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FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINALLY THEY ARRIVED !!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you mini.uk !!!!!!! They look to be made flawless , I can't wait to rip off the old fenders and get these on. I will be painting them the next day or two so they will be ready. I use duplicolor black bumper trim paint and it's the exact color and texture of out skirts and flares so they will look oem just wider...althooooooooght , what if WHAT IF I carbon fiber wrap them ???? Or do you think that'd be gaudy and too much ??? Lmk your opinion as I will be going at them soon here. .
So I tried carbon wrapping some parts on our newest toy and I will say this about it. I bought the expensive name brand stuff and it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to work with. Its super thick and very hard to stretch! It looks AMAZING if you can get it on but if you don't have much experience, you may want to take it to a shop or hydro dip them. Just MHO. With the rest of the carbon on your car it'd look sick. But then you may want to tear the rest of the plastic bits off and wrap/dip them also.
So I tried carbon wrapping some parts on our newest toy and I will say this about it. I bought the expensive name brand stuff and it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to work with. Its super thick and very hard to stretch! It looks AMAZING if you can get it on but if you don't have much experience, you may want to take it to a shop or hydro dip them. Just MHO. With the rest of the carbon on your car it'd look sick. But then you may want to tear the rest of the plastic bits off and wrap/dip them also.
yes I'm aware , it is VERY hard to work with . It has quite the learning curve but I've done so many things now I've become boss at it.. I've done my interior pillars flawlessly, 1/4 panels, my side sills , my headlight trims ( though did those early in my learning) and few other things...I also do have hydrop dip fil sheets and the liquid lquidfier spray so maybe ille get learning how to do that as that'd be muuuuuch easier and permanent and wouldn't have to worry about it lifting.. I painting them today just because BUT I still can wrap them if I choose..
Here's how they've come out painted..maybe I will wrap one of the rear pieces since those would be the hardest and if it ends up coming out and lookin good , maybe then I will wrap them all. Funny, I was thinking about these and they are one of the pricest mods I've bought for Troll. Most parts I will buy used or at a discount atleast. Not once did I buy a high dollar part for this car and pay full price like I did these flares. But I waited a long time for a set to come up and they never did abd I didn't wanna attempt a custom flare install ,again noneless on this car and risk F'ing up like I did my saab kinda.
I have found there's numerous types of carbon wrap and the kind I have best luck using IS the really thick stuff. It needs the most heat and working BUT it stretches the most befor distorting and it has stuck on the best and I have it on my exterior pillars and headlight trims.. I will post a link to the stuff I use , I use the 7d high gloss
The Dupli-color looks good. Are the flares textured? Or does the trim paint do that?
paint does that..buuuuut serious issues with these flares.. I made another post about it but long story short these are barely wider than the oem fenders once I compared them and then IF I run them without some serious serious modifications to them , there's absolutely NO WAY they will survive one bump. They will not come close to clearing even the semi aggressive wheel setup I'm running. I'm better off buying universal ebay ones abd using them. Then atleast when and IF my tires do contact them they will self clearance and not shatter or rip off of my car and be a 600$ loss 1st bump I hit..I'm pretty discouraged in these. They looked nice buuuuuut once I got them upto the car, geez.
another issue I'm running into is the leading edge on the big long rear ones isn't a strait cut at all and gaps off the body in several spots and being fiberglass there's no bending to fix it. I will have to shave down and correct the cut but then I'm going to loose even more Clearance...geesz..ABSOLUTELY AVOID THESE !!!!!!!!
Few weeks to to and my Ricer comes back !
my spoiler arrived today and omg its a thing of beauty , unfortunately though even the euro spoiler I attached on must be removed in order to fit this new spoiler so I will now end up having the whole roof redone on the cooper too then.
I'm removing my little rear sides sideskirt flares and putting on the fake carbon fiber full length ones that ACTUALLY follow the contour of the stock skirt so I can't wait to see everything on together..also got side mirrior seals to replace old shitty ones. all the decals will be removed too obviously but idk if I will replace them or run a clean look.. I'm leaning towards clean look as I'm putting on more carbon fiber things so maybe ille just leave it as battleship Grey and carbon fiber accents and accessories.
also got a new grill because on my other one the 2x corner retainers on it were busted off so it was rigged on to dit flush and actually chipped off some paint by it , dang thing !
I unfortunately sold notorious B.R.G and I'm parting ways with the one I tried fixing up.. long story on that one in other posts.
Well guys ! I'm fricken sitting on my gands EVERY night trying to get to sleep. I cannot wait to get it back. With the wide flares , new skirts, new styled spoiler and the hood vents.. GOWD I GIDDY !!!!!!!!
Last edited by MiniManAdam; Feb 21, 2022 at 09:39 PM.
Car is being paint as I type this !!!!! So it should be coming back very soon.
once again my battery died while it was at the body guys even with a new battery so I need to check for a parasitic drain so I started buly buying a new alternator and will exchange my battery AGAIN and go from there. I got the 170amp high output alternator too because im running extra stuff like electric waterpump ect..
then most my parts have arrived that I've ordered over winter to put on when I get the car back. i got....
back.16x8 mst time attack 12lb rims and 205/45 firehawk indy 500 tires , aluminum coolant reservoir with a built in viewport, aluminum power steering reservoir, tpms monitoring kit that tells me each tires psi AND temperature, interior wire led mood lighting I'm gonna line the dash and door panels with, new digital boost gauge , digital wideband guage and kit ( not pictured) , 170 Amp alternator with new belt and tensioner, custom valvecover plaque, 3x obd splitter ,progressive shift light, full carbon fiber steering wheel and ebrake handle and carbon wrapped weighed shift **** ,. Mobile1 carbon fiber SYNTHETIC ONLY oilcap , heat shield that I'm not sure if I will put around the filter or cut to fit like the m7 heatshield, 750i large Tbody that I tapped for the vacuum line and I ordered a custom FULL 3in intake to fir it and my filter setup with no chokedown points so 3in all way to my ports on my ported sneed4speed Manifold ( main reason I got the wideband to dial it in ).
my body guy is installing my carbonfiber spoiler and carbon fiber look sideskirts, I also instead of glossblack hoodvents I bought and am going with carbon effect ones instead. I'm really going big on the carbon fiber look now.
I plan on leaving off the decals and only decals will be the tire lettering so I'm going for a much cleaner , sleeker look.
the main reason I sold my other 15s with the proxies was because a 225 wide tire was just too wide and I didn't wanna risk them rubbing into the new widebody fiberglass fenders. Aaaaand I plan on doing a bigbrake upgrade this summer. Atleast the stock plastic flares wheeeeeeen they did rub ( only would on big bumps with a passenger in ) the plastic would clearance its self or pop off and I could just pop the flare back on BUT with a fiberglass flare that's sealed onto the fender and hood that can't happen any more.
I also got a new fuel filter kit because who knows when mines ever been changed and I fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got new axel boot too so it won't sling grease onto my new belt and alternator.
That's a hell of a list of parts man! What spoiler is that? Looks pretty sweet. Also, did you ever mount the black hood vents you referenced? I love hood vents on minis. I've thought about them for mine but the kind I like are WAY over priced and I've only seen them in Europe anyway.
That's a hell of a list of parts man! What spoiler is that? Looks pretty sweet. Also, did you ever mount the black hood vents you referenced? I love hood vents on minis. I've thought about them for mine but the kind I like are WAY over priced and I've only seen them in Europe anyway.
I am yes but i went with carbon fiber looking ones instead to try n match my real carbon fiber hood and vent scoops..
lol I COMPLETELY forgot id ordered this carbon fiber hatch trim cover too lol. I also found carbon fiber versions of my taillights surrounds I wanna get too, I really went big on the carbon this time..
I actually wanted to hyrdodip my rims carbonfiber look and clear coat them and that wrap woulda make them look like the real cf buuuuut my buddy doesn't do it anymore unfortunately and the only place by me that does do rims thinks it's OK to charge 200$ PER RIM TO DIP,LOLOLOL and they wonder why there dipping service doesn't get much businesses.. but anyways this piece sure is sweet.
the spoiler is linked below BUUUUUTBUts not the one I wanted. This one I had to remove my aero spoiler ( a little tiny spoiler ) in order to fit this one and I wanted the GP style one I will also link ( 2nd link ) but I wanted the gp style one because it screwed and mounted onto the side of the trunk and would have been able to keep the aero spoiler on and have the gp one sitting behind it and abit above. Buuuuuut the one I bought I had to remove the aero spoiler because the one I got actually utilizes the stock spoiler bolt holes and then seals down onto the hatch n window almost. Atleast the one I got though IS adjustable for the angles for downforce and the spoiler is bigger so Owell but dang , waste of my hard to find aero spoiler I had tracked down.
thIs company i found makes AWESOME carbon fiber parts for our car lol i miiiiiiiiiight be making the carbon cooper after all ( which was my DREAM to make my mini into )
hopefully someday i will have the vented carbon fiber hood , cf hatch and vented cf fenders ..BUT before I even think about spending 3000$ MORE on carbon fiber body parts I need to find some insurance where I can set the $$$ amount of my car NOT just what bluebook values it at because yeaaaaa my car is abit NOT normal ,lol... but how bout the price on them spoilers hey ? Cheaper than the orangeG ones and these aren't just plastic they're actually real carbon fiber.
I see you purchased mirror gaskets. I did the same, my regret was not getting door handle gaskets at the same time and doing them all while everything was off.
Just some food for thought.
Love those rims!! I love how light they are even more.
O I really like the rims n tires combo ! I'm glad I went white because back when I had my s55 amg once I put on white amg rims ( car was silver ) it really really made it look much nicer than the aftermarket black rims it had..
When i see white rims on cars it just screams " clean" to me. And im **** about keeping my stuff clean so these WILL stay pure white... lol ille probably remove them every 3k miles to clean.
I also found a few boxs of these gloves at walmart on clearance for 6$ only a box AND THEYRE actually like a 6nil thickness too and fit my hige hand comfortcomfortably..
Then i been hunting on Craigslist and ebay for auctions and low price/b.o listings and been building up my milwaukee tool collection. I now have almost EVERY one I wanted. A few more and a few more batteries and another extra charger base and ille be set. These should make working on the car abit more pleasurable this season.
Those wheels ARE pretty sweet! I wanted white wheels on mine originally but I know dam well I don't actually have the time to keep them clean. I cant even keep my bronze wheels clean lol. Are those tire letters painted on? Glued on rubber letters? Or do they actually come like that from the factory??
Car is back at my garage finally but not fully finished. Buuuut the guy used a different clear this time abd it's much much smoother and has more gloss to it. He fixed my roof defects and where he had to remove my aero spoiler. Lol he wasn't impressed that I decided to seal it on with windshield weld lolol.
the spoiler is on and looks siiiiiiiiiiiiiick. Rims ate on and look siiiiiiiiiiiick. Buut BUT we ran into some major fitment issues with the widebody flares and with them being fiberglass they're gonna take ALOT of working over and I need to decide if they ate going to be worth stick more money into , bad enough the initial price on them. Ugh , o well..
u also had to unhook my navigation from under the seat because it would randomly turn on and start running the disc in it and killed my battery, lol Walmart batteries loose a charge ONCE and don't hold a charge again , I had 2x Ina row now do it but atleast I found the issue. While I had the seat out I decided to attempt to fit the seat tracks onto the adapters and found a way but had to customize the aftermarket seat adapter that was suppose to fit them so it will be nice for passengers or anyone else who drives my car. Befor the seats I just mounted them stationary but thank God was almost perfect for me but just people my height then.
Also got in the carbon fiber steering wheel , shifter and ebrake handle. Carbon Fiber rear hatch trim. Got the hood vents in too but am applying heat to them and have weights on them helping them contour to the hood better..I will get some pics up soon as I get the car more together but ITS GO TIME ! Now if we can get a day above 45' with no rain or flurries, that'd be nice...
Those wheels ARE pretty sweet! I wanted white wheels on mine originally but I know dam well I don't actually have the time to keep them clean. I cant even keep my bronze wheels clean lol. Are those tire letters painted on? Glued on rubber letters? Or do they actually come like that from the factory??
I see you purchased mirror gaskets. I did the same, my regret was not getting door handle gaskets at the same time and doing them all while everything was off.
Just some food for thought.
Love those rims!! I love how light they are even more.
thxfully my door handle ones were good.. eventually id like to replace ALL the rubber roof trim too , its not bad but its not great and i strive for perfection. Lol
I am almost done wiring in the wideband sensor , wired up the digital boost sensor and the shiftlight. I cannot run 2x things off my obd2 port so I had to pick n choose. I'm going to run an auxiliary temp sensor for a digital temp gauge out of an adapter that I'm hoping I can fit into the head so I can get accurate coolant reading. I know I can splice into a coolant hose but that only gets after the thermostat opens Temps and that's not good enough for me but if that's all I can do I will..
my buddy has been perfecting the paint abd taking care of the imperfections.. he also worked over the flates pretty heavily but WOW do they sit flush now. I cannot wait to get those on and then adjust my suspension and rim fitment to make it sit hellaflush.
i also ordered new aftermarket headlights and i got abd need to install a mishimoto radiator too.
i got all 4x tpms things working and prgrammed and they are accurate too actually. They read psi AND temp of each individual wheel.
I got in the 3in throttlebody and intake and wow ,it did help now that i had more mods.. AWESOME ! i did loose 2lb of boost but it definitely feels more powerful, like it's flowing that much better. I will see exactly how it's running soon as I have all my gauges running but I'm sure its gonna be very close to spot on. Adriancl did a very good job tuning my car and I've been really spending a lot of time making sure I don't miss anything and that everything is working correctly, as it should..here's how little clearance the wideband has but it had enough and that's all that matters.
I also got carbon fiber mini badges, jcw led side scuttles and new chrome delete tape ( of course carbon fiber look )..
o YEA !!!!! I mounted the seats onto the tracks finally.. YEAAAAA my seats now FULLY adjust.. lol not just recline bit slide back n forth now and sit abit higher so my view and placement in the car is just abit lower than stock now. Lol now I don't feel like I have to peek over my door to look for oncoming cars..
I will post more pics soon..
Anorher thing.. i swear this new throttlebody upgrade makes my car pop LOUD AF , not dumb like the tunes do but after each agresdive shift it gives a nice loud pop..haha I actually like it. It like its just throwing EVERYTHING out the exhaust,getting ready for tgat next gear and pull.
I would looooooove to be able to make it to motd next year. That I think I'm going to make that a goal of mine and start prioritizing it..
anyways , here's a few update pics.
Last edited by MiniManAdam; Apr 7, 2022 at 08:27 PM.
Man those wheels look wicked! Those vents will be sweet too if you can get them to match the contour of the hood. I'd love to put some vents in my hood too but don't have the guts to take a cut-off wheel to the car lol.
Do you like the textured finish of the paint? The first whole truck I painted looked the same (it was the same color too) so I wet sanded it starting with 1000 grit iirc and worked my way up to 2000 grit followed by a cut and polish. Looked amazing when I was done. If you like the textured look that's cool too. I laid a matte metallic textured blue enamel on my sons 77 Plymouth by accident maybe 8 years ago due to a defective paint gun (and a poorly lit garage at night) and everyone that saw it loved it so I left it like that.
Man those wheels look wicked! Those vents will be sweet too if you can get them to match the contour of the hood. I'd love to put some vents in my hood too but don't have the guts to take a cut-off wheel to the car lol.
Do you like the textured finish of the paint? The first whole truck I painted looked the same (it was the same color too) so I wet sanded it starting with 1000 grit iirc and worked my way up to 2000 grit followed by a cut and polish. Looked amazing when I was done. If you like the textured look that's cool too. I laid a matte metallic textured blue enamel on my sons 77 Plymouth by accident maybe 8 years ago due to a defective paint gun (and a poorly lit garage at night) and everyone that saw it loved it so I left it like that.
I'm gonna go for as gloss amooth as we can get it... its taking more work than expected due to few clearcoat flaws but he will get it done n rite... I got some **** news so that's why progress has been so slow this year vs last years build. Lol abd I did WAY more last year but is what it is and I will get it done very soon hopefully.. check out my post below bud , I made an update video and check out these sweet ebay lights.. they were cheapest I found BY FAR and even came with these dumb little fog light things ille never use but can hopefully get a quick 20$ for. I can't say what he's exactly using and doing so I can't say for sure but i did go all around picking out any flaw I seem for him to fix. Then he's gonna cut n buff the whole thing and put on the widebody flares..
Man that is terrible news about your heart! At least you caught it so they can hopefully treat it! My brother in law recently had a heart attack and he's really young too.
On a brighter note, car is just wicked man. You've done a crazy amount of work to it. And I like those headlights too. And the new spoiler. Aaaannnd pretty much everything else about the car lol.
Man that is terrible news about your heart! At least you caught it so they can hopefully treat it! My brother in law recently had a heart attack and he's really young too.
On a brighter note, car is just wicked man. You've done a crazy amount of work to it. And I like those headlights too. And the new spoiler. Aaaannnd pretty much everything else about the car lol.
thnx man..I got my 1st apt the 13th actually so im just taking is as it comes,life....
anyways me n my buddy got busy today as I'm a perfectionist aaaaaaaand this ends up happening ING 6x hours later..lol
Also check out how BEAUTIFUL this rad is..
O yea and i changed my cabin air filter , GROOOOOSSSS!
Last edited by MiniManAdam; Apr 12, 2022 at 08:33 AM.
Even more sanding n prepping..we really went ***** to the walls and WOOOOOOOW ..it's not cut or buffed yet abd it is HELLLLLLA glossy n smooth. Only 1x little run on the hood we will have to take care of but i will snap a few more pics 2morrow when I adjust the fans to show the paint n clear befor we cut n buff.buffed.. I also redid the flares A 3RD TIME as I dropped 2x n scratched them so I did them all to perfectly match abd painted n fixed the rear 3d printed bumper vents..
I cleaned the other side flares that attached to the bumpers too that house the sidemarkers..
it's really really gonna be nice thitime.. I just can't believe how long we spent smoothing it out..I also 2x timed the rust that started under a tailight wgen I 1st did bodywork a year ago as I seen a tiny spot coming back in the seam so I went at it fir awhile and hit it with a rust inhibitor and sealer this time rather than just a sealer.
I decided I'm keeping the multigauge and not bothering with running a coolant temp gauge as it's too much a pita so I'm also selling my shift light now too..o well. Someone will get a good deal on it atleast and atleast it would be used then..
I talked to adriancl and my afr are fine but Im having odd issues..idk if it was because my headlights were unplugged or taillights or what but the battery was hooked up still as we taped the trunk shut so I had to get it open n unhook it because I seen the front running lights every 10sec flash just for a quick second like it was continually doing a voltage check..
also I had my traction control light randomly turn on without me turning it off and it would t not turn off ( stop illuminating the triangle with the exclamation mark )... thats was befor all this.. I hope my ecu isn't going bad because I was having that battery drain issue befor and even now my car NEVER reads above 13.6v...I have a new alternator I will try soon and pray that's it. My battery is new too. I know low voltage situation can cause a host of gremlins with our cars. I will get it figured out though. 1x thing at a time.
Heres few more pics..
My new led mini uk flag side markers should be here soon as well as new door handle covers aaaaaaaaand i miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight install that unionjack sunroof decal i have and eventually get the unionjack blackstyle taillights to tie it all together.. Noone seems to wanna buy it and it might look nice on my car now actually since there's no other decals or anything now .I will see..
