Well I knew this was something I wanted to do as soon as I saw all the chrome that came on the car...I just wasn't sure how to get rid of it. Originally I wanted to get a Cooper S grill, and started looking into how much a black grill would cost and thought it was nuts to spend that much money. Then a friend mentioned plasti dip...and after watching many youtube videos and visiting dipyourcar.com I knew it was something I could do and was excited to get started.

Three pieces of advice...

1) prep / tape off / mask and cover up everything you don't want to get over-spray on like a champ...over-spray sucks. I watched videos and they didn't go crazy masking areas off as much as they should have. spend the extra time to do this and you will save a ton of time later in clean-up.

2) be very even with your motions when spraying...do not hover over an area. while plasti dip is very forgiving...don't press your luck and lay on too much in an area.

3) if you happen to get over-spray...goo gone gets it right off. just DO NOT use the goo gone on the windows or a/c pillars, it is a pain to get the goo gone residue off that.

ok...now...the after pics!

 

Looks awesome! Have you thought about blacking out the belt line?

 

One suggestion: easy on HDR and other post processing when referring to actual work done on the car... It is hard to see actual work after massaging the image so much...

Artistic merit aside...

 

Looks sick bro! Can't wait to get my mini. Definitely plastidipping. Cheap and effective. I think the chrome beltline gives a good separation but that's just my opinions.

 

All I can say is WOW!!!

I really like it. Did you mask everything off and do it on the car or did you remove some of the trim and grill and do it away from the car?

Very impressive.

 

i was able to remove the grill slat assembly (middle section) and the bottom grill surround and did those off the car. everything else i did on the car...and masked a lot. should have masked more.

but thanks for the compliments...i couldn't be happier!

as for the beltline /door handles / scuttles...i am going to leave them the way they are for while. i might end up doing them in the future...but kinda like the look now.

 

looks awesome!! Hope mine turns out as well!

 

Great shots! Camera?

-Jorge

Oh and car looks awesome too!

 

thanks everyone!

and it's a friend's insane SONY. he's got quite a few lenses for it...cost him a small fortune...but he loves it.

 

Great shots. After 6 years of ownership we decided to change our R53's exterior look. The permanance and expense of painting the trim was not appealing so we black-rubber-rattle-canned the chrome and wheels and it turned out far better than ever expected. Light overspray can be easily removed with a soft cloth and as we discovered Goof Off worked well on stubborn areas. After numerous trials and errors we found that Frog Tape worked the best for masking. I know many poo poo PD but for less than than $20 we totally rejuvenated our MINI. And the best part is we really like the look and when we want a change, simply peel and paint. PS- we too scoured the net for how- to tips and videos and they proved to be quite helpful.

 

yep buzzsaw...amazing how big of a difference a $16.00 modification can make. (2 cans of plasti dip)

 

I just found out about plasti dip and immediately went and bought 2 cans and plasti all the remaining chrome on my mini. It's amazing what you can do with it