Interior/Exterior How to remove your Wheel Lip Moldings & Paint them
#1
11-15-2003, 09:23 PM
How to remove your Wheel Lip Moldings & Paint them.
Here you will learn how to remove your wheel arches, side skirts and bumpers. You can use any of these steps to do many custom things to your mini. Maybe your thinking of adding an Aero Kit, or you just wanted to paint all the moldings. I am about to show you how I installed an Aero kit and what it took to take off all the parts, what I need to do to paint them. To save time, I ordered an Aero kit and new moldings, to have painted body color before I took everything apart. Some times (I mean most times) body shops are not that fast with small part orders like this and I wanted to drive my new car.
And as always be safe in the garage and take your time. A rush job will look rushed and cost more. Hopfully i didn't leave anything out, but i might have over looked an easy step. This should get you the idea of how it works.
1. Jack up your car and take off you wheels. (Remember to loosen all the lugs before you jack it up) I also didn’t use the jack points. I wanted the stands inboard because if you are adding side skirts you will need to fish things around down there. I can be done, but It’s just harder.
2. Once all your wheels are off and set aside you will need to remove all the wheel well liners. They are very flexible and easy to take out. They are just held in with mostly a “clip” that has a Philips head screw on it. Unscrew the screw a bit and pull the plug out. In the rear there are two nuts also. You will need to remove the nuts from the studs and the rear all but fall out. The studs are hooked to the body and will not move.
3. So now you need to open the bonnet. The first wheel lip molding is about to come off. There will be a nut that you need to take off just under the lip at the very front. Remove the nut and the rest of it is just clipped in. take you needle nose pliers and press in on each clip. There will be three. I started from the front and worked my way back, but what ever you want to do is fine. Once all the clips are unhooked pullout on it a bit and swing out the back of it so that tab at the front slides out of the bonnet. You will see the tab in the photo.
4. Now to put the new one on is the same steps as before. Put the tab into the slot and swing in. clip it back in and put the nut on. You do not have to be a he-man with this nut. Once it is down and feels kind of tight you are done. You can over tighten this nut and pull the stud through your new molding. I did on one of mine, it went back in, but you all may not be as lucky.
5. So now you see the new painted one on there asking your self how I did that. Here is how you have to paint the molding. First you find a good paint shop. I happen to have a dad that works at a GM dealer and they paint all my cars, they also kind of hook me up on price, but I do all the hard work for them, so I think it’s fair. You will need to get them sprayed in a high build primer. Several coats should do, they also added a flex agent to the primer. The flex agent helps the paint bent with the plastic if a rock should hit it while you drive. After a day or so I took 400 grit wet sandpaper and wet sanded them so that they were smooth. You do not want to sand so deep that you start to see the molding again. Make sure you tell them to pain all the way around the edge too or you will have a bumpy inside lip. As of the Aero Kit, it comes in flex prime already. All I did was wet sand the whole area that was to be painted. Again all you just want an even sanding to give the new paint an area to hold on to. I found a few spots in my kit that I wanted smother so I spent some extra time taking out “factory” imperfections. Once you have every thing sanded you take it back to your body shop and have them spray it. Base coat clear coat is the way to go and I gave them my grill to color match the paint. Electric blue is a flagged color in the books and says to color match it. Any metal flake paint is best to have this done. It was no problem since I had the Aero grill added in already. So now they have painted your parts, I would wait a week to install the parts, let them get good and dry. Put them some where that is out of the way for you, kids, dogs. Also some where headed is best. It gives it a good baking. I have used my mom’s living room for large orders, but spare bedrooms, or basements will work if you do not have a heated garage. Also give your parts a good wax about 3 months after you install them. Note: if your not adding the areo kit you will need to have your stock parts painted from your bumpers. They clip and bolt in from the back so you have to take the bumpers off before doing this step if you do not buy new one (if you can). For some this will be a good winter project, for other it might mean you need another car, or you drive around with some parts missing till there done. Many people are going to ask how much this cost. Doing most of the work my self saved a bunch and ended up running me $300, but most body shops "should" be able to do it for around $400 to $500 area.
That looks like a lot of work, but it really is not. Don't let this photo scare you. o.k. back to the how to.....
6. Now you can take out the molding between the wheel and door. This molding is just held on with the same clips that where on the first molding. Once you have removed the wheel well liner you will see everything you need to get to with your pliers. Unclip the 4 clips and it pops right out.
7. So now we have the rear one and the side skirts to go. To take the side skirts off you will need to remove all the same type clips that held the wheel well lines in from the bottom of the car. So now the bottom of the side skirt is lose what about the top. There are three or four T plugs under the sill plate. If you have an Aero kit it will come with all the new clips you need. I just put my hands under the rubber seal at the top and pulled up. Hopefully they all pulled up o.k. The next step is just pull off the side skirt. You will hear a lot of breaking plastic at this point. All the clips that hold on the side skirt are a one uses clip and you get new ones. If your adding S side skirts to a Cooper you will need to get a set of these clips from your favorite dealer. So now you just have one molding left. Note: if you want to remove your sill plates, the best way to do it is slide a putty knife under a spot at one end and slash from on side to the other breaking the double sides foam tape. Do this a few times so as not to bend the metal. Clean off the old tape, and use some more tape to put back on the new one. You only need to do this step if you plan on adding your metal sill plates to you new side skirts. I striped my metal sill plate of the old backing and double sided taped mine back on after adding the Aero kit sides (that also attach back to the body with double sided tape buy the way).
8. To take the rear moldings off, you need to press in on two clips that are like the ones from the front moldings. You will see one on each end when you stick your head inside the wheel well. One is gray, and one is black. Unclip them and then find a center point where you can pull the molding off. The only things left are some white push on clips that push over posts welded on the body. You can see them in the photos. I found some pull out of the molding, but you just pry them off and slip them back into the molding.
9. To take off the rear bumper (at least for an S) you take off 4 screws. Two under the moldings on each side. Two inside the rubber bumpers under the boot. There is also a bolt back by the lower center. Next to the exhaust tips. And it comes off.
10. The front bumper is just as easy. Two big bolts under the bonnet in the front. Three along the lower front and one inside the wheel well on each side. You only need to take out the vertical screw at that point. And the front bumper is off. Note: Do not pull it off to fast. Your temp gauge is hooked to it!
11. To put it all back on is just as easy. Just in reverse order. If you are doing an Aero kit follow the directions and it will tell you how to add the parts. I am not going to go into depth that since MINI did it for me.
Hopefully this is what your end product will look like, and you are happy with the work. And next time you are at a Mini meet and some one asks you who added you kit you can say you did with a big smile! Good Luck.
_________________
Electric Blue MINI S, Black Roof, Aero Kit, Rally , Fog, & Xenon Head Lights, DSC, Harmon Kardon, Six-Speed, Sport & Cold Weather Packages, MFSW. Painted wheel lips. Plate: AGOKART **single** http://www.michiganmini.com
Here you will learn how to remove your wheel arches, side skirts and bumpers. You can use any of these steps to do many custom things to your mini. Maybe your thinking of adding an Aero Kit, or you just wanted to paint all the moldings. I am about to show you how I installed an Aero kit and what it took to take off all the parts, what I need to do to paint them. To save time, I ordered an Aero kit and new moldings, to have painted body color before I took everything apart. Some times (I mean most times) body shops are not that fast with small part orders like this and I wanted to drive my new car.
And as always be safe in the garage and take your time. A rush job will look rushed and cost more. Hopfully i didn't leave anything out, but i might have over looked an easy step. This should get you the idea of how it works.
1. Jack up your car and take off you wheels. (Remember to loosen all the lugs before you jack it up) I also didn’t use the jack points. I wanted the stands inboard because if you are adding side skirts you will need to fish things around down there. I can be done, but It’s just harder.
2. Once all your wheels are off and set aside you will need to remove all the wheel well liners. They are very flexible and easy to take out. They are just held in with mostly a “clip” that has a Philips head screw on it. Unscrew the screw a bit and pull the plug out. In the rear there are two nuts also. You will need to remove the nuts from the studs and the rear all but fall out. The studs are hooked to the body and will not move.
3. So now you need to open the bonnet. The first wheel lip molding is about to come off. There will be a nut that you need to take off just under the lip at the very front. Remove the nut and the rest of it is just clipped in. take you needle nose pliers and press in on each clip. There will be three. I started from the front and worked my way back, but what ever you want to do is fine. Once all the clips are unhooked pullout on it a bit and swing out the back of it so that tab at the front slides out of the bonnet. You will see the tab in the photo.
4. Now to put the new one on is the same steps as before. Put the tab into the slot and swing in. clip it back in and put the nut on. You do not have to be a he-man with this nut. Once it is down and feels kind of tight you are done. You can over tighten this nut and pull the stud through your new molding. I did on one of mine, it went back in, but you all may not be as lucky.
5. So now you see the new painted one on there asking your self how I did that. Here is how you have to paint the molding. First you find a good paint shop. I happen to have a dad that works at a GM dealer and they paint all my cars, they also kind of hook me up on price, but I do all the hard work for them, so I think it’s fair. You will need to get them sprayed in a high build primer. Several coats should do, they also added a flex agent to the primer. The flex agent helps the paint bent with the plastic if a rock should hit it while you drive. After a day or so I took 400 grit wet sandpaper and wet sanded them so that they were smooth. You do not want to sand so deep that you start to see the molding again. Make sure you tell them to pain all the way around the edge too or you will have a bumpy inside lip. As of the Aero Kit, it comes in flex prime already. All I did was wet sand the whole area that was to be painted. Again all you just want an even sanding to give the new paint an area to hold on to. I found a few spots in my kit that I wanted smother so I spent some extra time taking out “factory” imperfections. Once you have every thing sanded you take it back to your body shop and have them spray it. Base coat clear coat is the way to go and I gave them my grill to color match the paint. Electric blue is a flagged color in the books and says to color match it. Any metal flake paint is best to have this done. It was no problem since I had the Aero grill added in already. So now they have painted your parts, I would wait a week to install the parts, let them get good and dry. Put them some where that is out of the way for you, kids, dogs. Also some where headed is best. It gives it a good baking. I have used my mom’s living room for large orders, but spare bedrooms, or basements will work if you do not have a heated garage. Also give your parts a good wax about 3 months after you install them. Note: if your not adding the areo kit you will need to have your stock parts painted from your bumpers. They clip and bolt in from the back so you have to take the bumpers off before doing this step if you do not buy new one (if you can). For some this will be a good winter project, for other it might mean you need another car, or you drive around with some parts missing till there done. Many people are going to ask how much this cost. Doing most of the work my self saved a bunch and ended up running me $300, but most body shops "should" be able to do it for around $400 to $500 area.
That looks like a lot of work, but it really is not. Don't let this photo scare you. o.k. back to the how to.....
6. Now you can take out the molding between the wheel and door. This molding is just held on with the same clips that where on the first molding. Once you have removed the wheel well liner you will see everything you need to get to with your pliers. Unclip the 4 clips and it pops right out.
7. So now we have the rear one and the side skirts to go. To take the side skirts off you will need to remove all the same type clips that held the wheel well lines in from the bottom of the car. So now the bottom of the side skirt is lose what about the top. There are three or four T plugs under the sill plate. If you have an Aero kit it will come with all the new clips you need. I just put my hands under the rubber seal at the top and pulled up. Hopefully they all pulled up o.k. The next step is just pull off the side skirt. You will hear a lot of breaking plastic at this point. All the clips that hold on the side skirt are a one uses clip and you get new ones. If your adding S side skirts to a Cooper you will need to get a set of these clips from your favorite dealer. So now you just have one molding left. Note: if you want to remove your sill plates, the best way to do it is slide a putty knife under a spot at one end and slash from on side to the other breaking the double sides foam tape. Do this a few times so as not to bend the metal. Clean off the old tape, and use some more tape to put back on the new one. You only need to do this step if you plan on adding your metal sill plates to you new side skirts. I striped my metal sill plate of the old backing and double sided taped mine back on after adding the Aero kit sides (that also attach back to the body with double sided tape buy the way).
8. To take the rear moldings off, you need to press in on two clips that are like the ones from the front moldings. You will see one on each end when you stick your head inside the wheel well. One is gray, and one is black. Unclip them and then find a center point where you can pull the molding off. The only things left are some white push on clips that push over posts welded on the body. You can see them in the photos. I found some pull out of the molding, but you just pry them off and slip them back into the molding.
9. To take off the rear bumper (at least for an S) you take off 4 screws. Two under the moldings on each side. Two inside the rubber bumpers under the boot. There is also a bolt back by the lower center. Next to the exhaust tips. And it comes off.
10. The front bumper is just as easy. Two big bolts under the bonnet in the front. Three along the lower front and one inside the wheel well on each side. You only need to take out the vertical screw at that point. And the front bumper is off. Note: Do not pull it off to fast. Your temp gauge is hooked to it!
11. To put it all back on is just as easy. Just in reverse order. If you are doing an Aero kit follow the directions and it will tell you how to add the parts. I am not going to go into depth that since MINI did it for me.
Hopefully this is what your end product will look like, and you are happy with the work. And next time you are at a Mini meet and some one asks you who added you kit you can say you did with a big smile! Good Luck.
_________________
Electric Blue MINI S, Black Roof, Aero Kit, Rally , Fog, & Xenon Head Lights, DSC, Harmon Kardon, Six-Speed, Sport & Cold Weather Packages, MFSW. Painted wheel lips. Plate: AGOKART **single** http://www.michiganmini.com
Last edited by Detroit Tuned; 06-11-2006 at 07:00 PM.
#2
11-15-2003, 09:28 PM
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#3
11-15-2003, 09:45 PM
#4
11-15-2003, 09:46 PM
(j/k with you)
#6
11-16-2003, 05:21 AM
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11-16-2003, 06:07 AM
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#8
11-16-2003, 07:19 AM
thanks guys. it will be posted at http://www.chadsgarage.com some day. as soon as i get around to building the web page. but it's in the works....
AC_MINI :see step 5. for costs. it really did only cost me 300 to get everything painted (but i also know the guys). the whole aero kit and all moldings. the dealer charges way too much to have them do it. that is why most people think it's so much.
as for chips i have over 6000 miles with them on and not a one yet. you have to use a flex agent and it all works just fine. i will also be adding invinca-shield to most of the the parts to help protect it in the winter also.
when i went and saw the car at the dealer on day one they had a silver one with painted lips. i knew from that day on i had to do it. last week i saw a pepper white one with an aero kit and painted lips in the show room. it made me want it as much as the fist day. so this was a mod i wanted to do, i know it's not for everyone, but i have had many people asking me how to get the moldings off (you could do it for waxing the car too!) so this write up was to show how to do that too. for the people that have been trying FOR a year to the people that will be trying IN a year.
drive it like you stoll it!
AC_MINI :see step 5. for costs. it really did only cost me 300 to get everything painted (but i also know the guys). the whole aero kit and all moldings. the dealer charges way too much to have them do it. that is why most people think it's so much.
as for chips i have over 6000 miles with them on and not a one yet. you have to use a flex agent and it all works just fine. i will also be adding invinca-shield to most of the the parts to help protect it in the winter also.
when i went and saw the car at the dealer on day one they had a silver one with painted lips. i knew from that day on i had to do it. last week i saw a pepper white one with an aero kit and painted lips in the show room. it made me want it as much as the fist day. so this was a mod i wanted to do, i know it's not for everyone, but i have had many people asking me how to get the moldings off (you could do it for waxing the car too!) so this write up was to show how to do that too. for the people that have been trying FOR a year to the people that will be trying IN a year.
drive it like you stoll it!
__________________
#9
11-16-2003, 07:23 AM
>>How long did it take you to install?
oops missed a question. i say you could have it all done in about 6 hours or less. it took me 24 hours to have everything complet. while it was up in the air i painted the brakes red and it had to dry 24 hours. but 6 hours or less and you should be done. a good one day job.
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#11
02-02-2004, 09:56 PM
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Chad,
I'm quite sure I will undertake this project soon. Do you have an idea of just which fasteners will need to be replaced and in what quantity? I'd like to have them on hand before I do the job. Any one know part numbers for the stock MCS trim and also the Aero kit side skirts?
Thanks,
Stuart
I'm quite sure I will undertake this project soon. Do you have an idea of just which fasteners will need to be replaced and in what quantity? I'd like to have them on hand before I do the job. Any one know part numbers for the stock MCS trim and also the Aero kit side skirts?
Thanks,
Stuart
#12
02-02-2004, 10:25 PM
#13
02-02-2004, 10:52 PM
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Wow wow wow! That was an amazing writeup, thanks a lot. My lips have started to turn white for no apparent reason. The worst is are the rear fenders, but the fronts and skirts are catching up. I haven't treated them with any solution, cleaner, sealant or protector and I don't know what's wrong. I'm planning on taking it in and having it all replaced under warranty, but I dreaded the thought of leaving my car at the dealer and having them tear into my car. I'm so glad you put this up, because now I can go show them, have them order the new moldings and then I'll install them myself. Thanks again Chad.
regards,
amir
regards,
amir
#14
02-03-2004, 01:16 AM
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#18
02-04-2004, 09:46 PM
--KerMini, I do not have the part numbers off hand, they are around her on this web site. Do a search for aero kit and you should find them, but the dealer has all that info for you so you really do not need them. All the parts come with a bag of clips that you will need to replace the side skirts and front and back bumper covers. The only thing not in the kit is new double-sided tape to reapply your sill plates (if you want) as I talked about in step 7. Hope this helps pm me if you need any more info or photos.
Thanks for the kind words from everyone. Let me know if there is any help I can give.
Thanks for the kind words from everyone. Let me know if there is any help I can give.
__________________
#21
01-17-2005, 08:59 PM
Originally Posted by norm03s
Bump just because this is a great post and a good Winter project.:smile:
Did he ever put it up on a separate website? It should have a link on the MotoringFile howto's or a sticky here or something.
What a cool buncha people, these MINI folk be!
#24
06-14-2005, 08:29 PM
did you sand down the orange peel texture on the arches?
is it necessary to do so?
Also, if i'm using my stock bumper, do i need to seperate the plastic bits from the bumper? Can i leave them attached to the bumpers and use a lot of masking tapes to protect the bumpers from getting sprayed?
is it necessary to do so?
Also, if i'm using my stock bumper, do i need to seperate the plastic bits from the bumper? Can i leave them attached to the bumpers and use a lot of masking tapes to protect the bumpers from getting sprayed?
