I ordered the alloy patina interior which has the silver door pulls and i was wondering how they are holding up long term. I remember someone posting about covering theirs with bicycle handlebar wrap, and someone else made custom leather covers. I also wondered if the 3M clear material might work too? Can anyone post their long term experience? And if you've done anything to cover up damage or just to prevent any before it happens, let us know. Pics would be cool too. :smile:

 

So nobody has any issues with the door handles? Cool. :smile:

 

9K+ miles
alloy patina interior trim

my door pulls are chrome, as i think all minis are...

i have no issues to report

 

The door pulls are fine. It's every other surface on the interior that gets scratched up too easily.

 

d2mini-- I think you are refering to the door "grab handles" (silver plastic) and not the pulls (chrome) that open the door. Am I right?

The grab handles loose paint easily. At 34k miles both of mine are showing wear. Not a big deal, they just don't look new.

I have not covered mine, but might in the future.

God speed.

 

i may be one of few
who has not had scratching issues either...

yet

 

Yes CooperBeagle, you are correct. I am speaking of the INTERIOR door grab handles/pulls. :smile:

_________________
-dennis
ON ORDER: 2004 C/W MINI COOPER S
- EN ROUTE

 

>>Yes CooperBeagle, you are correct. I am speaking of the INTERIOR door grab handles/pulls. :smile:
>>

If these are what you are inquiring about.....?....mine are in... HORRIBLE..... shape.
My MCS is 1 & 1/2 years old and these pieces are just an embarrassment .
I've made covers for em... becuase they look that bad!!!!
To repaint em is a process..... by my standards.
The covers I made work well enough.. and I can replace em quite easily...if need be :smile:
Peace,
D

 

What type of covers D? Leather, vinyl? I'll be ordering the alloy patina as well but won't be able to stand scratched up interior panels.

AlexR

 

Are they easy to remove? Might be nice to paint them to match the exterior. I know that the body paint will hold up very well, i've done it before.

 

My passenger side grab handle assembly was replaced under Warranty! Everybody who has this problem needs to instruct their dealer to order and replace the grab handles. Precedent already exists for warranty replacement. Hope this is helpful info.

 

My driver's side interior door handle is pristine. The passenger's side handle is all scratched up. Am I a bad driver????

 

>>Are they easy to remove? Might be nice to paint them to match the exterior. I know that the body paint will hold up very well, i've done it before.

A few folks on NAM have done this (e.g., check out posts by laclede) but it is apparently very difficult. Reportedly, the Y-shaped door pull parts are fastened to the door panel by a kind of melted rivet, and lots of them - like maybe 50!. You can see them from the back side of the door panel once it is removed (and I think the door panel is not all that hard to remove). The folks that have done this removed all of the melted rivets using rotary tools (dremels) and then when the paint job was done, re-fastened the Y-tubes to the door panel using either hot melt glue or epoxy. In summary, this job is not for the faint of heart, but the result sure would look cool IMO.

 

Our '02 Cooper CVT has the bright silver interior trim. The silver door pulls and dash legs (Which are the exact same in the Alloy Patina Trim) started to scratch and peel off rather easily. We treat the car with silk gloves and still managed to damage these trim bits.

As per my local MINI regional rep, the bright silver and alloy patina trims are of VERY POOR quality and you can expect to experience peeled paint on the non-lacquered or non-mattered (Alloy Patina) surfaces. Notice that the lacquered trim bits in the dashboard and the interior door panel surround does not peel because it has a nice coat of lacquer. It is beyond my understanding why BMW and MAGNA AUTO INTERIORS, the manufacturers of thes eplastic trim pieces, did not put a nice coat of lacquer on the pieces that are subjected to the most use and wear, such as the door panel door pulls and the dashboard center console legs.


To make a long story short, My dealer and my local MINI regional rep agreed to repair and repaint the door pulls and the dashboard center legs by a third party vendor under warranty. The regional rep REFUSED to replace the door panels and center dash legs with brand new factory parts because according to him, these were STILL DEFECTIVE and I would experience the same problem again months down the road.

The third party auto interior company contracted to do the work did a fantastic job replicating the white silver paint finish and although these bits are still non-lacquered, the paint finish is much, much, much stronger and better in comparison to the original OEM factory paint.

I will post some pictures on the weekend.


This problem is a VALID WARRANTY CLAIM. DON'T ALLOW YOUR DEALER TO BULLY YOU INTO NOT COVERING THE COST OF REPLACING/REPAIRING PEELING DOOR PULLS AND CENTER DASH LEGS!!!!!


I have since learned my lesson and for our second MINI, a new '04 MCS, I ordered it with the Anthractite interior trim which is much more high quality and less scratch/peel prone than the Silver and Alloy Patina trims.....it also looks much better too.


So for any prospect MINI buyers out there....Anthractite should be your only interior trim choice for extended durability and good looks.

 

After realizing how fragile the paint was on the door pulls and the center console uprights, I pulled everything out of the car that wasn't clear coated (door pulls, door handle surround, dash uprights, cup holder surrounds, etc.) and sprayed them with a two-part automotive clear coat. They now look just like the dash, which is clear coated, and are even more durable.

I can't understand why BMW doesn't do this already. I heard it was a misunderstanding with the supplier and was going to cost too much to fix, but it's got to generate more ill-will than it would cost to fix.

RT

 

rattletrap, how did you get the door pulls off???

 

I didn't take them off. After removing the door panels and seeing all those plastic welds, I took a few minutes and masked the entire door except for the pulls. It doesn't seem like the most sound method, but the results were excellent. You can't tell the clearcoating on the parts I sprayed from the OEM clearcoated parts.

Aside/Bonus Tip: While you've got the door panel off, put felt grommets under all the push-fasteners (Christmas trees) and you'll kill most of the door rattles too.

RT

 

Hi,

Can folks with the anthracite trim let me know if they have the same issues?

Many thanks!
Jenny

 

JennyS, I have the anthracite trim on my 04 mcs with no problems. Must say though that rather than using the painted portion of the door pull, I usually grab the padded portion of the door to close.

 

I have the Anthracite in my'04 MCS and no issues at all with it either. By touch, I can tell the Anthracite is much more higher quality than the high Silver gloss trim.

 

Our '02 MC plastic started to peel within a few days of purchase. The door panels and uprights on the dash have been replaced twice under warranty. There was a wait for the driver side door the second time, and it is holding up better than the passenger door. The anthracite on our '03 seems to be better, except that the top of the door bin is loosing some paint. At least that is not as visible as the door pulls.