What's under the roof paint?
 

If you have a MINI with contrasting body/roof colours from the factory, what's underneath the paint on the roof?

For instance, if you have a blue MINI with a white roof, what's under the white paint on the roof? Is there blue paint undeneath, or just primer?

I got to thinking about it because of a post on NAM where the poster's roof paint was flaking off, exposing the body-coloured paint underneath. He swears that it's got the factory paint on it, but it seems wasteful to me for the factory to paint the entire roof in body colour, only to immediately cover it up with the contrasting paint. (Never mind the fact that some colours don't work well when applied over other colours).

I too have wondered about this. As I was watching the making of a MINI video on MINI USA's website, I noticed that the MINI the video follows first had it's roof painted the car color (red) and then the roof was taped off and they painted the roof white. Which, I guess, means the roof is first painted the car's color and then changed. That is, of course, if the video is accurate.

My understanding is that the body color paint will be underneath. If I'm not mistaken, the entire car is first painted in the body color, then (if specced, of course) the rest of the car is covered up and the roof is re-sprayed according to the specification.

It's a lot of extra hassle for them to do, so when you think about it, it's amazing they don't charge more for the option (or, another way to look at it... the cost is already factored in, making body color roof option a rip-off. :) )

Well, I got to pay a few thousand extra for the privilege of not getting *any* paint on my roof!:lol:

Are there any contrasting roof colours besides black and white? Both of those would do a pretty good job of covering the colour underneath. It's not as if they're having to cover red paint with yellow paint (a notoriously hard cover-up to do).

I was thinking it was body color too. If you watch the video tour online of the plant it would seem to be that the entire MINI is painted body color then the roof is taped off and painted .

weird. i wonder what they do with pepper white. if I remember correctly, they don't allow you to order a pepper white roof.

Despite it seeming wasteful, I'd assume that they go ahead and paint the roof body color before white or black simply to make sure that the roof is smooth before spraying the black or white (or silver), and as a time-saving thing. Of course, a body colored roof is an option, so it makes sense to spray the whole car at once. It wouldn't make sense to mask off the roof, spray the body color, then remove the masking, mask off the body and spray the roof. That's two masking operations, where currently they only do one. You wouldn't really want to have just the body sprayed and have a bunch of overspray on the roof before you painted the roof color.

I haven't watched the build video, but I wouldn't be surprised if they shoot a coat of sealer over the roof before hitting it with the black or white. Red is notorious for bleed-through (even under black), and considering how many CR/W MINIs get churned out, I'm sure they wouldn't want all, or any, of those owners coming back saying that their roofs were turning pink.

Black and white are the two-tone options. Silver was an option in '05 and '06. Pepper White is only available with a PW or Black roof. PW/S would have looked cool, though, especially with a matching silver V-stripe on the bonnet.

Well, there's silver, of course... but it was only available for the 2006 model year.Nope, 2006 only. :)

However, they're bringing silver back again for the Clubman.

Ah. I wondered about that. Wasn't exactly sure when they started the silver roof. Thanks. So, Space Blue was an '06 only color then?

Yes, Space Blue was an 06 only option.

I've got a couple of chips on my roof, and in all instances it's black underneath. I suspect that's the primer. Maybe the rock took the BRG under the white with it? :confused:

Are you sure about that???? I ordered a black top, but I do believe you can get a solid pepper white Mini

You can get PW with a body color roof or a black roof, but not a real white roof.

Mine is laser blue white roof ,rock chips on my roof only showing primer .

Metal? hahahaha :)

I would imagine primer is under that. I'd check with the dealer and/or a auto body shop.

The chips on our white roof reveled chili red underneath

I had a "dealer installed" scratch on my roof, added when a screwdriver was used to TRY and push the window trim on as it was just a bit loose. I did get a repaint on the whole roof.
I am CR / Black

The roof clearly had primer / CR / THEN black ... and now ANOTHER black

My black roof definitely has LY underneath - I discovered this last weekend when my bro-in-law was drilling in my boot hatch to install my new S spoiler! (I know, I couldn't watch) After seeing the yellow under the black around the new holes, he pointed out this in the gap between the boot lid and the roof:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...paintcolor.jpg

I don't know how I could have missed that after almost of year of religious washing every two weeks! I'll just call it a birth-mark. :lol:

I think under my roof is only primer. My roof was replaced some time ago. They body shop, as far as I could tell, had the new roof painted then installed it somehow. Not to sure really, but the roof is newer and alpine white.