pics blimey? :D

 

I finally made a stop at my local Home Depot and picked up 2 cans of Plasti Dip. I sprayed the fuel cap, both door handles and hood scoop all in one night. It really didnt take that long to do. I will try to post some pics soon.
I think they all turned out really good.

This weekend I am going to tackle the headlight rings and the front grille chrome pieces. Hopefully those will be easy. We shall see.

 

Headlights are easy. Just take your time and look things over.

 

If you take an exacto knife to the adhesive at the bottom of the headlight ring they come off real easy, you have to pry at one side first then once you have enough space run the exacto through the adhesive tape there should be about 4 pieces of tape so take your time the clips are pretty easy to break.

 

^ exactly the way I do it.

 

How hard is it to do the headlight rings without actually removing the headlights? I did the hood scoop without removing it and that was pretty easy. I just dont want to break anything during removal or reinstallation.

 

its possible, but you will likely break a tab or two. you can always just tape them back on if you break too many tabs. they are also taped on from factory too.
honestly, 3 bolts and unplugging ur washers is all there is to removing the headlamp. its much easier to do it that way.

 

I can partially remove the headlight. I didnt have a whole lot of time to mess around with it, but where on the washers do I need to disconnect it?
I should have more time this weekend to figure it out.

 

I believe there was a plastic clip of some sort that connected the hose to the headlight washer. You're gonna have to play around with it as I don't remember what I did to get it off...squeeze, pull, curse, etc...

 

what would people recommend to get the side markers body colored?? Paint won't stick to the chrome right? How do you sand something so small like that? I want it match the dark silver metallic as much as possible. Any insight would be great.

 

A couple of options:
1) start with the Cooper vents. They're not chrome
2) Sandblast the Cooper S vents before painting.
3) Sand the Cooper S vents. It's doable... just tedious to get in all the nooks and crannies (you need to disassemble them first).

 

Back in the day when i was a super NOOB at painting i just taped cleaned and sprayed. to this day the paint is on the side markers un-chipped but. it is not a proud day in my life. haha

 

Would the Cooper grilles need to be sanded??? A bodyshop guy said the S grilles would get destroyed if they were sandblasted. Is that true??

 

trace the hose from the headlight, you;ll come to a plastic elbow. youll see the clip there...

the chrome will be destroyed. only way u destroy the grills would be to crank it up and blast the plastic away.

 

Yeah, I'm not talking about a lot of blasting. You don't need to get *all* the chrome off... just roughen the surface enough for primer to stick well...

 

I read a lot on here about plasti-dipping the gas cap, door handles, etc...but has anyone tried doing this on the chrome mirror caps? I want to get the black ones, but buying from the dealer and having them painted sounds expensive. I guess I could give it a shot, if it doesn't work I can peel it back off right?

 

Yes, you can do it on the chrome mirror caps (same as handles.) And you can just peel back the plasti-dip if you are not satisfied.

Use a hair dryer on low make a 4 hour job turn into 25 minutes...

 

Doing some Google searching, I came across a site selling chrome door handle covers. Hopefully they'll be decent quality. I ordered a set and I'll post my findings.

This is the site I found : https://bigboys-customtoys.com/store/AddCart.asp?ProdID={9E3D472E-E219-4C13-82E9-2753735B0479}

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try this week.

 

Keep us posted on this.

 

Yeah it'll work like a charm. I did it on mine a while back to get rid of the gloss black. The plasti-dip looks perfect on it because it matches the black trim almost perfectly. Really pulls the design better and looks more like the R53 mirrors by having a better flow

The pic isn't that close, but you can tell how the mirror cap is no longer gloss and the whole side assembly flows better all matte instead of matte and gloss
[old pic]

 

I just completed my headlight rings and grill chrome the other night. 5 minutes to remove, 3 minutes to replace. All popped right off without any problem. Incredibly easy. The Plasti-dip works great. Just take your time and let it dry overnight before replacing.

Good luck!

 

What's the best way to do the door handles? Should I try and remove them or just blue tape everything around and start spraying? I've read that removing the doorhandles can be a real pita. I've got everything else plastodipped except the door handles, last step and most difficult. i could really use some advice here, thanks

 

I think if you just put up newspaper (to avoid over spray onto the rest of the car) and stick index cards behind the black rubber/grommet, you'll be fine.

Just be sure to cut the plasti-dip away from the edges. Something I neglected to do. It ruined the whole job.

Not sure if someone has a trick regarding the keyhole though.

 

Yeah, tape up newspapers. then place index cards behind the edges of the handles. as soon as you apply your first coat, remove the cards, replace with new cards for the next coat and repeat process until you feel you have enough coats. The idea is to NOT let the plastidip have a chance to dry and make a bond to the handles and whatever you are masking with (in this case, index cards) because it will not want to separate.