do you spend some thousand or so dollars on interior options to match the theme of your car, and hate that those ugly steering wheel spoke panels don't. i'll never understand why mini lets you change the dash trim, and upholstery, and still leave some things looking out of place.

but anyway... i took it upon myself to vinyl wrap the spoke panels for my new cooper cabrio. it was SHOCKINGLY easy to take them off. i only happened to learn of how easy it was after taking apart the dash, and pretty much most of the interior.
so heres how...

1. disconnect the battery. the last thing you want is the airbag accidentally going off in your face, unless you like that sort of thing...

2. removing the airbag on an r57 is so easy, you'd think they WANT you to be able to do it. under the steering wheel, behind the bottom, middle spoke, it a very small hole. if you look into it, you'll notice theres no screw (which is why i overlooked it so many times). this is the access to a clamp release for the airbag inside the steering wheel. take something (i used an allen key) and shove it up there. put some force behind it or it will only release one side (of the two clamps inside). when successful the airbag will pop out pretty freely.

3. pull the airbag off. there are some wires connected to the back of the airbag. you can disconnect em if you want, i just rested the airbag in front of the tach.

4. two screws behind each of the left and right panels, T20 torx bits. unscrew, pull out, unplug wires, remove.


the bottom spoke isn't held in by any screws, you just pull it out. when you're done, it should all look like this...



ran out of uploadable picture space... to be continued...

 

sweet mod,

My Clubman has that interior, less the red on the seats. I may give this a whirl. Thanks!

 

continued...

the multifunction guts pop out pretty easily, couple of clips on the side and the plastic backing and circuit board comes off. phone buttons come off pretty easy too. the 4-way switches though, bit of a pain. you've gotta put some elbow grease into pushing them out from the inside. but not too much as i'd imagine the plastic clips in there aren't extremely sturdy.
when you're done...


and of course the spoke panel should be in your hands.

now, do what you will with these things.
i wrapped em in red vinyl first, then wrapped em in matte black vinyl. then with as steady of a hand as i could muster up, i took an X-acto knife to the black vinyl and cut along the natural ridges of the spoke panel. removed the black to expose the red underneath.
heres what it looked like before i cleaned up the edges...


then put it all back together and enjoy.