Put on my Ruby Red Vinyl Styles tail light Vinyls.

 

I really like that cleaned up rear ( ) with the debadge and wiper delete. I wish I didn't use my rear wiper so often or I'd remove it.

 

post pics of this sh*t!!

 

Corin, I'll politely agree to disagree, to me a pepboys ricer mod is the $12 stick-on hood scoops that dont do anything and peel off after a year. These are from a Datsun, so they were OEM back in the day, and they are fully functional. There is a reason why super high output and race cars have ventilated bodywork, 2 reasons.
1: Air enters under pressure from the front and picks up major amounts of heat from the radiator, oil, trans and power steering coolers then has to get out somewhere.
2: Same high pressure is stuck under the hood creating body lift at racing speeds, causing steering wander and instability. Not something desirable at 172 MPH, I have experienced this at 140+. It gets and keeps your attention, I can assure you
Now, the CooperS is capable of 149 according to BMW but few of us will get to test this out. However, if you look at all the component failures that people are posting on this board, a majority of these are at least somewhat heat related. Having almost 30 years in mech engineering and IS/IT, I can tell you that the MTBF (mean time between failures) goes up at a geometric rate when temps rise, this is true for electronics, and car parts. No major difference. While I agree that ventilating your bodywork may not be everyones cup of tea, it will surely be effective and to me that isnt rice-boy. Yes, I know that a stock Cooper struggles to hit the 200HP mark, so it may not be a super high output, but seriously look where the turbo is located and how small the engine bay is (crappy airflow). There are reasons that the Viper and Corvette ZR1 have real vents in their engine bays.

 

Hmmm. Japanese parts on a MINI? Even worse! Why??? I respect your engineering background and approach to scientifically solving a problem with air flow in these sedans. Certainly your attempt is, at best, an experiment. The saving grace is that you can get a new bonnet and ditch that mod if it does'nt work out for you.

 

JBC4317--
My educated guess as to why would be "because they perform the job requested of them at least adequately and without complaint".

My "why???" would have much more to do with the reason for your bigotry against the source of the part--especially considering that it's *someone else* using that part on *his* MINI, which *he* paid for with *his* money. It's certainly your right to have your own opinion, but if you haven't got anything constructive to say, why open your mouth? Nobody is forcing you to read this thread.... Why be a hater?

Well, at least you're not breaking into ad hominem, but attacking the mod by calling it an "attempt" and "at best, an experiment" certainly shows little respect for anyone that doesn't do things "your way".... Last time I checked, this was still a (mostly) free country, and, as I pointed out earlier, it's *his* car, bought by *him* with *his* money, so your opinion carries little weight in what gets done to the car....

Personally, I'm interested to hear back if there are any before/after measurements of underhood temps. Heat is the enemy (doubly so in Hell's Forge, AZ), and anything that looks promising for removing it from under my bonnet is worthy of investigation, regardless of if its origin....

C ya,
Dutch

 

Personally I like the look. It kinda puts some classic hotrod flair to your car. It dosent matter to me where they come from, or what other brand donated the parts, just a cool (in more ways than one) MOD.

Keep the innovation coming.

 

I've been considering old-skool louvers, like a street rod, behind my intercooler to let heat up and out. The trick is finding a body shop to do them, and the $$$ to pay for it....

I'm also looking for a piece of 4" wide aluminum bar stock, so I can make my own version of the M7 Air Plate Diverter jobbie and do the whole "turned aluminum" thing, like this:
Shoot some clear-coat over that so it stays pretty, and it'd look really cool....

One of my dad's friends did this on a hood he made for a modified racer back in the '70s, and I always liked the look. He did it with a wirebrush chucked up in a drill, and a *LOT* of patience and steady hands....

C ya,
Dutch

 

+1, and amazing work doing that yourself. Does not look anything like "Pep Boys."

Today I ordered the M7 Vortez 2 carbon fiber scoop. Can't wait to put it on. I know its a style choice, but I just like how pugnacious it looks in the pics!

 

These are night pics that i took will upload daytime pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/13377764@N08/6154330815/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13377764@N08/6154874166/

 

OK here is one sorry everyone new to this uploading. I'll take better pics tomorrow

 

0cool - where did you get the film and how difficult was the installation? I've looked at DECAL FX's product and it seems OK. I am curious how about install though.

Looks good!

 

kizmet - that's just awesome!!!! Who says SUV's and minivans are the only ones that can have seat mounted DVD's?

I painted the MINI on my driving light covers silver so they stand out. I got tired of them looking like Junior Mints. Felt like a kindergartner doing it, though. They look fine from 10 feet away but, man, you don't want to get up close.

 

Lyle's vinyl styles has pre cut pices. I prefer to buy it in sheets (in case I mess up) from places like R-vinyl. Best way to put it on is to heat and stretch, then just cut off the excess.

 

Are there any instructional videos around that you can provide links.

 

Dutch and DG53, appreciate the +1's. Thats totally fine, this isnt for everyone and though his national myopia makes me sad, it makes me laugh a bit as well, because if you look at all the senors and controllers in your car, there are Siemens, Delco, Motorola and others, so you've got American, Canadian, Mexican, German, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese and many other bits in any car on any particular day, so to say that this is a Brit car and this is an American car is ludicrous. Its just no longer true, GM was assembling Cobalt engines in China and then shipping them. The Aveo was Korean although the new one is built in Ohio. The list goes on ad infinitum .......

Now Dutch, Hells Forge, wow, sounds like you do have your work cut out for you, eh? I do not have sophisticated thermocouples and portable data logging computers handy but just knowing some about simple thermodynamics and airflow, heat is your enemy and getting cool air in and importantly back out again can never be detrimental. Will I be able to quantify the gain, doubtful, do I know there's a gain, undoubtedly, when I park the car and the cooling fan is running I can feel hot air blasting out of both vents, suredly removing some heat soak from overbroiled and complaining components. The airflow at speed should be much greater, given it comes blasting in through two fairly large frontal openings and then .......... ????????
Next I am going to add 2 - 7" diameter cooling fans that I just bought on ebay, behind the drivers side lower frt grille (max delta at inlet), to cool the intercooler directly. Im working on figuring out how to not only turn them on when its hotter outside (easy, already have the adj t'stat for that) but to also sense the difference between ambient and intercooler discharge temps and activate the fans when the intake temp is climbing, especially at idle. Prob two thermocouples and a simple logic circuit should do the trick. I will post some pics as well, I have the feeling that some minor trimming of the lower valence may be required but I'm hoping for complete stealth.
Motor on, mates ............

 

I got mine from www.vinylstyles.com Lyle's on the forums here. It was extremely easy. Just removed the lights. Gotta be careful of the stupid tabs. Make sure the surface of the lights are clean. Cut big outlines and trimmed it some. Lined it up and it used a squeegee and a blow dryer. Super easy!

 

A traded-in Clubman had a Craven shorty antenna, swapped it with my stock one. Win.

 

After months of driving around with my aftermarket AUX input line hanging out from under the dash, I finally had the time to install it properly. This location was easy to get to to do the install. (I originally wanted to put it in the toggle bank)

 

Installed my "Bend The Rules, Rule The Bends" decal to the top of my back window...looks great! My favorite MINI tag line!

 

Giggles...you know the Drill!! Pics. or it DIDN'T happen!!

Ok Folks as I have razed GigglesMcMini (see above) about this elustrious Window Sticker, I thought it only fair that I be the one to try and get this posted on NAM for all to marvel!!
Giggles as promised I've been able to post your pic. of said Mod...



Note: This is not my MINI but a fellow NAMer asked if I could help, so I did!!

 

RJ, sigh, I can't post pics from my ipad, unfortunately...I LOVE the decal, it rocks. Since I have a Clubman, with the split barn doors, we had to cut the squiggly arrow road sign out of the center. But hubbie positioned it at the end(right side). Have emailed Aesthetic Creations to see if I can get another road sign for the left side to balance it out..um, I can email you a pic and maybe YOU could post it (if you really need proof)...lol

 

I played with some MINI peeps today - hadn't done that in a long time... And always wanted to get one of these shots of the Kid's boot from down low. So I did!

 

One of the many reasons I don't own an iPad.

 

Can do!!