Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and have recently acquired myself a RB 182. This is it after some TLC today. Stupidly I didn't take any pictures before I started tinkering with it, was too busy enjoying driving it!
I've got a second car (a Mini Cooper SD on a lease) until the end of October and then the plan is to have the 182 as my daily and use it for a track day or two. To be honest since I picked up the 182 I haven't driven the mini :laughing:
The 182:
It's a 2004 RB, 99k on the clock but has only had 2 owners and had cambelt/dephaser/aux belt/water pump/cam seals done in Feb this year. Previous owner was very particular about the car and I could tell he was sad to be letting it go!
It was standard when I picked it up apart from a longlife stainless steel cat back (I understand the standard exhaust is mild steel and tends to rot?!)
Anywho, I've made a few little changes since I picked it up (most of them today!)
Headlights were suffering from the standard hazing/discolouration problem. They also had some quite deep marks on the sides:
After doing some research on here I decided to take the wet and dry approach. Masked off the bumper and wing and used 1200 wet for about 30 mins on each side followed by 2500 wet for about 15 mins each side. This left them looking like this:
At this point I had to stop and leave them overnight (also worrying a bit that I'd ruined them!) I'd read that G3 brought them up pretty nicely so I used that today. Comparison with passenger side treated with G3, drivers side just after sanding:
And here's the finished drivers side light:
They're not perfect by any means, they still seem to have a very slight haze to them but they're much better than they were so I'm happy :smile:
Next up was changing the front plate from the one above to a 3/4 size (again found the guide on here)
Unfortunately the previous owner had used about a million sticky pads (well 5 if you're not a fan of exaggerating like me :tonguewink
and they were an absolute b**ch to remove.
I used 45mm velcro coins to fix the new plate and am really happy with how it looks
The eagle eyed among you may have spotted I've also changed the standard airbox to the "fatty induction kit" setup. I'd intended to keep it standard but the child in me wanted more induction noise. Wasn't sure how loud it would be and when driving along normally could barely notice the difference. However as soon as you use full throttle it sounds insane!!
Next up was changing the rear numberplate light unit as the old one looked horrendous :fearscream:
Much happier with the new one:
Then I just gave it a good clean and wax and that was me done for the day! I'm amazed by how good the bodywork is considering it's an 11 year old car. I'm absolutely in love with the colour, love how vibrant and unusual it is and it cleans up really well.
You might be able to spot the reflection of my mini in the last picture. Unfortunately it's getting no love at the moment!!
I've got a few future plans:
Will no doubt update this as new bits come along.
Jamie.
I'm new to the forum and have recently acquired myself a RB 182. This is it after some TLC today. Stupidly I didn't take any pictures before I started tinkering with it, was too busy enjoying driving it!
I've got a second car (a Mini Cooper SD on a lease) until the end of October and then the plan is to have the 182 as my daily and use it for a track day or two. To be honest since I picked up the 182 I haven't driven the mini :laughing:
The 182:
It's a 2004 RB, 99k on the clock but has only had 2 owners and had cambelt/dephaser/aux belt/water pump/cam seals done in Feb this year. Previous owner was very particular about the car and I could tell he was sad to be letting it go!
It was standard when I picked it up apart from a longlife stainless steel cat back (I understand the standard exhaust is mild steel and tends to rot?!)
Anywho, I've made a few little changes since I picked it up (most of them today!)
Headlights were suffering from the standard hazing/discolouration problem. They also had some quite deep marks on the sides:
After doing some research on here I decided to take the wet and dry approach. Masked off the bumper and wing and used 1200 wet for about 30 mins on each side followed by 2500 wet for about 15 mins each side. This left them looking like this:
At this point I had to stop and leave them overnight (also worrying a bit that I'd ruined them!) I'd read that G3 brought them up pretty nicely so I used that today. Comparison with passenger side treated with G3, drivers side just after sanding:
And here's the finished drivers side light:
They're not perfect by any means, they still seem to have a very slight haze to them but they're much better than they were so I'm happy :smile:
Next up was changing the front plate from the one above to a 3/4 size (again found the guide on here)
Unfortunately the previous owner had used about a million sticky pads (well 5 if you're not a fan of exaggerating like me :tonguewink
and they were an absolute b**ch to remove.I used 45mm velcro coins to fix the new plate and am really happy with how it looks
The eagle eyed among you may have spotted I've also changed the standard airbox to the "fatty induction kit" setup. I'd intended to keep it standard but the child in me wanted more induction noise. Wasn't sure how loud it would be and when driving along normally could barely notice the difference. However as soon as you use full throttle it sounds insane!!
Next up was changing the rear numberplate light unit as the old one looked horrendous :fearscream:
Much happier with the new one:
Then I just gave it a good clean and wax and that was me done for the day! I'm amazed by how good the bodywork is considering it's an 11 year old car. I'm absolutely in love with the colour, love how vibrant and unusual it is and it cleans up really well.
You might be able to spot the reflection of my mini in the last picture. Unfortunately it's getting no love at the moment!!
I've got a few future plans:
- Front discs and pads are currently running a bit low so plan to replace them with some DS2500s and Brembo HC discs, upgrade fluid to ATE TYP200 and get braided lines all round in anticipation of taking it on the track at some point. What are people's opinions on the DS2500s?
- Decat - understand they don't make a massive difference but every little helps!
- It idles a bit lumpy (I understand this is common?) Cba with messing about with an RS tuner so will likely go for a generic map at some point to iron that out. I hear Dan@SJM isn't too far from me!
- Steering wheel needs a retrim as is suffering from the usual melting problem so will probably go down the snappy route as from what I've seen his work looks incredible.
- New plain rear plate (can't stand having dealership names written on there!)
- Aux input for standard stereo with a connects 2 and RCA to aux cable (can't be doing with just CD's but want to avoid changing to an aftermarket stereo)
- Wire in my dash cam.
- Change gear knob insert as mine has worn away to nothing.
Will no doubt update this as new bits come along.
Jamie.
