HI NAM!

I am driving a 2004 MC40 (for those who do not know...that is a CR/W with CF dash and black/red leather interior.

I am in a current debate. Hence why I am asking your opinion

Here is a picture of the driver side dash/steering wheel.



Should I get CF inserts to match the dash? If I go this route..will it look lame that the ring on the airbag does not match?


If i get CF wheel inserts should I get CF downtubes?


I am currently thining about doing leather downtubes insted of the wheel inserts....but I would leave my CF dash....



Think leather downtubes would look ok with CF dash?


JW others opinions.

 

mmm leather downtubes with red stiching would go good with my black/red seats....

yes and I am talking to myself

 

ditto...and its funny someone on mini2 is going through the same issue.

I love the cf look but worry they will scratch and chip easily due to passengers legs and mine.

 

that is funny...I think i am going to try to grab some black/red stiching downtubes....

who else has an opinion?

anyone?

anyone?

 

?

 

More CF good, more CF good - not more CF bad

But seriously, I think with the CF dash in front of you, CFing a few other pieces would look great. Definitely CF the tubes - personally, I don't get leather tubes. Just my opinion, though.

 

thanks for the help

 

Just leave it alone. Save the money ... buy your GF a ring

No seriously, I would not touch a thing.

 

Shouldn't that really say "I did not touch a thing?"

 

No, I mean even if I still had one, I would not touch a thing. I was looking at the JCW steering wheel and am know glad I didn't spend the money It would have been worth ... well nothing

 

dont listen to chows... he's still after this resale value deamon that some of us gave up on chasing after...

If you are going for looks... go for cf tubes and cf, cup holder rings, cf shift boot ring, and cf e brake bits...

If you are going for economical all the time save your money type thing... do nothing and find a new hobby like chows suggests.

 

Well ... he was wondering if his GF was the "one" so I'm sure the money could go to a more worthwhile, lifetime ... thing

 

so I read this and wanted to throw in my 2cents worth
I dumped alot of money into my mini when I got it new 3 years ago and ran out of money before I got all I wanted done but I have made a few small changes over the past few years.
Im not as enthusiastic about modding my car as I was in the begining but I still love it after 105,000 miles.
it is my daily driver and I work construction and do alot of road trips so it gets pretty dirty and take alot of abuse.
I wanted to share the pictures of my interior with you to give you an idea of what leather downtubes might look like
unfortanatly every "leather/vinyl" surface in a mini seems to have a slightly different appearance and it is hard to match them. also the bright flash from these pictures give the appearance of more contrast in color than you actualy see in the car with the human eye.
The Carbon Fiber dash was something I wanted on my car and searched high and low for on as I waited 6 months for my car to arrive. a year later when the WOrks dash finaly came out I wasnt willing to spend $1500.00 on it (as beautiful as it was)
a short time ago I found a Works Carbon Fiber Dash on ebay which I picked up for $450.00 and realised once it was in that the silver trim was all wrong. so I had the following pieces painted:
Speedo Trim, Tach trim, dash vent trim, all 4 speaker surounds and grills, cup holder trim and shift boot trim. I went with a High Gloss black which reflects deaply like the carbon fiber dash. you can literaly see yourself in it. I wanted everything in the line of the dash to be similar. then I removed my downtubes and took them to a local upholstry shop that wrapped them in leather for me. again I chose this option to keep the line at the knees a similar style.
*NOTE* I had them add padding to the downtubes before they wrapped them. alot of people have brought this up in forums before so I figured why not. it looks softer than the factory tubes in leather and it feels nice as well. the only downside to this option is you dont get the stitching but I saved several hundred dollars.

as I said, in the car it all looks quite a bit better than these high contrast flash pictures.

and back to the questions you posed... I would go with the carbon fiber steering wheel pieces I think they look great. as for the downtubes. I think the leather looks better but if you go for the downtubes you should get the cupholders and shifter ring as well.

this reply was much more long winded than I expected it to be
now on to the pictures:




Before


After

 

leather downtubes are awesome...CF downtubes are overkill imo. CF steering wheel is cool though.

CF and leather look sweet together, to answer your question.

 

Go for the leather downtubes! very slick! The CF is too much there.

The CF wheel inserts are OK, but you are right... the trim ring in the middle looks way out of place if you don't take it CF as well.

 

people keep talking about the contrast of the carbon fiber and the silver finish but if you look around the car in general this contrast exists already
even on the MC40 edition where the factory used the darker colored [anthracite?] trim pieces they didnt go all the way and change the tach, handbrake, or the steering wheel.
the faces of the guages will always be silver no matter what color you changes the trim to. even with the chrom trim package.
the turn signal and wiper stalk will always be silver.
you just cant seem to get away from it with this car.
you have to make the changes that you like. get the car to a point where it makes you confortable.
no matter how far you go or where you stop you are the one who has to sit in it and stare at it so look around see what other people are doing and in the end do what you want.

post pictures as you make changes
I know lots of people love this topic.

 

Does that mean all of you guys are going to be trying to get those downtubes with red stitching on eBay right now?

 

I have the CF dash, downtubes, cupholder trim rings, and shifter trim ring, and thats' just the interior CF. I love all of it and wouldn't change a thing.

Scott

 

i like the carbon fiber