{"id":1299,"date":"2024-08-20T19:04:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T19:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2024-08-20T19:04:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T19:04:42","slug":"sadie-r53-mini-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"Chili Red Mini Cooper S: Restoration and Modification Journey, Meet Sadie…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Idle funds and the want of a small peppy petrol hatchback back in my life has brought me to the somewhat questionable decision to buy this…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A 2002 Mini Cooper S in Chili red. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

120k miles, and plenty of stories and former owners, 12 at the last count! I’ll await to get a final total once the new tax book arrives. (EDIT- Tax book arrived… 15 owners!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spotted the car for sale on Facebook Marketplace on August 14th, and with the wife informed, I sent the seller a message. Details were sparse but the price was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having wanted a supercharged Mini for about 10 years, no better time I thought and with the help of a good friend and the hire of a low loader from Balloo hire, we ventured across the country to go and collect the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having arrived it was clear that the car was very well presented… For the pictures in the advert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stood before me was in essence a 22 year old Mini that had passed through the hands of many an owner, some loving some not so much. Yet, the bones were good and it’s not to be a daily, just a bit of fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So onto the trailer it went and we began the next leg of the journey to collect some MK4 Golf GTI interior bits for my chauffeurs Golf Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the car home, it was time to install a fresh battery as the old one was destroyed and a new negative terminal due to the compression clip having given way and being replaced with a galvanically corroded bolt a small self tappers and a tech screw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battery strap is MIA so something will be needing sorted for that, but I have a plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Various detritus lives in the battery hole, so that will need cleaned and treated at a later stage too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The car came without the original exhaust tips, and instead some, what were once, pleasant slash cut chrome tips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, they had shifted over the years and somewhat resembled this guy, with one top going to the shops and the other coming home with the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having failed at taking them off with spanners, sockets, penetrating fluid and a multi tool failed, out came the angle grinder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Much better, now it looks like the end of two small scaffolding poles, at least they’re straight now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was time for the car to meet the offspring and wife at this stage, red being his favourite colour I kept it as a bit of a surprise for him and he immediately named her Sadie, which I loved. So, welcome home Sadie!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up was trying to dechrome it a little, less of a dechrome, and more un-tackyafying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off came the chrome surrounds on the spotlights and that god awful bonnet scoop in favour of a used genuine item in, apparently chili red… Ah well, colour matching red was never going to be a walk in the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next up was a small mod for under the bonnet, I noticed that the cover for the positive jumping point was missing, so I jumped onto Thingiverse and found that some clever sod had created a replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive Terminal Cover<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So for now, that’s all. So, let’s make a list of what’s next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Register it in Northern Ireland \u2705<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Tax it \u2705<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Insure it \u2705<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Book MOT \u2705<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Clean and detail it inside and out<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Pass MOT <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 3D Print double din adapter<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Install double din Radio, DAB, Bluetooth, Android Auto.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Source some parts\n
      \n
    • Head liner – Sagging<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Bonnet lining – tired and tatty looking <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 3 spoke steering wheel<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Ultra gauge to monitor temps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Paint wiper arms<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Locate and reconnect or replace the ambient temp sensor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Idle funds and the want of a small peppy petrol hatchback back in my life…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[24,25,55,66,82],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-my-cars","tag-cooper","tag-cooper-s","tag-mini","tag-r53","tag-wk52-gnp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/10000609088016163183207292966.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ihni.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}