Finally had a warm, sunny day to work outdoors (the lawn is next ) The stripes are on and I think I did pretty good job but the stripes themselves are not exactly to my liking.

I got them from Moss Motors of the UK (http://www.mossmotors.com) and while they are definitely for the MINI, they could have been a bit more precise in their sizing. The top edge doesn't match the curve of the top edge of the bonnet so I decided to overlap it a little and bend the stripe around the edge. This left about 1/16" gap between the end of the stripe and the top of the grille. The effect is somewhat accentuated buy the radiused edges of the stripes. I'm going to look into getting some similar material and "patch" the area. Or not -- depends on how crazy the discrepancy makes me.

As for the actual application: Not exactly a breeze but much easier than I'd been led to believe. It took about an hour and a half all-told. The hardest part is once you've applied the stripe (with liberal application of soap solution) and squeegeed it down, you then have to remove the protective backing from the top of the stripe. This tends to pull the stripe off the car so you must move v-e-r-y sl-o-o-o-ly and push the stripe back down with the edge of a credit card (or your Blockbusters card, as I did ). The result has very few tiny air bubbles which you can pop with a pin and push out with the card or your finger.

 

Let me ask you this: If you had it to do over again, would you have gotten the stripes from the dealer instead of doing it yourself? Is it worth the 1.5 hrs.?

 

Looks pretty good from the angle of the photo.

 

The final result looks pretty nice!

 

the stripes are kinda weird looking... maybe you should just go to a sign shop and have them fit them to your car. thats what i did.. they go to each edge.. i love it!

 

Thanks! The lack of utter perfection will probably bug me for a day or two but I'll forget about it after that.

As for getting the dealer-applied stripes vs. doing myself? If I'd thought it at the time I ordered the car, I'd absolutely have popped the $80 for them. It wasn't until after I'd seen a few Indy Blue/White MINIs with stripes that the idea took hold. But truly -- I've always been a do-it-yourself kinda guy (and the son of one -- the apple didn't fall far from the tree in my case) so I actually enjoyed the exercise of patience and concentration that a task like this requires.

 

I think they look good.

If you check out Dealer installed stripes, there are lots of variations in terms of placement from car to car, and usually much larger gaps at the top and bottom than yours.

 

I took mine to a sign shop that is a sponsor of my car and he did them dry in about 15 mins. That comes from years of experience. I saw some bubbles, but he said when the bonnet heats up the vinyl will suck down to the paint. I didn't believe him but they did. Be patient as the last one didn't disapear for about two weeks. Buy the stripes from Classic in Mentor, and take them to a good sign shop for application.
Warning shameless plug ahead:
I reccomend Any And All Graphics in Va Beach, Va.

 

Here's a shot from "Steve Frezelli's eye view":



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Frau Blüecar -- MC IB/W. Motoring since 3-10-2003

 

I think they look great! :smile: Nice job....