I love the side stripes made by Aesthetic Creations, but lacked the full expertise of installing them. Dealers charge a bundle, and body shops are not much better.

So back in January, I won an ebay bid I never expected to win for a complete HAMANN MINI Cooper Body Decal kit which included door kick plate decals, bonnet, boot and sides. My winning bid was $53.00 bucks and was shipped frm Great Britian for about 10 dollars.....

I cleaned the MINI's paint surface with Dawn Dish washing liquid to remove all wax buildup and then clayed the surface. I feel the clay is a very important step in the process of prepping the paint surface, especially if your MINI is as old as mine is.

I used a mixture of a minute amount of Dawn and water in a spray bottle and a hard plastic squeegee with a chamois lip. And used a small plastic ruler to make sure the decal letters were level with the bottom of door jam.

After pressing the water out from the decal using this wet application method, I let the decal cure to the paint for about 20 minutes, then sprayed the backing with the same mixture of water and soap, then carefully pulling the backing away from the cars surface, removing any bubbles by carefully rubbing my thumb across them while peeling it back. Used a razor blade at the door openings making the cuts in the middle of the openings so there is enough decal to make it curl around both side edges. Using a hair dryer at this step helps to make the edge ahere and curl around the door lip ect. Just a LITTLE heat goes a long way.

Applying the side decals took only 2.5 hrs, and I had no helpers. Got my feet wet doing the bonnet and boot.

So if you have been a bit sheepish of doing this yourself, all I can say: It's a lot easier than you think. Give it a try.

 

Are you planning on putting any other Hamann parts on your car?

 

HAMANN makes awesome stuff, but is very expensive. Nah, just I did this to get my feet wet before spending some 200 bucks for a nice kit from AC.....It's a really long trip to Mike's from Massachusetts.

 

Looks good. Glad to here it wasn't to difficult.

 

Nice job !

I really like those bonnet stripes ! I'm digging the side-stripes, too. Not sure yet on the boot decals. Different, for sure.

Way to You-ify your MINI.

 

great first effort!

 

Thanks, I am with you on the boot stripes too. I may just end up getting some plain black Viper stripes for the boot and see how that looks. The mix match pattern seems a bit to busy.

Thanks Rick, Weather here finally cooperated in a joint effort. Been sitting on this project for while now.

 

What a gorgeous MCS. I am in awe. Congrats!

 

Hey Alec, that looks awesome dude. Are you going to paint the rest of the black vinyl body color?

 

You did a very nice job.
You've got a great lookin' MINI.

 

i like it! looks nice