Well, you clearly have great taste!

Are you enjoying it? I’m guessing you live somewhere in the front range? We might see each other no the road sometime!

 

Sorry, Darex! I was confusing you with Ryan Pruett who has a Melting and got it from a Colorado dealer.

 

Islandblue is another chameleon. Outside in the sun it is a very vivid metallic true-blue color. Inside my garage at night under florescent light it is a non-metallic dark-blueish teal color. Other lighting it is somewhere in between. MINI appears to be using some very interesting paint.

 

How is the removal/install of that? I grabbed the black grille (along w/ the black headlight & taillight trim) back in August, but it's been sitting in the basement since then while I dread the installation process - from the looks of the removal/install instructions, I need to unfasten the bumper panel from below, along with the wheel arches?

For that matter... any guidance you can give on the headlight/taillight trim removal is appreciated as well. This may be my Saturday project.

 

I was skeptical myself of doing the installs, but after doing it, I'm glad I didn't pay the dealer or a shop. Their rates are ridiculous. It was relatively easy.

The front headlight rings have tabs that you can see when the hood is opened. They're designed weird in my opinion, almost backwards, but all you do is pry them off. Once you get one started then you just pop them all off. Installing the new ones (which I believe have new tabs attached if you bought them from MINIUSA) they just click right in.

The rear taillights scared me a bit, I used a flat head screwdriver with some duct tape on the head (So it doesn't scratch the paint or lens) and just pop a corner and work it around until it all pops off. The part that scared me was the sound it made. Almost sounded like I was destroying the damn things.

The grille was pretty easy. There's 8 torque screws the hold the original grille on. Unscrew all of them and you will notice the top is loose. The bottom is held in by the built in clips on the grille itself. Look at your new grille and you'll see what I mean. But just using a little force pull the bottom of the grille out as level as you can without scratching the bumper paint. (After doing it, I would probably lay down some vinyl tape on the bumper to be safe) It also makes a nice loud sound when you pull the tabs through. I did not have to unfasten the bumper panel from below or the wheel arches.

You do have to use a bit of force when removing all of these, don't be afraid.

Hopefully that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

“Backwards” is the best description I’ve seen for those clips! Thanks for this - I installed the headlight and taillight rings today. Grille hopefully tomorrow morning, then some photos if I can hit the car wash first.

Next up... door handles, and figuring out what to do with the side scuttles and belt line trim. (And the wheel arch lights... roof rails... rocker panel inserts... ugh)

 

My sales man sent me some pics of mine as it arrived at the dealer today. CooperS Auto, climate and multimedia packs. Need to sell my F56 before I can pick it up tho!

 

These were the still-on-the-dealer-lot pictures from last Saturday before we bought it...
I like the rear shot since it shows the difference between Black Line trim rings and Bright Stock ones , side by side.

 

So your combination is pearl black seats-satellite grey color line interior? This is what I have ordered and I would very much appreciate some pics of the interior!

 

Here's my Lapisluxury Blue with Mini Yours 19's

 

To become a familiar routine this coming winter... Had it's first [Lake effect] snow & ice Friday. Just getting rid of some salt dust on and underneath.

 

Taken with a crappy phone camera. I'll get better ones soon hopefully.

(Still need to tint the front windows to match the rears and lower the pig.)

 

That looks great! Best one I've seen yet! I'm still waiting on mine, but I am amassing a collection of black bits and pieces to add when she arrives.

 

A big thumbs up and thanks for sharing!

I have moonwalk grey on order (with chili red roof) but I needed to see more pics to figure out what else I'd want to customize. I think I like the black borders around the lights!

 

Love the black out of all the chrome (something I want to do as well)! Where did you get the black Sport Scuttles?

 

DarkMiniCooperS told me about Aliexpress. It's a website in china (that takes about a month to receive products from). Quality is ok, not the greatest. The fitment was very tight, but works. It's actually just an overlay on the chrome piece. I thought about just buying the base Cooper scuttles(all black), but this was a cheaper route.

 

Those black trim are nice. May need to do that. Where do you guys get em from? Mini?

 

update on that cheap route: with first snow/salt, they began to stick off as they were not a perfect fit...

off they went and I am now shopping for base Cooper ones as well. Already got the part numbers from RealOEM!

 

Mine are in there pretty damn tight, I can't see them falling out. Even with the 3m tape going bad

Let me know how much those run?

 

Guys what does the OEM blacked out front grill cost? Here in Aus not sure its available, so might have to look OS to get one!

 

$317 usd

 

I received a pair of the base black side turn signal/scuttles from Seattle MINI yesterday, $36.88 each, but shipping on top of that. You can also get them from ECS for $43.55 each with free shipping.

 

Did you install them yet? I was curious of how to remove the existing ones. I removed the rain gutter under the hood to access them from the inside, but they didn't seem to budge. Let me know if there's a technique to get them out? TIA

 

Not yet. Out of town tomorrow through Monday; hope to get a look at it in the afternoon on Thanksgiving. I want to tint those signal lenses at the same time while those covers are off.

There are just five of the small white push-clips on the back, haven't looked to see if they're accessible from inside (although it sounds from your experience that they're not) so might just be a trim-tool pryfest from the outside.

See: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...rip/1VnZ7QaoJD

 

haha looks like another "gently, pull with force" maneuvers. Might be a good idea to get some of those replacement clips.