I am going to replace my Cooper side skirts with MCS skirts, and I want to paint them CR. Can anyone that has done this, tell me the exact details? What steps? Sand or fill? I plan on letting a body shop do the painting , but I am inclinded to do the prep.

 

why not let them do all the work, that way, they won't tell you later on that its the prep that caused the problems.

 

i didn't know there was a difference between MC and MCS stock side pieces...

i would first clean off with alcohol, then use 2 coats of adhesion promoter,
then 4-5 coats of flex primer. sand gently with 400 grit to a smooth finish.
then 2 coats of base coat, let dry at least one hour...then 3 coats of clear.
let dry 2-3 days, then compound with 2000+grit, polish with 3000grit or
higher. done! no wax for couple of weeks.

i did several body pieces in the past and they turned out real nice.

 

kenchan's process sounds pretty complete, but I'd add a sanding step right after the initial cleaning to knock down the majority of the texture.

The MC skirts are pretty plain. The MCS skirts have a more muscular line to them.

 

Thank Kenchan, that is the steps I need to know. I don't mind doing the initial sanding, but when it come to the painting and high grit sanding, I'll leave that to a body shop.

But from what I understand, are you saying that the flex primer is a filler and does not require sanding to smooth this before?

 

talk to the body shop first.

My uncle and cousin sanded down his body kit to get most of the prep done.

problem is, when the body shop got it, it was about 90% perfect, which made it REALLy hard for them to figure out the high/low spots in order to make it perfect.

He spent nearly as much time trying to perfect the body work then they would have spent doing it all themselves

 

if you sand it prior to the adhesion promotor, that'll probably save you
more time when it's time to sand the primer. so why don't you
try sanding the texture down, then wipe with alcohol, then adhesion
promotor, then flex primer, etc.

 

Anyone know if there might be any issues (along the border of painted to unpainted) to paint the skirt, but leave the edge black areas unpainted (that blend back into arches)?? I'm not fond of the glossy black arches. Or should it just be repainted with the textured black paint?

Just wondering if it would be weird to paint part of the skirt and leave the black areas unpainted or not.

 

Octane,

Are you wanting to paint the stock side skirts or get the aero kit?

The Aerokit REQUIRES 2-tone painting, if you follow the MINI instructions... just as you suggest. There is a lower and end area of flat black and bodycolor paint is added to the top, cetral area.

If you are talking about painting your stock side sill, I think you CAN leave an area black, but you won't be happy with it. There is a fair amount of texture on the factory plastic bits and you won't get a finish that your detailed eye would approve of without a fair amount of sanding... it just comes out with too much orange-peel look to it unless you sand extensively. I don't know of any way to sand only a masked-off area of one piece reliably (no bleed or scratching of the other surface) , so I think you will want to sand the whole thing and paint it w/ matt black.

I think MINI has a paintcode for a correct matt black. Check w/ your local dealership's body shop to find out what they use on the bottom side of the aerokits.

 

Sorry, this was for the stock MCS skirts. I was interested in doing this
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ted+mcs+skirts

but without the glossy black, since I didn't want to paint my arches too--not a big fan of it--atleast not yet. LOL.



I agree with your assessment. That's what I was thinking too. Thanks for the info.

Richard

 

PS: I said that the aerokit "REQUIRES" 2-tone painting, but this is only if you want to follow the MINI directions and do it the way the dealerships paint the aero sills. I painted my arches, so I wanted everything in one color. It looks great that way.

 

Octane:

Take a careful look at the side skirts on an MCS vs a MC. Many people like the slightly beefier look to the MCS skirts. They fit perfectly on a MC. You might be able to find a set of MCS skirts cheap (<$100) from someone who upgraded to the aero kit and get that slightly more agressive stance to your MC. This would also give you plenty of time to work on the extra sills, leaving your car intact until you can get the work done. The swap should only take an hour or two for a modestly experienced wrench. Be sure to buy all new clips ahead of time if you get a used set of MCS sills... re-used clips don't hold as snugly and you almost have to break 4 or 5 to get the side sills off of your car (on a MCS, at least).

 

Heh heh, I guess you haven't seen my MINI in awhile. I did the MCS skirts swap last year.





I also just picked up an extra set of MCS skirts a couple weekends ago for my painting experiment.

 

Then I'm preachin' to the choir! I was looking at an old photo.

Be sure to post pics when you finish the upgrade!

 

Thanks!
Will do.

Richard