I just replaced my black grill with a chrome grill and now I want a chrome boot handle. Should I just get a stick on piece? How difficult is it to actually replace the whole handle with a chrome OE handle?

 

easy job, expensive part.

3 screws and it pops off, then unclip a connector, and clip back in, replace screws, done!

 

What he said

 

^^^^4 screws?

 

Bend down and you will see 4 screws to remove the boot handle.

 

4 screws not 3

 

When you say you replaced your chrome grill, did you just do the top piece? Or did you do the bottom too? I have the top piece, but I'm not sure how you replace the bottom part of the grille with the one slat that is body colored. Is this something that is available from the dealer?

 

It is glued in place with double stick tape. Yes you can get the chrome slat from the dealer. It is not an easy task to remove the existing slat.
good luck

 

When I swapped out my lower grille for a black one, I removed the bumper (obvious screws under the bonnet, far less obvious ones inside the wheel wells). I removed the chrome trim piece similarly to doing the one on the bonnet (lots of tabs and 1-time screws) then gently pried off the slat. It's held on with double-sided tape and the chrome piece. I reused the tape, since it was still sticky and mostly stayed on the bumper. It's been on for a year now with no problems.
When I replaced the boot handle, I found the easiest way was to also remove the trim panel on the inside of the boot lid. Made it very easy to get to the connectors for the wiring. I think the boot handle swap, start to finish took about 15-20 mins. The lower front grille was about an hour, the upper grille was about 30 mins or so.

 

What about the chrome piece that is under the bumper between the fog lamps? TIA Michael

 

The piece that is chrome on the bumper that you can see in the picture in my sig? That's the piece I was talking about in the last post.

 

I actually replaced only the top grill and retained the black lower single piece/slat because of the posts I read about having to remove the bumper. Too much for this mechanically challanged MINI owner.

I've also read some posts that say that piece can be pryed off, but when I tried, it wouldn't budge, and fearing that I would damage it, I left it there.

Then I had the misfortune to hit a racoon (RIP) In the shop for radiator replacement I had them also replace the single chrome piece. For every door that closes, another opens, so they say.

I also sold the upper and lower pieces for $75.