Aloha,

Am in the process of adding a Chili Red '06 Cooper S to the family stable. Car is low mileage (18.5k), 6 spd., and in great shape. Will pick it up Monday.

Local dealer ran the VIN and says both service and drivetrain warranty on this one are good until October 2010, which makes it 48 mos for both. My "05 Cooper warranties ran 3/36k for service and 4/50k for drivetrain, sooo.... inquiring mind wants to know if Mini offered a longer service warranty for the later models or can the original buyer purchase an extra year?

Car comes w/roof racks (pray for surf!), a carbon-fiber roof spoiler (this style I haven't see before), and 18" JCW rims. Otherwise, it's a baseline "S," but the price is definitely right.

Dealer put on some side graphics and I would like to remove them. Changing over the spoiler might also be in the works later.

Would a hair dryer and gentle pulling work to remove the tape? What are your recommendations to remove the sticky residue?

Thanks in advance for your input on the warranty and graphics.

Mike G.

 

A service agreement extension to 4/50k was available from MINI - sounds like your car has it.

Did the dealer just put on the graphics recently (as in when the car arrived on their 'used' lot"? If so, the graphics should come of very easily. Even if they were put on when the car was sold new, it hasn't been long enough to make the removal a pain. Just warm the panel with a hair dryer, get a corner of the graphic to lift, and go from there. Any residue should come off pretty easily with "Goo Gone" or similar adhesive remover. Just don't scratch at the adhesive with your fingernail (your nails *will* scratch the car's clearcoat), and remember to wax the car afterward.

 

There is also something called an "eraser" you can buy from auto paint supply stores. You can put it in a drill and rub off the stickers, or just the glue. If the stickers come off easy enough you can just use that on the glue.

 

PLEASE dont use go gone or sticker remover !!!

Use a hair dryer and NO tools ...
Not a scraper
Not a credit card

if residue is left use WD40 on a micofiber cloth

That wont scratch or take the "moisture" out of the paint

Good ol regular car wash soap and a schamois to get off the WD

then maybe some loveing wax.

 

Guys,

Thanks so much for the quick responses and advice!

Can't wait to get my hands on the little guy and start the "tweaking" process.

Mahalo,

Mike G.

 

Dibs on the spoiler

 

Hey Big Kahuna!

Congrats on your MINI !

Love the CP Red, but there were slim pickens with regards to colors of MINIs in my area...

No worries with these stripes.

Let vehicle sides warm up outdoors in sunlight and apply heat from hair dryer.

Any sticky residue ( doubt there will be much if any ) can be removed with carnuba wax on a face cloth, but you must wipe in criss cross directions on the panel....works great even on old 3M adheasive, and won't damage paint either.

I removed OEM bonnet stripes from my hood which were 5 years old this way and took only 1 minute to do.

I agree about goo gone or goof off. If you have to use such substance make sure to soap area immediately after and put some wax on it.

Aloha

 

Yup, use a hair dryer or better, a heat gun or trigger-start blow torch (like plumbers use) to gently heat the vinyl graphics and work a fingernail under a corner and start pulling. You can get plastic razorblades at home depot that will help lift stubborn corners.

To remove the adhesive left behind, a good citrus-based adhesive remover will work well. Goo Gone sucks, avoid it, Goof Off is actually a latex paint remover, not an adhesive remover, it will damage your paint. Go to an auto-paint store and try to find a more professional-grade solution. 3M makes an excellent one. Mask off any of the black plastic trim that might come in contact with the solution, it can turn it white or stain it. Its easiest o put the remover in a spray bottle, spray the area, let it sit for 30 seconds or so, and then come back with the plastic razor blades to scrape up the residue. Use paper towels to do a final clean-up, the hose the whole area off well with water (water neutralizes the adhesive remover).

Go slow, be careful with the heat, don't leave the remover on overly long and everything will go just fine. And do not under any circumstances use one of the rubber wheels you can chuck in a drill. They are meant to erase very thin vinyl pinstripes, not large areas of vinyl. It WILL burn your paint if you try to use it on too large an area. There is a tool called the Vinyl Zapper that is more like an angle grinder turned sideways with a wider soft rubber eraser wheel with teeth that works wonders to safely and quickly remove vinyl, but it' several hundred dollars and isn't justifiable on a project like this, plus they're not easy to find outside of sign and vehicle graphics mateirals vendors.