I’ve been obsessed with the idea of the foam cannon. I’m always looking for new products to feature in the store and sometimes I end up on strange journeys — this has been one of them. Strange but good. It started with a desire for a better micro fiber towel and ended up with snowy …
The Gen 1 MINIs had a problem with the clear-coat that was applied at the factory. Some owners were able to talk their way into getting it fixed at the dealer under the extended corrosion warranty. Given that my MINI is long past that option, I decided to pursue a two part strategy: first, I …
If you’ve read any prior posts on this blog, you know I’m a huge fan of Dr. Colorchip. For small paint chips and scratches, the good doctor cannot be beat. But when the chips and scratches get bigger, the repair isn’t usually as simple. So I thought I’d try out some other products on the …
This is turning out to be a much colder winter in the Mid-Atlantic region than originally planned. As a result, I’m falling behind in sorting the X5. This past weekend was the first since early November where I could get out and work on it. The previous owner (Mr. Magoo) managed to scrape paint off …
I’m sure you’ve seen the blob before: bad touch-up paint that looks almost as bad as the scratch it is attempting to cover up. Our new BMW X5 shop truck came with some seriously bad blobs on the hood. In the photo below you can see the blobs on the left before application and the …
GeorgeCo recently acquired a 2013 BMW X5 to use as a daily driver and tow vehicle. We’ve been spending the last couple of weeks fixing the little things that were wrong with it when we bought it. The previous owner — “Mr. Magoo” — had curbed all four wheels, one of which we decided to …
The stock Wilwood rotors have held up well, but really aren’t intended for extended track use. Earlier this year I upgraded to calipers with steel pistons and no dust boots, so when it came time to replace the rotors, I thought I’d upgrade that as well. The Spec-37 rotor is Wilwood’s Premium Grade, Heavy Wall …
The oil MINI uses in the Getrag 6 speed manual transmission is supposed to be a lifetime fill. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean: If you kill the transmission because of bad fluid, that’s the end of its lifetime. A safer bet is to change it yourself every 30-50,000 miles. It’s cheap and …
Read more “MINI R53 Manual Transmission and Differential Fluid Change”
Getting the brake ducts right on the MINI is slowly becoming my white whale project (call me Ishmael). In Part Deux of this adventure, we found a good cooling solution using brackets from Chris Sneed, but the location on the passenger side ducting was less than ideal. First we got the hose caught in the crank …
Keeping mind my past experience with a carpet swap in a BMW E30 some years ago, I finally found a good replacement for the carpet in the 996 and, uttering those infamous words “how hard could it be”, set off to do the carpet swap last weekend. If you’re curious how much of your interior …