I recently purchased a 2006 Space Blue MCSa with the "U" shaped silver bonnet stripe (like on the checkmate package).

My question is...say in 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5 or whenever!) years I decide to remove the stripe and NOT reapply another one. Will there be an obvious noticeable difference in the paint color that was under the stripe compared to the rest of the "unprotected" bonnet paint? In other words, will I have sort of a "reverse ghosted" U-shaped shape in my paint..meaning the paint under the stripe will be darker then the rest...? Hmmmm...

I suppose the people who can definitely answer are those with 02s-04s that have removed their bonnet stripes after a couple/few years... has anyone here done that? Anything to report?

thanks...

-boognish

 

How are you maintaining your paint now? Paint, like any other pigment, can oxidize and discolor over time, if not properly maintained. Also, do you park the car outside or is it garaged?

 

Right now I'm very good with keeping the paint clean and waxed. I use Zaino Z2 and Z5, multiple coats . I will most likely wash the car every 2 weeks (less so in winter, because I only do hand wash and it's too cold in the winter to properly wash it without freezing...) and then follow-up with a couple coats of Zaino...hopefully Zaino application once a month...even though some would say this is excessive and not necessary with this kind of polymer wax...I enjoy keeping my cars clean!

The MINI is garaged every night, but it does spend a good 8-10 hours in bright sunny daylight in the office parking lot...there are some trees but they don't give adequate shading and I always end up with lots of bird poop which etches the paint if not removed RIGHT AWAY. So I usually don't park under trees. Lesser of two evils... heh.

rock on,

-boognish

 

Regardless of how well you treat the paint, when you're dealing with a rich metallic blue paint on a horizontal surface of a car, you're probably going to notice the difference after 4 or 5 years, if the car spends any time in the sun.


When the time comes, you can try looking at some paint that's been covered up since the car was new, and see if you can tell a difference (perhaps by temporarily popping off one of the bonnet vent grilles or the windshield washer jets).

Scott

 

Garaging will help, as will your protection process (good for you) but I'd think over 5 or more years you may see a difference. If it really worries you, you can swap between your stripes and "classic" dual stripes every 2 years or so. Honestly, though, I think I'd worry more about a visible difference in the FINISH over that ammount of time - the stripes are going to protect the surface from buffing scratches, small rock hits, etc. and when removed, will be shinier under the material. Hitting the entire bonnet with a good random orbital and a polishing compound after you remove them should even everything out, finish wise.

Someone like OctaneGuy should have experience with paint fade over multiple years and I'll be very interesrted to hear his experiences with sun fade in this regard... I've actually wondered the exact same thing with my orange car (not that I ever plan to remove my stripes).

 

Yea I'd be interesting in what OctaneGuy has to say regarding stripe removal after many years and paint fade and resulting maintenance...all that stuff!

I owned a '93 Ford Probe...the thing was BRIGHT red...but after only 4 years, for some reason, the roof started to fade way faster than the rest of the car...faded to an almost orange-y shade compared to the brilliant red of the hood... I didn't treat it nearly as well as I will my MINI, but anyway...

thanks for the tips/recommendations so far.

rock on,

-boognish

 

Dont' feel bad - Ford's reds have almost universally been crap in the durability department. Their metallic blues are even worse. Then there's almost every paint that Chrysler used in the late 90's - as you're driving around, keep track of how many older Neons and Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth Minivans you see where the clearcoat (and often, the base coat as well) have peeled off the car *in sheets*, revealing the primer underneath.

Scott

 

I change my decals about every 6-8 months and wax and clean throughly in between each and during the year. Get creative and change often is my goal!

 

We removed our "Mighty Stripes" recently in order to have stripes PAINTED on. We went through two sets of stripes since '04.
When they removed the stripes, the adhesive had somewhat deteriorated the clear coat, and it required a ton of buffing/polishing to clean up the area prior to the paint application.

 

my car is garaged most of the time... so there is no fading that i can
detect althought it's a 6/03 built.

when i removed my bonnet stripe last year to redo it for the
current one, i saw no sign of fading.

i guess the conclusion is, it really depends on how you care for
the car.

 

Let me ask you this guys.

I had for about 14 months racing numbers on the doors. Kind of small and the design leaved some paint exposure. Always garaged except a couple of times when I had to park in other places for 1 or 2 hours. Every 2 days washed and waxed every month with 2 complete detailings.

Should I worry? Right now is on detailing.

 

Wow, with that kind of upkeep and rigorous detailing schedule, I, personally, wouldn't worry about a thing!!!!! Washed every 2 days, waxed every month with 2 complete detailings...amazing. Your MINI must always look immaculate.


Rock on,

-boognish

 

Thank you. I detail it every 6 months. Those 2 only were for the time I had the stickers.

 

Wow if you guys are interested in hearing from me, PM me! LOL. I'm too busy to check every thread.

It just so happens today, I pulled off the factory stripes off a Pepper White MCS--I think it was a late 2004 build for the 2005 year model. Anyways, we figure it had been on there for atleast 2 years.

Removing the stripe was easy. I used a "lil'Chizler" plastic squeegee to lift an edge, then using a heat gun, heated the stripe enough to pull it--helps to have a second hand.

And how did it look? The paint was all shiny and swirlfree under the stripe, but on either side, the car had been through carwashes and all sort of mistreatment, and well the difference was obvious. That is until I polished it out. Note that I first tried a PC but it wasn't powerful enough. I then tried a Rotary Buffer with a polishing pad, and it seemed to be effective, and after the test spot, proceeded to do the whole car. As night fell, and my lights came on, you could see that lots of swirls still remained on the bonnet and the difference under the stripe area was very noticeable.

So on came the cutting pad on the rotary buffer, and lots of buffing, I evened out the paint,and it looked great. A PC wouldn't have had the ability to clean the swirls like this.

Now remember this restore was only possible because of the Pepper White paint that is flat. Metallics have more issues.

I worked on Dave Buntings Metallic Solar Red MC--he removed the checkmate bonnet decal after about 8 months after the factory applied it, and there was a noticeable difference. Interesting thing was that the area protected by the decal was LIGHTER than the exposed area!

Anyways, after hours of buffing with the rotary, I evened out the paint by removing all the swirls, and made it look more consistent across the bonnet.

Richard

 

Hi Guys,

I just pulled the factory bonnet stripes off my '05 LY and there is quite a noticable color difference between what was exposed and what was hidden by the stripes. What was hidden has a slight bit of an orangey tint. Any chance this was some kind of reaction to the adhesive?

Unlike the PW Octane Guy described, I don't have swirls and other damage, just a difference in color shades. My baby was garaged/carported for the 21 months of exposure except for when parked at work.

I'm planning on getting new bonnet graphics at AMVIV and that's why I pulled the factory stripes off. But now I'm worried that the color difference will take away from the new look. What are your suggestions for evening out the colors (other than having the bonnet repainted )?

Thanks for any advice/assistance you can offer!

 

Have you tried polishing the paint out with a paint cleaner yet?? That MIGHT help even out the color a bit. This would also assume you've claybarred the paint?

Richard

 

Thanks for the quick reply, Richard!
Just got done installing the iPod Adapter (needed something good to make me feel better ), so we'll try some polishing/cleaning/claybarring/etc. tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks again,

 

So I stopped by MINI of Mountain View last week to inquire about the discoloration under the stripes and my SA, Jennifer, (who totally ROCKS) said that the factory rep would have to look at it. He was scheduled to visit the next day, so I dropped my car off in the morning and got a call that afternoon... apparently it wasn't just paint fade: MINI is paying for a strip, buff and re-clear coating of Dylan's bonnet! WOOHOO!!!

 

Nice!! Congrats!

 

Awesome news... Congrats!

 

i'm thinking about taking off my Bonnet stripes on my mini. From what i've seen on here it sounds like i might have some issues. I dont know how well it was maintained before i bought it but i do know that my ex treated it like crap. My guess is that i will probably have some discoloration from where the stripes have been. What i want to do is to put a single stripe down the middle of the bonnet. Any suggestions on how to go about this and what to do when the worse is possibly encountered?

 

actually your paint that was under the stripes should look better than
the rest of the bonnet.

if it's just swirls and haze you're in luck. wont know until you pull the
stripe off.

 

thanks. i guess i have a project for next weekend. I'll make sure and take some pictures for giggles. I assume the process is the same for flags on roofs? I have a Union Jack that looks pretty dodgy.

 

yep, just pull up a edge and peel back in about a right angle position.
go slow so that most (if not all) of your adhesive comes off in one piece.

for the remains, you can use rubbing alcohol on a soft towel.