Here are some shots of the front of my 06.

The color is supposed to be Astro Metallic Black.

The hood scoop IS black. The hood appears to be lighter than the scoop and maybe even a little blue. Your thoughts?

 

My thoughts are its a replacement scoop, and they didn't hit the Astro metallic colour. Could it be the piano black of the roof?

 

the black on your car could also be faded some whereas the scoop is fresh?

 

Jamez - I never thought of that. Maybe it is a replacement scoop.

Salt - you are correct, the whole car seems to have this 'blueish' thing. The scoop looks more like a straight gloss black. I tried to capture the difference in the images. The car matches the hood. The hood has a different tone from the scoop. The scoop just looks 'more' black.

 

pictures will have a harder time, if you can get a lot of light, or a cloudy day, may show up better. if the hood matches the car, there could have been a replacement scoop

 

It's probably a replacement scoop. The scoops have been known to fly off while driving, or maybe it had a chrome scoop at one time and the previous swapped it out.

Astro Metallic Black has some blue flake in it, where Jet Black is non-metallic. From what I've seen, Jet Black is one of the rarer colors. I've only seen one in person, and not a lot online.

 

Maybe it's the blue flakes I'm seeing. The scoop is more of a straight black. Is there supposed to be a grille in the scoop?

 

No grill in the R53 scoops, and a solid "grille" on the R56. Aftermarket grilles are available for the R53 if you want to add one.

 

The WMW one looks pretty mean and matches your aero grill.

 

Way's site doesn't show it for the R53 for some reason, so here's a link in case you were wondering if they made them for Gen 1's.

http://www.minifini.com/details.php?...ary=&keywords=

 

Right you are - that was the wrong gen. For some reason they have all the R53 grills except one for the scoop.

 

Probably because the R53 didn't have one - according to the posts.

 

True, though I meant custom as neither did the R56 (it was solid, not open). I guess it's just a choice of custom manufacturing. I wonder how it affects airflow to the IC.

 

Good question.

 

This is the manufacturers link for the black R53 version of the R56 screen from WMW. They also make a polished version. WMW just doesn't list any R53 version for some reason.

 

With the way you described it, it sounds like it was/is a piano black of the roof. Astro would be a hard colour for an average joe to get his hands on. Also, there's a chance they just asked for "black" and didn't give any codes to the painter.

How about throwing some gloss/matte black stripes on and wrapping the scoop too?

 

After double checking today, the roof is the same color as the rest of the car - metal flakes in it too. The scoop is the only thing that is straight black.

 

MINI offers several "shades" of black. We have a midnite black Jcw that when it is parked next to an absolute black ours will appear to have a blue glow as apposed to the green glow of the AB.

ISAMIN

 

Interesting.

 

In '06 there were only two blacks to choose from for the body, Astro Black Metallic and Jet Black. In person it should be obvious as one is metallic and one is not. Jet black should also be the roof color if not ordered with an Aspen White or body colored roof.

 

It has a body colored roof .. the whole car (aside from scoop) is all the same color - according to the color plate - Astro Black Metallic.

 

Your mirrors are probably Astro Black Metallic, too. Apparently Jet Black roofs were not available when choosing Astro Black.

Have you used an online VIN decoder to see all of the options your MINI was built with?

 

Color Astro Black Metallic - A25
3AB Body Coloured Mirror Caps
381 Roof In Body Colour

You know .. I'll get than hang of all this at some point. It'll just click .. watch. I'm still a 'newbie' to the Mini world.

 

Find any good surprises like a factory limited slip differential?

 

How would one identify that? Using my magic decoder ring, says it has a 'MECH' transmission and DSC (Dynamic Stability Control).