I'm slowly becoming possessed by a "less is more" mentality. I think I'd like the look of a pretty severely basic R50. I'm already not so huge on the bling. My BRG R50 has the black Aero grill, a look I like a lot, and I hope to conceal the double "chrome" front and rear bumper strips (so phony-looking). Can anyone point to a picture of an R50 without the black plastic trim pieces that run along the body and over the fenders? I'm concentrating on a "minimal" versus "Maximal" impact with this car (after a huge amount of pressing repairs happen).

 

Well, I have mine blacked out, if that helps:





Still need to do the little round chrome bits.

 

DH, I do like the lack of shiny stuff! However, I'm talking about what removing the black trim would do to the body lines, etc. I assume there are bolt holes in the metal along there? I've never seen a MINI with the plastic divorced from the metal (not counting the front and rear plastic bumper parts). I'm of a mind that the R50 should have ultra, ULTRA simple clean lines and no flair. I think this is stemming from my neighbor acquiring a really nice classic MK1.

 

Also, Wow! Nice looking R50. I was thinking it was an S until I noticed the tailpipe.

 

I guess your car has the exterior chrome package. Those strips are body colored by default (and no chrome rings at the fog lights).

 

Hi, RKW! Mine's a 2003, so it has those grills. You can see the dealer's photo of it when I got it in my gallery. I've removed the US front plate fix and replaced the grill, but that leaves the two chrome strips, which look wrong as the only chrome. Bigger question is, how about with no fenders?

 

The answer can be found here, more or less: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...tor-works.html

 

It's orangecrush's rebuild by Way. Check out the latest image, where the body is painted but no trim's ben put back on. To me these cars look really, really good without any plastic on them. Get rid of the welts and fill the bolt holes on the bare fenders, and you'd have something. I even like how it looks with no rear plastic bumper. Anyone else just like the aesthetic of cars in the "functioning" but not fully restored stages?

 

R50 wheel wells don't look like that under the flares. They actually look a bit closer to normal, if I recall. The first gen flares aren't flush at the seam, like the later cars.

 

Damn, I'm so jealous of you guys that have the HID headlamps on your R50s