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Between squirrel feedings (theweirdness of that intro statement is not lost on me...), I managed to re-do the black trim this morning and take a few photos of the sisal material swatches that I got from cocomats this morning in the mail.
The black is much blacker than the photos on their website suggest. On the website, the black sort of almost looks like a 'heathered' black - where it's mixed in with some other colors to sort of 'soften' the color down a little. That is not the case at all. It is dark, solid black. I took some pictures with the phone in both the shade and in sunlight to give you guys some kind of idea about the colors.
More or less direct sun.
Shade.
Bear in mind that my phone has a mind of its own when it comes to white balance. Most people consider 'slate' to be a darker and cooler grey. This one is more of a medium to light grey and is either neutral or slightly on the warm side. I do like the idea of a bit of a contrast between the fairly dark interior and the mats, but I am not sure about the slate color now that I have seen it, and I know the black is too dark for me. Wish they had a charcoal-type color...
Seems you've adopted that little guy. Not enough room in an R53 for Bullwinkle but no problem for a squirrel...
Good that you ordered those swatches. Maybe sisal fiber dye lots vary in how they absorb colors but seems there should be reference color standards which their supplier conforms to. I also figured their slate would be darker than your sample. Not at all like the gallery images! I like their black & grey checkered sisal but being backordered plus $250/pair for fronts dissuades.
It is not as pale as it rendered in some of those. Unfortunately, against the dark carpet, the sensor is trying to do what it thinks is the best for the composition.
@jcolletteiii 's Car Restoration and Animal Hospital. Good job. All these years I've tried to keep squirrels out of the house. Maybe the better idea is to bring them in while they're young and teach them how to behave.
The slate mat is surprisingly light. Mats tend to be darker than the carpet, I guess because most are black. The lighter color doesn't look bad after a few minutes of adjusting to it.
Want to see the photos after your order from firtreeclipplanet.com arrives. How do you like the rear seat delete? Any regrets?
I finally stopped waffling - order in. Sold a vintage 1950's Bogen stereo tube preamp today, so it was less painful. I have high expectations of these...
@jcolletteiii 's Car Restoration and Animal Hospital. Good job. All these years I've tried to keep squirrels out of the house. Maybe the better idea is to bring them in while they're young and teach them how to behave.
The slate mat is surprisingly light. Mats tend to be darker than the carpet, I guess because most are black. The lighter color doesn't look bad after a few minutes of adjusting to it.
Want to see the photos after your order from firtreeclipplanet.com arrives. How do you like the rear seat delete? Any regrets?
Lol - yep, I feel a little like Bob Ross lately.
I took my rear seats out and have been hauling them around with me and storing them in garages and barns since 2005 or 2006. My first delete panel was too heavy, but the current one is quite nice, if still a bit thicker than needed (I think I used 3/8" material), but I wanted to be able to get the angled lip on that Ii wanted to help lock it in place. No regrets at all. Like I said a few posts back - unless you have small children, the rear seats in a MINI are useless. In fact, I have heard that the rear seats in an Austin Mini are more useable. I really like how those hood blanket clips have really dressed up those holes. Color isn't perfect, but it's so much better than looking at rusty metal behind there!
I made a rear seat delete for my R56 from 1/4” lauan with 1” pine edging. Glued on carpet on the top and painted the sides and underside black. The lauan is plenty strong enough and it is light. I carry a small 12v tire pump and jumper cables under it...
As for the rear seats in our R50, we used to put people in the back all the time. Plenty of room on the passenger side with the front seat a little forward. And the room up front was still good. Not so great on the driver’s side with me driving, but it was do-able,. Driving was easy as the car has the CVT, although the steering wheel was in the NASCAR location... . A bit of a clown car look when we all got out...
Okay - so summer has been a bit busier than normal. Planning a First Year Experience firldtrip for a freshman class to both Glacier and Yellowstone, got a big research project off the ground (sort of), and been busy as always with the horse stuff.
Have not had the time to get going on respraying, but I hope to at least have the front bumper and hood done perhaps this fall. My plan is still (tentatively) to buy the basecoat and maybe the clear as well so that the same material will be used on the entire car. For this pro painters who may be out there... what is a very good paint brand to look into? I want to do the paint exactly one time and very good (probably not the *best*) materials will help ensure a one-time deal.
I realize that I have been slacking on updates here, but other than the mats from cocomats coming in maybe a month ago, not a lot to report. The car continues to purr along. The facelift ecu is definitely not as smooth as my original, and seems to have a stumble under acceleration - I don't think I really ever had THE stumble on my car, but this ecu may indeed have it. A few of the LED bulbs that I have put in to various blinkers have had to be replaced - these just do not seem to be very good quality or last that long in this application, and all of the ones that I have used state that they have the correct resistor installed. But, I have had two of these fail in blinker locations, so something funky is going on - and at ~$24 bucks a pair, it's making me rethink the LED conversion. They are SUPER bright though - the added visibility will be hard to give up.
The coco mats are good quality, but are fairly light colored, just as I thought they would be. They are not offensively pale in color, and I think that they fit the interior pretty nicely. I would call them almost a medium grey - certainly not a dark grey. Recall that I did not go with the coco material - I wanted something cleaner with less little fibers to worry about straying around the interior. I went with the nylon 6.6 I think they call it. It is a very robust material, it hides the dirt fairly well, and I am sure it will hold up for years and years - especially as I only put a few thousand miles on this car a year.
Okay - on to the pics. My phone is a fairly cheap one without many camera bells and whistles. Whitebalance is always on auto, and sometimes it doesn't do the best job.
Here are the mats on a neutral grey background - concrete. You can get an idea from this picture about the color. Medium grey is pretty much what these are. Cocomats calls this color #117 Medium Grey, and I agree. I wish they had had a more charcoal type color, but I am pretty good with this color for the time being. If I ever 'have to' have a darker color, I may dye these using rit or similar.
Passenger side. Was a sunny day, so the camera sensor is trying to expose something correctly, not sure what. But the seat is much darker than how it renders in this image.
This one was mostly in the shade and if you look toward the top of the image, you can get an idea of the color of the mat against the interior vinyl and the stock carpet just a bit.
Driver's side. This one gives a better overall suggestion of the color and contrast with the original interior bits and pieces. This color is fairly light in comparison to the stock interior vinyl and carpet colors. It does work though, and I kind of dig the contrast.
Overall, the quality, materials, and interior integration with the vinyl 6.6 material from Cocomats are all pretty good.
Now for the niggling thing that bothers me. These mats are very expensive. For north of $200 I expect that the fit and finish will be *perfect*. The passenger side is just that - perfect. These things are heavy enough and have the little nubbles on the back side so that when you put the mat in the little recess in the floor pan carpet, they stay put. The driver's side does this too. BUT, the driver's side does not fit the space perfectly. The part of the mat that goes around the accelerator pedal puckers a little because it is slightly too large in that area to fit into the given space. Because the mat is just a little too wide up there at the top, it creates a pucker and that pucker keeps the front end of the mat about half an inch above the carpet in that particular location. It has absolutely no bearing on the function of the mat, and the mat does not ride up, mover forward, or move rearward. It has stayed put pretty well so far and I have not even installed the velcro mat keeper to keep it from moving around. However, as previously stated, for a set of two mats for $250 (plus shipping), perfect fitment should not be something that the end user should even have to *think about* checking - it should just be perfect. And that bothers me.
Anyhow - that's my revioew of the cocomats 6.6. nylon mats.
Agreed on color darkness not optimal yet seemingly acceptable on pigment contrast, so long as plays well with seating and trim plastics. No complaints though, if matching the provided color swatch. Driver side fitment - not-so-much, being as stated so spendy. Seems their cut pattern is off, which IMO is unacceptable for what is billed as a premier Made-in-USA product. At that price, I too would expect and demand correct fitting product. Yes I'm admittedly fussy and I'd be disappointed. In any case, thanks for the detailed product review!
I decided to stick with the much more affordable MINI "S" OEM front rubber floor mats which do fit perfectly and cheap too ($45.06 from MINI of Alexandria's eBay store). My buddy bought a set for his 2006 R53 Checkmate JCW (with matching "S" boot mat) and I bought a spare set for mine at that price. Unsure if NOS but seems doubtful BMW continues to have those mats produced for cars so many years out of production.
Welcome back, @jcolletteiii . I almost messaged you a while back to see what you were up to but then thought you might be off doing field work.
Sorry to hear that you aren't particularly happy with the mats. Mine turned out well -- I guess because they are hand made there is some variation. I agree with you that at that price, they should fit correctly. Don't think I've posted photos of mine -- will try to do that when I'm back home next weekend.
Anyway, looking forward to more frequent posts from you.
Thanks man, good to hear from you too! Read through one or two pages of the newer stuff on your thread, but have to dig in a bit more. I don't think I am unhappy per se, just not as happy as I should be I suppose. I look forward to seeing how yours look though!
Just bought the three rear beltline trim pieces for $38 total plus shipping from Seattle Mini. Nice to know that some OE parts have actually gotten cheaper over time! Hopefully, this will help alleviate some of the water getting in the liftgate during washings.
BTW, little Rocky's rehab was successful. We raised up a good little squirrel. His absolute favorite is avocado. I let him go on some unused wooded ground up behind the university in a nice grove of trees. He doesn't come to me anymore which is a little sad, but I bringhim peanuts from time to time to help him get through the first winter.
My little buddy on 6/29/22.
Early August - release day.
This look seems almost to say thanks. Realized I never posted the outcome. Very successful!
Just a snap from this evening's drive. The fogs and the driving lights make evening zips around the countryside so pleasant that is mostly the time of day I love driving most lately. This wasn't a full-on dark drive, so left the driving lights covered and just ran the fogs. They *really* illuminate the ditches!
In other news, looking around harbor freight today, I have decided that I will be doing the paint on this car by myself. I will buy a gallon of good paint, a gallon of good clear, a 15 gallon compressor, high quality water and drying filters, a good gun, and probably a small inflatable chinese paint booth. I'll be taking each panel pair off of the car to paint, and may start sourcing stuff this fall and doing the hood and front bumper body work over the winter and start spraying in the spring.
Now I just need to figure out what is good paint. I asked Brian from paint society, but have not heard back yet. I know he sprays AkzoNoble, but I have heard good things about Spies Hecker - esp their clear. Any 'paint guys' in here?
I'm now 150lbs down from the stock sunroof 2003 R53 weight, and I have all of my original exterior panels and all of my interior trim panels intact! I was at 148.8 lbs and shaved off 1.125lbs with my latest addition. Ti lug screws.
I know, it's a very small weight reduction for the cost - $163. But... my original lugs were all cruddy and rusted, and creating rust patches in my wheel lug holes and was going to replace them anyhow (I will almost certainly getting new wheels, so this was a needed clean up item) - and my go to (Seattlemini.com) lists them for $72 bucks for the set, so this set was really only 91 bucks more than I was going to spend anyhow.
For the curious minded... OE stock wheel bolts in the first image below. Titanium in the second.
You can see that the difference is a bit less than the advertised 50% lighter, but not much less. For a set of 16, the weight savings comes out to 1.125, or a little over 1/4 pound per wheel. So, if you are weight minded, and want lugs that will not ever rust or corrode, and don't mind paying for that alone, as an added benefit you'll save a quarter pound per wheel. OR, if you're a weight weenie buying those 12lb wheels, here is another way to shave off another 1/4lb from each corner.
I will be going with Rota RB's in 16" with general GMax 205/50's which will end up being exactly 29lbs lighter than my current R112 x Kumho Ecsta combo. That will put me down to 179 lighter than stock. I was going to refinish the R112's because - IMO - they are the best looking wheel available for the MINI, but the RB's look 'right' too, and are a significant weight savings over what I have now. Now, if I could just lose 30lbs myself!
Also replaced the three rubber trim pieces that I ordered from Seattle MINI for stupid cheap. All three lower trims (lower rubber pieces below rear windows and hatch glass) were like 54 bucks or something ridiculous. No broken clips, super easy - just gently pull from the end with the hatch open. The rubber was breaking away in places and I was worried about how well it sealed an area known to be prone to rust (the rear hatch). They did pretty well over the last 19 years. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - nothing spruces up a car so quickly as replacing tired worn rubber trims.
Man, was it grungy underneath. Spent some time with a dry paintbrush, then a wet toothbrush, and then a wet soft bristle paint brush before a final rinse out with clean water and shop towel dry. Got most of the 19 years of grunge out. Photo below shows the before. Don't have an after.
. A bit of a clown car look when we all got out... 
