Check out our MINI's new roof graphic. We bought the graphic off of Ebay from nctintman. The seller's price can't be beat and he was very helpful along the way. If you decide you want to get a graphic from him, just send him a message through ebay and he'll get back with you. Basically, he sent me a 52" x 73" (ish) rectangle vinyl graphic.

I haven't trimmed all the excess yet, but you can get a good idea of the finished product by looking at the pics.

Here's the basic method I used:

WAY better to have a helper with this project.

I did not use the "hinge" method and did use the "wet install" method.

Before you do anything, make sure the roof surface is CLEAN (I used my regular cleaner and my NON-ammonia window cleaner to get all the wax off, but I know a lot of ppl use isopropyl alcohol). Also, make yourself a bottle of "solution", which is a spray bottle filled with distilled water and just three drops of dish soap. You'll also need a squeegee or a squeegee-simulate (=credit card). You'll also need a heat gun or heat gun-simulate (=your hair dryer). Oh, you'll also need an extremely sharp blade (like an xacto knife) to trim the vinyl.

1) Unscrew your antenna
2) Lay the graphic down on the roof to check the dry fit.
3) After removing the graphic, wet the roof of the car with your solution.
4) Unpeel the backing of the graphic, and wet the sticky side with the solution. (See, I told you at least two people are needed).
5) Lay the graphic on the roof and get it placed how you want it (it can slide a bit when wet).
6) "Lock down" the graphic by applying firm sweeping motions with your squeegee, starting in the middle and working your way out.
7) When you get toward the outside, this is when you really need two people again...we did it with one person manning the credit card and hair dryer with the other person using two hands to lift and lay down the graphic as needed. The heat sort of shrinks the graphic into place...use it in conjunction with your squeegee to get all the liquid out. If you look closely, you can seen the vinyl sort of shrink a bit when it gets heated--as soon as that happens you smooth it out with your squeegee.
8) For the antenna mount: When I got to the antenna, I just tried to cut out an oval shape a little bit smaller than the mount; I'll trim the excess later.
9) After the whole roof is covered, our R56s have a nice channel for trimming the excess vinyl. Just be careful with your blade not to touch your paint or cut into the rubber...that's why a sharp knife is imperative--it'll cut without you using very much force.


If you're curious, the plaid design was created with an online application called "tartan generator".http://www.tartanmaker.com/. I saved the tartan, tiled it using Adobe's inDesign, saved it as a .pdf, then emailed it to nctintman. The good thing with this was that there was zero pixelation.

If this write up scares you....good. It was a lot of work. It took 5 hours. However, if I had the benefit of this write up, it would've been done in much less. Heat and squeegee. Heat and squeegee.

 

Sweet. (I'd pay somebody to do it for me, but good for you for taking on the daunting task yourself!)

 

Good Job, It looks Awesome

 

Thanks! We like it because it's unique but still a classic look. There are some things that would look bizarro on other cars but somehow just work on the MINI.

 

F yes. that is awesome