Before my MINI arrived, I posted a photoshop of what I wanted to do and dickdavid made a comment that it looked very "Stormtrooper." That lead to the name "Jango" (the 'father' of all Stormtroopers) and I knew that I had to do this mod...

Before:



After (sorry for the color... it was just turning dark (EDIT - I replaced my crapy color pics /w the adjusted pics from DiD... Thanks! -End EDIT):








I purchased the new front grill (from GrillCraft... the same one as the M7 ultimate grill), the grill badge (of course), a new set of arches and the Aero kit side sills (from www.OutMotoring.com, who mis-shipped an item, but more than made it up with excellent service and a great customer-centric attitude that won them a customer for life).

I had the paintwork done at Stuarts, in Dallas... top notch work!
I just spent the past 8 glorious hours in the garage making the swap.

 

Very Nice!!!

 

Looks great - I had my '06 PW/B Cooper's wheel arches, front & rear valence (basically all the black pebbly bits) sanded, clearcoated, painted at So. Bay Mini before I took delivery. Love it. Embarrassed to say I don't have a digital camera, but I'll have my buddy shoot some pix and post later.

 

Looks awesome. I'd love to do it with my CR MCS. How long did the install take?

 

Looking good

 

looks awesome, i am seriously thinking of painting my wheel arches as well.

 

OOOOOO hes perfect!

 

I did a quick photo edit on these to correct the color a bit.

 

i love it more now

 

Thats a shame that you didnt have the reflectors painted body color too, it throws off the painted arches completely.

Ihter than that, i like.

 

I thought about going w/ clears for the reflectors... or maybe smoke, but it wouldn't pass inspection here in Texas where we need red and orange reflectors on the sides (if the grease monkeys doing the inspection were paying attention).

If my wife didn't drive the car, I might think about it, but I don't want the police pulling her over and hassling her over a technicality (like reflectors or front plates). Such is the price for love...

 

The painting took 2 weeks (done by one of the best paintshops in Dallas). I checked w/ at least a dozen paintshops and only 2 would even try to do the work... most wouldn't touch the textured plastic. The other one that agreed to do the work wouldn't warranty the work, so I went with my only option and solaced myself w/ the fact that it would be done right.

The install of the arches, the aero side sills and the new front grill took 8 hours yesterday. I'm a desk jockey during the week and my hands are still aching, but the effect is great!

 

I saw the dealer doing that on one of their cars. They added translucent flames and painted the arches and side sills on an orange convert. They called it the poor man's aero kit. Looked nice.

 

looks awesome.. very clean.
aero kit grilles next?

 

*Drool...* Beautiful.

That is just how I would do and MCS...
.......hmmmm, you're in Texas right? jkg!!!

I would do my car but I don't know if you would notice the Astro Black that much...

 

I haven't seen painted arches with AB, but I have seen it with JB and the finished result was

 

nicee...
tooooo white. :impatient

 

I thought about it, but I'm loving the lack of black plastic on the car right now and I'm a detailing fanatic, so I'd be out there with my 303 protectant and a Q-tip each week if I went for the aero grills...

I'm kinda liking the white standard grill right now.

 

You're quite mad you know

 

Wow! Gabe was on the thread! Maybe I'll make it into White Roof Radio again! Maybe they will stop hating on painted arches! Maybe hell will freeze over and they will all bow to the power of ZAINO!!!

Really... you gotta love WRR, though maybe I should start my own podcast called Pepper White Roof Radio...

 

Here's a thought... the Aero grilles... painted PW!!!

 

Eeek! That might even be worse to clean!

If it had been a reversable operation, I might have given the aero grills a shot to see how they worked out, but I didn't like the permanent nature of the mod...

 

Yeah every so often I do the pop in Fantastic job on the paint btw. It's not my thing but it looks like the work was first rate.

 

I had the work done at Stuarts in Dallas... When you pull into the lot and there are 4-5 Porsches in the front parking lot, 2 Ferraris in the showroom and a Bentley and a couple of Lambos in the shop, you have to assume that they do good work...

The paint on the arches looks just as smooth as the paint on the bonnet and every piece looks like it could have been painted at the factory. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

The install took about 6-8 hours, but I was taking my time and doing it right.

I'm amazed at how few connectors hold those side skirts (esp. the aero skirts) on there.

 

Nice job

For future reference, photos should be in JPEG (.jpg) format. GIFs are for simple art with few colors.