Great to see you back at it. When I watch any R53 video I am thankful I purchased my R53 from a salt free state. No rust - less likely to snap a bolt. Working on a friends Mini in my shop. The car came from Southern California - zero rust. It has been a pleasure to wrench on the car. No seriously! Doing a full suspension refresh (ball joints, front lower control arm bushings, cooling fan, addressing the oil leaks, gear box service and cleaning everything as we go. Want to get it fully “sorted” for the next owner. After this R53 was delivered my friend bought a beautiful 2006 Mini GP1. This current Slicktop R53 didn’t fully scratch the R53 itch. We are hoping for a break even sale which will help my friend sleep well knowing we did our best to sell the car with zero issues.
Had to laugh about the nut on the exhaust flange. Anyone who works on cars feels this pain all to often. "Something that was supposed to take me 30 seconds is now going to prevent my entire day of work". +1 on having the right tool.
The pain was real. Heat up the garage, setup the cameras and lights and then... bam. Have to go to the store to get a crow foot and start again the next day.
Phil, great to see you back at it, love your videos. Finished this job a few months ago on my R56. Heres a tip, on reassembly, don't put the subframe back in as you took it out. Get the control arms on the subframe install that back in & then assemble trailing arms, shocks, bearings & brakes. Build it on the car, it's much easier to do it that way than trying to stuff up the assembly as a whole unit. Take a look at my videos I did on my subframe, went a bit further & sorted the surface rust out behind the tank as well. Glad I did it was bad. Good luck, looking forward to the reassembly & stuff up. Smithie 👍
Just coming back to this as I wrapped up the rear end and exhaust swap on my 06 R53. Everything went pretty smoothly until the final torquing of the bolts. As you may have seen on a few other videos about this mod, the threads on the lower shock bolt for my passenger-side trailing arm broke loose before I got to the full torque spec. Now I am patiently waiting for a replacement arm to arrive so I can do it again!
Can the subframe come off even if you leave the wheel hub and brakes etc connected, just take the control bars and anti roll bar and drop links ? Got swap out my subframe . Thanks
If you disconnect the brake lines you could definitely drop the subframe with the hubs, brakes and shocks connected. You would disconnect the shocks at the top.
Great to see you back at it.
When I watch any R53 video I am thankful I purchased my R53 from a salt free state. No rust - less likely to snap a bolt. Working on a friends Mini in my shop. The car came from Southern California - zero rust. It has been a pleasure to wrench on the car. No seriously!
Doing a full suspension refresh (ball joints, front lower control arm bushings, cooling fan, addressing the oil leaks, gear box service and cleaning everything as we go.
Want to get it fully “sorted” for the next owner. After this R53 was delivered my friend bought a beautiful 2006 Mini GP1. This current Slicktop R53 didn’t fully scratch the R53 itch.
We are hoping for a break even sale which will help my friend sleep well knowing we did our best to sell the car with zero issues.
Had to laugh about the nut on the exhaust flange. Anyone who works on cars feels this pain all to often. "Something that was supposed to take me 30 seconds is now going to prevent my entire day of work". +1 on having the right tool.
The pain was real. Heat up the garage, setup the cameras and lights and then... bam. Have to go to the store to get a crow foot and start again the next day.
Phil, great to see you back at it, love your videos.
Finished this job a few months ago on my R56.
Heres a tip, on reassembly, don't put the subframe back in as you took it out. Get the control arms on the subframe install that back in & then assemble trailing arms, shocks, bearings & brakes. Build it on the car, it's much easier to do it that way than trying to stuff up the assembly as a whole unit.
Take a look at my videos I did on my subframe, went a bit further & sorted the surface rust out behind the tank as well. Glad I did it was bad.
Good luck, looking forward to the reassembly & stuff up.
Smithie 👍
@@smithiestrackmini great advice, thank you. I will definitely check out your video.
Thanks for taking the time to video the whole removal process 👍
Hope yours goes well! Canadians cars have so much rust I think anyone else’s should go super smooth.
I’m late to the party, but just about to do this. Really good video. #scotland
Just coming back to this as I wrapped up the rear end and exhaust swap on my 06 R53. Everything went pretty smoothly until the final torquing of the bolts. As you may have seen on a few other videos about this mod, the threads on the lower shock bolt for my passenger-side trailing arm broke loose before I got to the full torque spec. Now I am patiently waiting for a replacement arm to arrive so I can do it again!
Ouch. What torque were you aiming for? Any idea where it broke free/stripped?
Did mine 2 years ago it will be worth it 👍
Summer fun is just getting warmed up! Like and sub!
Can the subframe come off even if you leave the wheel hub and brakes etc connected, just take the control bars and anti roll bar and drop links ? Got swap out my subframe . Thanks
If you disconnect the brake lines you could definitely drop the subframe with the hubs, brakes and shocks connected. You would disconnect the shocks at the top.
I’ll be doing that but the audio will probably have a lot of beep beeps!
LOL😅