I have wanted a mini for a very long time. I thought "what the hell" the other day and just bought one. Now I just have to find someone in my area to help with customizing.

 

Welcome and congrats. Time to do some reading and once that mod bug bites...the venom is ever lasting.

 

Nice looking car! Congrats and enjoy!

 

IMHO, you had a terrific "oh what the hell" moment! What a great mini you bought, enjoy and be ready for lots of looks and questions!

 

Great looking MINI! If it were me, I'd lower it, and black it out (all chrome, beltline, gas cap, door handles, headlight/taillight rings, etc)!

 

Wax and Armourall is all you need for that pretty machine!

 

I want to black it all out. Where do I buy all these accessories? I also have to check out tints. I posted that I was interested in doing 35% all the way around. I would like to see pics of this though. THanks for the comments.

 

Take off all of your chrome trim pieces, use plastidip (best thing on earth), use electrical tape for the beltline, lens tint for taillights, 20% tint 50% on the windshield!

 

Really 50?! I guess I'm just worried because i live in New York and In a small town. Cops really look for a reason to pull you over, no disrespect to anyone who is an officer, my best friend is. Got to get me some plastic dip. Also I want 18" rims in black. Brands you could recommend? I tried to find a thread on here with different percentages of tints. I'm having hard time navigating this site.

 

I thought any tint on the windshield was illegal? 30% on the the front two windows and anything goes for the rear? Eh, I donno.

I may suggest to stay away from 18s unless you REALLY want them. I had 18s on mine for about 3 months before bad roads ruined two of them and I switched over to 17s. I'm sure NY has some bad roads too with the big contrast in temperature from summer to winter. They did look sweet though....

Best of luck modifying and welcome to the MINI world!

 

Yeah anything under 70% is illegal in NY. Good advice on the wheels. I kind of thought this. It was either bigger rims or lowering but the roads are so bad I don't want it to be any lower. 17s would also look nice. What brands though? I'm looking to spend like $2,000. too much, not enough? Thanks, thanks, thanks!!

 

$2,000 is more than enough. You should get new rims and tires that are not runflats.

 

Perfect example of what your car should look like:




Yum!

And yes, front windshield tint is illegal, but it makes a world of difference in a blacked out car! If you're gonna black it out you have to go all out!

 

What are run flats?! Omg there's so much I need to learn. My husband is rebuilding a Triumph so I'm on my own with the car. Wow!! Just Wow!!!!

 

I thought you'd like that.

You can get a set of those wheels for $2000 easily. I can help you find some if you are seriously interested!

It'll take a lot of work to get it all blacked out- but the end product = worth it.

 

A triumph? What year? I have a 1974 Spitfire Triumph that I've almost completely redone.

 

77 bonneville. He's hardtailing it. Chopping it out. We work with leather so He's starting to do tooling because he wants to start making seats. Like I said I'm on my own with the car for now. Got any pics of your bike?

 

So I'm watching videos on the plasti dip. It looks like it holds up pretty well.

 

Red&Black....is there any videos or instructional on how to do the plastidip?
I'm going to black out mine and I'm not too keen on paying the high price of having them get vinyled.

edit: I think I found 'em... thanks!

 

A car, actually!



Ignore my car... that was about 6 months ago and it was ugglllyy.

Oh yeah, Plastidip holds up amazingly. I wash my car once a week myself and i scrub it pretty hard- doesn't fade, or chip or anything like that. It really is a beautiful thing!

 

cricketine- It's pretty simple! And if you mess up, the great thing is you can just peel it off once it dries with no adverse effects. Hold it about 12" away from the thing you're painting. The first coat, make sure to cover the entire thing you're plastidipping so you have a good base. Then, do about 3-4 coats after that. If you spray too close- it comes out weird in the end! $6 a can and I used 2 cans to do every piece of chrome trim on my car and my hood scoop.

Every piece of trim you see here was blacked with plasti-dip, excluding the handles, which I got from Aesthetic Creations.

 

That looks amazing!!! Is this lowered a bit? Now I kind of want a roof rack. Question about the rims. I want to keep the little mini emblem on the rim, It's like on the center of the hub? I don't know what it's called, can I do that with any set of rims I buy? I seriously have a ton of questions, you might have to tell me to stop!!

 

No problem at all on the questions! I'm happy to answer them.

Yes, the car is lowered on coilovers. I am about 4.5" lower than stock.

For the wheels, the only way you'll be able to have the mini emblem is if you get stickers, something like this would be perfect: http://compare.ebay.com/like/2307320...Types&var=sbar

BUT if you are getting really nice wheels, you will want to show off the brand! If you have the mini emblem covering it up, people will think they are knock-off wheels.. which = bad!

 

Wow that car is low. I have to think you are limited in where you can drive. I know in my town it would be difficult with the car that low that everyday drivability would be compromised pretty severely.

Nice car though I really like it.

 

It's really not as bad as it seems... our front ends are so short that I barely ever scrape or bottom out. It's all about taking things at an angle!
And thanks!