How hard is it to remove the Crome headlight rings inorder to paint them to match the body?

 

id like to know as well.

i know the rings are platic, ive heard its better off getting them vinyl'd

 

I suggest getting them vinyled on. Avoid having to remove the rings completely, and easier and cheaper to do. I've had mine on for a couple of months now, and they are showing no signs of peeling or anything.

 

get the headlight off first...

pry the 3 small tabs away at the bottom left, bottom, and bottom right of the ring. be careful not to break the tabs. there is double stick tape around and in the area of the 3 smaller clips that makes it a little difficult to get them off. once you have those 3 free, you can pretty much slide it up and off.

i found that it helps to put a hair dryer to the double stick tape to soften it up.

vinyl is great for white and black but color matching is an issue when it comes to other colors... although lyle at vinylstyles just added chile red, brg, ds, and LY... i havent seen them in person so i dont know how well they match but he's done many, many MINI's on this board.

 

love the grille!
whered u get it?

 

the grille? came with the car when i got it, but i think that came with the aero kit.

 

I just pulled mine off to paint. Start at the front, apply even pressure all around to lift the doublestick tape. Carefully pop up the rear as the tabs sit over the lense of the headlight. Also...if you have xenons...be sure to remove the covers first. Push them open from inside the hood and you'll see two release tabs.

Painting them is easy....just rough up with some emery cloth or 150 grit sanding block (don't remove the chrome! just scuff them up). Spray with a proper plastic adhesion promoter or use a self-etching primer like I did (Duplicolor makes one in olive drab....dries superquick). For a smoother finish, wetsand the primer with 800 grit and dry, then spray a few coats of whatver color you want. To reinstall, put some new trim tape down...I used 3M's VHB.

All told, this took me about two hours total for both sides including removal, prep, painting and reinstallation. I did mine in VHT's plastic paint...satin black. I also did the doorhandles (off the car)....came out better than expected!.

 

did u paint ur gas tank and door handles as well?

 

yes and sidemarkers, hoodscoop and boot handle as well, though I did those awhile back with a different brand. I'm going to remove them and respray with the same VHT for a uniform sheen of satin black.

 

hm i was thinkin about taking the painting route instead of vinyl. but it's very hard to find a paint that matches with pw. anyone with a pw that painted theirs pw?