Coupe of weeks ago i got the idea of installing the JCW sides on my 2011 S, the dealer told me they had a JCW kit sitting there for a 2008 cooper, painted red, but they would paint the sides for me, as i picked up i saw a car with the jcw kit and lots of NM parts on the showfloor and fell in love with it, decided to keep the whole kit.
I got the retrofit kit, which consist of a frame looking part to add the JCW brake ducts, these are triangular instead of being square like 2011 brake ducts, reverse lights for the bumper, wires and connectors for the rear bumper lights.

Bought a exhaust apron which comes with the hole for the exhaust in the middle, the new splitters and the brake duct retrofit kit
I installed the side skirts, piece of cake


Then we went with the front bumper, and thats where the problem started, it doesnt align well, it leaves holes and the bottom is inclined, i took it to the dealer and they say is the brake ducts that somehow interfere and doesnt let the bumper close to the bottom part of the frame

The also say they cant fit the rear bumper because i need a frame like piece, just like the front one, which didnt come with the retrofit kit, doesnt show on the retrofit checkout sheet, and doesnt show in their inventory but somehow their instructions show it needs it.
Anyone know how to fix this problem, please??
thank you so much!

 

This is the first I've heard of having to replace the steel beam part of the bumper to install the JCW body kit. My 2009 JCW came with the kit port-installed, then a year later, my friends and I added the retrofit brake duct kit. It was only a new grill, the ducts, and some cutting into the fender liners, no replacement of any metal. Something doesn't compute here.

 

The brake duct kit only comes with the brake duct and the parts to install it, its the retrofit kit for MY2011 cars that comes with the beam and supports, which seem identical to the supports that my car already had on...the beam is different, 2011 cars have square brake ducts, so the beam has a square hole, the retrofit beam comes with a triangular brake duck hole so they fit with the brake duct kit

 

So I installed the rear, piece of cake, only the Clubman needs a retrofit for the rear bumper(rear frame support) the Hardtop doesn't, installed it and moved on, the front one though, it happened that it didnt fit because the lower grill opening is deeper for Mini Cooper than the bumper for Mini Cooper S, for that reason the brake ducts have a problem with the intercooler


So i ended up buying another front bumper(for S) and getting it painted, now i just gotta install it, in the mean time i leave you all with some pics of my car with the are kit but with the 2011 front

 

Looks good, not too bad with the S front bumper.

 

Thanks for pointing out this tread!

I would love to see some photos of the front "frame" swap before installing bumper skin.

 

this is the only pic i have of the stock bumper frame, as you can see it has square holes for the 2011 brakeducts

 

Thanks!
Here is my 2008, when I was putting the JCW Aero on... I see the triangles now!





Now, what do you do with those 2 metal bars on your photo (between the frame and wheel)?

 

those are the frame support beams, those are identical to the ones already in the car, the frame support beam connects to the frame, the bumper support connects to the frame support beams