Well, here I am, at the second stage of my process to transform the interior. I figured, the MINI is Electric Blue, so red would be the best choice. I've got the shift boot, so I started on the dash panels. I think it looks pretty good. In a couple of days, I'll be able to buff them to a good shine.

Sorry for the cheezy wheel cover....








(Pics deleted. They are available on the first post.)

 

ooo aaah ... don't stop there keep going to the outside as well !
But really looks good - a lot of effort I would imagine .

 

Everything looks good except for the steering wheel cover.. wink:

 

Forgive me, but our leather wrapped steering wheels are much too nice to be covered with a cheap rubber steering wheel cover, even if it is red. . . .

 

I know I know. The steering wheel cover is tacky. I know. But the driver of the car likes it.

Thats all that matters!

 

nice, but try to cough up some extra $ and get a JCW steering wheel, its apparently awesome according everyone that has one.

 

Yup, that is all that matters!

 

I've driven MINI's with them and I wouldn't buy it. Sure, for long roadtrips it would be great, but the short time I'm in my car everyday forget it. I hate the feel of the huge steering wheel...but it is comfy.

-Cody

 

What do you guys think. Should I paint the down tubes BLACK or RED?

I'm stumped...

 

black: would match the rest of the car's black (dashboards, etc) so that'd be a conservative choice.... a nice semi-gloss black will match the semi-gloss red you have going

red: very in your face, im not a fan of the Blue/Red theme you got going.... but that'd be the design student screaming inside.... that said, it's a extremely sharp contrast... purely from the interior though it'd be another piece to scream out, since you got the dash already, why stop

my 2 cents

and please for the love of god! take off that NOS steering wheel cover....

 

Thanks for the input. I'm going with black.

And for the wheel cover, I don't even drive the car. She likes it. I'm going to go take it off right now. I'll see if anyony notices.....

 

Ok guys, I've started the process of turning the downtubes BLACK. I should be done by late tonight.

 

Definitely

 

*Cough ekkk.. gag...cough*

Nope, nothing. Sorry guys.

 

Well everybody, I yanked off the steering wheel cover. I dont think she'll mind.

Here's a photoshoped pic of the new interior with BLACK downtubes. I like it, so thats what I am sticking with. (Oh I suck at photoshoping. )

BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

Trying to find the logic here!

"A" for effort but "F" for appearance, but that's only my opinion. Don't get pissy!

 

*Not getting pissy*

I can always strip it down and do it again.
Is there a different color that would look
better? This was my first try, so I'll probably
strip it down and try again when the humidity
is down.

What color do you think would look the best?

 

well... from color scales.... dependent entirely on how you want...

for flow, white, black, and matched hue of blue would all work

a stark contrast would be orange or yellow, both of which would be a strong contrast...

avoid red, pink, any very strong hues (even orange is barely bareable)

 

We must have extremley different tastes in colors. I'm not saying your wrong, just my opinion.

IMHO, yellow would be the worst color to chose. There are already so many colors that yellow would be overwhelming.

White, every tiny blemish will show. With 4 boys, not a good choice!
Black, well, we didn't want it. We wanted something bright.
Blue, I would never be able to match EB. On top of that, its metallic!

So, I stuck with red. If it was just EB with a white roof, then it wouldn't look right. It would look mis-matched. The red in the UJ roof matches almost perfectly. It all ties together. I'll snap some better pictures once the weather gets better.

My first choice was body colored. So, I would have loved EB, just not the price of having it professionally done. I might try black, as that seems to be the next color in my list. IMO, black is hard to do. Right now I am in the process of painting the downtubes black. Who knows, that might spark an idea, or just might inspire me to paint the dash black.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a good shine out of it in the next few days...

 

Well, I guess I'm gonna have to put the steering wheel cover back on. She really likes it. I guess its not the feel as much as the look.

She's all about looks.

Sorry for those who didn't like it.

 

ok, this might be a sudden idea, but just thought i pitch it to you

uj roof, UJ interior panels?

 

I guess that would look pretty cool, but I've never seen it before so I'm not to sure if it would make it took busy.

Also, I'm no artist, it would look terrible if I tried to do it myself.

 

Hmmm i dont know about red....doesnt really flow with the rest of the car

But props on doing it yourself

 

I don't think black would look good cause your car color is too bright/light. Have you considered just silver? And painting the ovals in the door panels and the downtubes to match?

 

With the black dash, I agree. The car has a bright theme with it. Black would kind of throw it off. Silver....I though about it, but we didn't want it. Origonally, it was alloy pintina. I think thats what it was called. I hated it.

Yes, I do plan on painting the door ovals. I am debating between black or red. I have painted the down tubes black to ease the pop of the red. What ever color I paint the door ovals, I will paint the trim rings the same color.

What color do you think would look the best?