Front bumper and home

4 years since I started what has turned out to be quite a bumpy journey, involving body shops conning me and not doing work - work not to the best standard, having to have to stop for a back operation and also move house has all kept this project lagging behind only having a few hours every now and then to play.

Good news the car is now in my garage and I can continue to work on it even if its a little in each evening and I plan to install one part each day and then spend a day on it over the weekends to push the build forward.

I wanted to thank both bodytech solihull and eastcoat customs for all the body shop work which was good and unlike the other body shops did what I wanted without asking for cash and running / doing nothing. (name and shame will come at the end of the build with the full thanks to the good guys out there)

Here is the last photo taken from the body shop, notice the R56 bumper I made on the front and the lovely fit which did need some fettling to fit perfectly as the moulding process had a few little errors. Now its all splendid.

With the car on the way home I decided that I wanted to finish the front headlights, this involved adding super bright LEDs into the xenon cluster which will be used as day time running lights and should help to face lift the cars appearance, also I like the look of this modification

I wanted to thank my normal tow truck gent but I have forgotten his name but I will add it to the thanks list as he always takes cares of my cars when moving them and does a great job in delivering the car safely where it needs to go. This time its home for me;

I will now try and update this blog more with more photos and updates as the work continues...

R56 JCW bumper on the R53 final mods

With lots of items coming along nicely it is time to start looking at finishing the bumper I made off so that it is perfect. after moulding I had realised the mould had sagged a little so the bumper has opened out a little, this is quite normal for grp construction bumper and hence why no max power body kit would ever fit correctly. Luck for me I have a guy with years of experience sorting this issue out on my side.

Here is the start point

I really like how this bumper is coming together

Painting many parts

Just wanted to update to show that actually this is moving forward quite quickly. I am over the moon with how the parts are coming together. I think my painter will kill me next time I see him, I do not think he realised the amount of parts he would be painting

Looking forward to putting all this together...

Back on it

After taking some time off to have the operation on my back seams to have been very worth while and I am starting to feel like I did a few years back. I am glad to say that while it will be a slow start back on the project I can carry on and since I have had the time off I have been able to get on with the CAD and drawing the final parts I need.

While I have been down and out I decided it was time to have a few items re-done that I was simply not happy with. I am after perfection and I will get there even if this means that some jobs need to get done again.

Here is the mini in the bodyshop having further work done but I am not happy to say "I am happy"

Here is the pulleys for the supercharger, I had 2 made, 1 which is to run on the standard map to get the car started and moved about for the tests and then later I will choose the smaller pulley when the new ECU is installed

This is all for now, I am hoping that next week the car will be close to finished - bodywork wise.