority was to get the car to a respectable standard, as there was a great chance of the bin man taking it by mistake. I was also getting a bit tired of getting my hand covered in bird guano every time I wanted to open the door.
Here are some pictures of the car the next morning. It was mainly covered in detritus from the surrounding trees, a fair bit of bird droppings down the driver's side and quite a lot of sap - just for good measure.






One of only a couple of bodywork issues - hole in the rear bumper


Bubbling on the tailgate above the reg plate lights












The interior is surprisingly good. The seats are in pretty good shape with no tears or cracks, just a bit of wear. The seat bases are, as with any early MINI with full leather - a bit baggy. They seem to get like that after about 30,000 miles - seriously, have a look on eBay!
The carpets were largely quite clean - although the mats had a little bit of staining on. Despite the mold issue, there was no real smell in the car.

Apologies, my skills with the DSLR are lacking - focus isn't great on a few of these pictures!






Working on part 3 at the moment. The initial clean up! :detailer:

Thanks for looking :)
 
#25 ·
Thanks again for all the replies and encouragement! Some of them have really made me laugh!



Thank you - I will do. I've already uploaded quite a few more pictures to PB, but any after that I'll try on imgur and see how I get on.

With a blow torch lol.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
:lol:

Great stuff. Looking forward to more.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the pink Audi TT though? Surely a wrap?
Yes I thought the TT would get a lot more attention! I'm going to break everyone's heart here - it's not actually a wrap. The previous owner worked for a body shop who painted it pink for her birthday! It was previously silver I believe.

She sold it quite soon after, so you can judge for yourself how overwhelmed she must have been with it :lol:

It's actually an incredibly good paint job as well, it's a metallic colour and they've painted under every sill and behind all the plastic.

Have a look through this guys videos, very comprehensive on these cars

https://www.youtube.com/user/khammo01/videos
Thank you, looks like he has a step by step head gasket change guide! Sweeeet :argie:

Part 3 should hopefully be done today.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Part 3 - The Clean

8:00 - After taking all the 'before' shots, I thought it wise to have a coffee .. and then another coffee. You know, just to prepare myself for the task in hand.

8:30 - I began by pressure washing the entire car for about half an hour - I ended up putting a clamp round the trigger as my finger was getting tired! This got a fair amount of the green marks off and all of the leaves. I also made sure to get the moss and general rubbish out from behind the trim pieces on the bodywork.

9:00 - Next, I did something that normally makes me shudder - I took a 20 litre bucket, filled it with hot water and fairy liquid and washed it. This was to get rid of the tree sap and the rest of the marks. Then jet washed it all down again for good measure.

10:00 - I then sprayed ValetPro Bilberry Wheel Cleaner in 5:1 dilution over the wheels and tyres, then agitated with a medium wheel brush. This has really brightened up the wheels, however there is a lot of whiteworm in the diamond cut outer faces of the wheels which will ultimately want a refurb, but there are far more pressing matters (such as a working engine).

10:30 - I also went against usual practice by blasting the door shuts with the jet wash while the doors were open - messy but effective! I then used Mr Muscle as an APC to really clean up the door shuts, rubber seals and plastic trim.

11:00 - Another coffee.

My main priority was to get it relatively clean on the first day, and focus more on the interior (below) as it was a nice warm and windy day which would aid drying of the carpet and mats.

Anyway, it doesn't look bad for just a bit of fairy liquid!










The wheels really do need a refurb


12:30 - After having taken the pictures of the car clean, come to terms with the use of fairy liquid and had some lunch - it was time for the interior.

I wasted no time in removing the front seats and the bottom of the rear seats to get full access to the carpets. I made sure to disconnect the battery well in advance, I didn't want an airbag going off in my face! The front seats came out with ease - just 4 torx bolts on each, the back seat bottom just pulls out! I didn't tackle the upper part of the back seats as it didn't give me access to anywhere else to clean and they're a bit of a faff to remove.

13:15 - Once the seats were out, I vacuumed the whole interior thoroughly, then broke out the Mr Muscle again to clean under the back seats and then all of the interior plastics to get any marks off.

13:45 - Next, I sprayed down any problem areas on the carpet and floor mats with some surprisingly good Halfords upholstery shampoo and worked in with a medium bristle brush. I then filled up my Vax with 4 litres of quite a strong and warm carpet cleaner solution and gave the carpet a thorough soaking before working in again with the brush, then another pass with the vax still spraying out solution and working on low suction and finally turned it up to max to suck out all of the dirty water. As expected, it was brown! The carpet looked just like new after this and smells great!




16:00 - Sorry for the jump in time. My friend came over to have a look at the new car, we were then waffling for about an hour. Obviously I had to have another coffee at this point.

I then turned my attention to the seats which I cleaned with Meguiars leather cleaner and conditioner and a few microfibre cloths. They came up really well - it removed a lot of the shine from the dirty leather and restored them to a much more factory looking matt finish. I also cleaned round the runners whilst I had access to them.

Finally, I reassembled the interior after airing it for a couple of hours (although the Vax tends to leave the carpets practially dry).










I'm thrilled with how well the car has come up, it really belies its 142,000 miles!

Skipping forward from Wednesday to this weekend just gone, I have made a start on a few bits.

Firstly was the exhaust - this was bothering me as I knew it could shine but was under a layer of dirt. I broke out the Autosol and wire wool which took us from this:



To this:



Next was the engine bay. I just wanted it relatively tidy, as obviously it's going to be taken to pieces at some point and I don't want my mechanic to look under there, laugh and run away if he sees it full of leaves.

I donned a pair of gloves, grabbed a bucket and filled it with the leaves hidden in various crevices. I then used my ratty old hoover to suck out the remaining leaves and spider's nests.

Then Mr Muscle came out again. I sprayed it on basically every surface and scrubbed, wiped down and repeated. And to beautify all the plastics fairly quickly, I sprayed some silicone lubricant all over the place which took it from this:





To this:





And finally, I couldn't resist seeing what could be achieved with the DA. I have just done the front end, as I can get to it when i'm in the garage.

These pictures are all off my iPhone, so not quite up to the standard of my totally-out-of-focus DSLR pictures.

The paint was really rough to the touch, so I clayed the front end with a Bilt Hamber Regular (blue) clay bar. This removed a lot of contaminants and sap! After this, I took a few (quite poor) pictures of the paintwork on the bonnet.

There is one chip around 5mm diameter on the offside of the bonnet which will want touching in. But there are some light sanding marks around it, and another spot further up the bonnet (I have no idea...) which I was able to remove about 90% trace of. We also have quite a few swirls and ingrained blobs of something sitting on the upright surfaces such as the bonnet.





I then took some paint depth readings which averaged out at 124 as you can see.



As the MINI paint is rock hard (much like BMW's I guess) I was quite bold in going for a yellow Black Diamond pad and Sonus SFX2 (to be honest I just had it lying around)





50/50 (Not a very good one)



The early results were encouraging





I then used a 'Liquid paste wax' (eh?!) of some sort from a Detail Crate which I wanted to try out - it smelled nicely of cherries, I can say that.

Next, I polished up the chrome trim and spot lights (they want replacing, but this made them look a bit better) with Autosol.

Which brings us to the money shot!



And one final picture after I had dressed the plastic trim with something fancy looking (also from one of my Detail Crates which I hadn't yet tried).



My Mum's is still relegated to the drive at the minute



I hope this has been an interesting read so far, or at the very least you have enjoyed the pictures!
 
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