I'm in the UK, but have found NAM very useful - seems to be alot more going on for Coopers here than on the UK forums!

Thought I'd post up some pics of my Cooper, and how I've changed it since it arrived!

Here she was when I picked her up






Decided that the grille had to be changed, so invested in the JCW one, with trims:





Then decided to powdercoat the wheels, and start blacking the car out to go with a truly red and black theme:



I was getting slightly carried away with the black theme, and decided to have most of the chrome blacked out - so had the headlight rings, foglight trims, rear fog trim, rear light trims, door handles, boot garnish and badges done:





Leaving the car at the moment looking like this:





I'm considering getting some tint tape to black out the beltline, as taking it off to spray would be a royal pain in the backside!

Still, I hope you guys like it, and any opinions would be appreciated! :D

 

Welcome, all sides of the pond are welcome here.

The beltline blackout will completely change the "look" of the car, and based on your moves so far I think you'll like the change!

 

Nice! I like how it looks with the blacked out chrome line around the fogs. Nice work!

Can you take some more pics of your engine bay? I'm interested in what that airbox looks like. It's nothing like ours.

Would you be interested in trading fender flares for some US spec ones???

 

PS- look up the Joey Mod, you'd love the look of it.

 

There are a few belt lines to choose from. Ae creations is one of the better ones.http://www.aestheticreations.net/moldedparts.htm there is also outmotoring as well.http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...tline-kit.html I have the out motoring tape on mine, but I heard that the aestheticreations is a little better and is precut.

 

Drew's right here's my joey mod'd head lights.
Not to hard to do either. It just takes some time.

 

I'm changing mine to a dark silver as soon as it warms up a bit. I still have to clean up the inside and wipe off the inside of the lens. It's been dirty since last summer.

 

Drew I've been waiting to do the same thing. It's been raining out here like crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! and I need to wipe off the inside of the lens as well. Thinking about doing the glue again just to make sure that there's no leaks at all cause I know I didn't touch the inside at all. But I think it could have been from not waiting to put it back together and the gases from the paint drying that left mine like that.

 

Yeah that's what I'm guessing too, the gas. I wore rubber gloves while I was doing it just to make sure I didn't touch it. I need to re-blackout everything else too.

 

I need to order some black Plasti-dip and re-do the other parts body parts. I've got some chips in my head light rings and I want to do the boot handle too! either that or leave it and go with the I </3 (hate) chrome sticker on it to make it stand out.

 

wsh i dare to do it...

 

Do it! It's not that hard it just takes some time to do. But be sure to do it when it's warmer outside and let the paint dry for a little while before putting your lens back on.

 

Cheers mate!

I'm at uni at the moment, and my car's at home - but when I next go back I'll take some more pics of the engine bay and post them up! I've been looking into the Joey mod, but over in the UK it'd be totally illegal for halogen lights, the xenons are ok to black out!

And sorry buddy, but I'm happy with the UK fenders on the car atm, but you'll be the first person I'll come to if I get an aero kit, because then I'd be looking for the US spec with lights

 

Love the black around the fog lights, you also should tint you windows!

 

It's even illegal if you just black out the chrome around it like mine?? I'm sure there's some loop hole you can find. I didnt black out my whole light. It's still reflective behind where the halogen is.

 

I don't know why it would be illegal. It's not even noticeable when the lights are on.

Haha, let me know if you get the aero kit!!

Tim- did you use the gloss black PlastiDip? Looks way better than the matte I had.

 

No drew I used a gloss plastic spray and I also primed as well.

 

chris...love what you did to the car with the blackout. what did you use to black out the rings and grill? was it easy to get the front grill off? how did you take the fog lights and lower chrome grill out to blackout them?

i will be doing that to my car...and looking at yours (as we have the same color and stripes) i know now what it will look like finished. awesome thanks and nice job!!

 

chris...you said you powdercoated the wheels. they look fantastic! you do it yourself? what product?

 

I think you should definatly do the beltline. Detroit Tuned sells a kit too.

http://www.detroittuned.com/shop/?productID=195

 

Thanks very much mate!

The rings and chromework were taken off the car and sprayed by a spray shop, the front grille was simply a replacement part bought from mini - simply had to switch the old grille and trims for the new JCW one - you can do this by simply opening the bonnet and uncliping/unscrewing the parts!

In terms of the lower grille and fogs, the bumper had to come off, they were then sprayed by a spray shop alongside all of the other chrome/door handles!

The wheels were taken off and powdercoated by the same shop that did the spray work, it cost £45 per wheel which was pretty good value!

If you need any advice when you're doing yours, feel free to drop me a message - I check this weekly so will get back to you asap! It's worth doing, makes a huge change to the car!

 

We need to figure out something that is UK only and US only and trade!

 

I found this the other day while searching for stuff. All UK parts that you can dream of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.minigenuineparts.co.uk I know I'm going to order a lot from them!

 

hey Chris..thanks for the info. i will do what you did to my MC too, as my car is the same as your, but just the cabrio version. but i will probably do it myself with Plasti Dip. I've been reading the many threads and that seems the way to go if i want to DIY. i don't want to pay a shop to do the work, so i will do it with PlastiDip. but i don't know about taking off my bumper to get to the lower grill and fogs. So i will have to figure something out. As for the wheels, i will also Plasti Dip them as some others have done that and it is working for them still. I'll post pics after i do it. but i have to wait for the weather to warm up here as in Switzerland it is still -7 degrees now! thanks again for sharing your pics and mods as i really know what mine will look like when it is done.

 

Newministuff stock alot of good things, and often have good deals

http://www.newministuff.com/new/index.php

Worth a look there too!