Now, before I get grief for opening a new thread on an old and oft-revisited thread, I'd like to try to offer a new way of apporaching the topic -- I know those that have stripes and have taken good care of them and are emotionally attached them will offer nothing but praise for them, so I want to hear the other side; I want to hear about problems people have had with them, along with a few specifics about maintainnence routines employed and the environmental conditions encountered during their lifetime.

My own take on it (having not yet having a Mini or even really inspecting the vinyl craftsmanship closely) is a bit pessimistic. I liked that the cars had factory stripework available when I started getting interested in the Mini several years ago, but when they released the S model and went to test drive it, I noticed that they were just vinyl appliances and I was disappointed. I figured that I'd probably skip the stripes because of it. But now, with the silver stripe that's available for the '06 model and my pending purchase, I am once again considering the factory stripework.

So I'm really wondering if they'll survive in extremely sunny weather, with summers in the high 80's to mid 90's, and not likely more than 2 weeks or so of low temperatures below 50°F in a bad year. I've heard that the vinyl i easily damaged by road debris, and I would be worried about the damage it can take from inclement atmospheric conditions such as ozone being trapped under the LA basin's inversion layer.

And I would also like to float the idea of painted on stripes. I have no idea what it would cost, but I do know it would most likely be far superior to vinyl. I'm sure I could find a good painter but I'm not sure I would want to lay down enough money to have the job done. (Then again, I *have* painted a few cars before, and have the basic skills down. I know how to prep the parts but I've never done anything but single colors and clearcoats. But I could save tons of cash by simply renting a booth, assuming I can find the roof silver and BRG colors that Mini uses for private purchase)

 

vinyl is the way to go. you can always replace them if you need to.

paint, you'll have to get the whole bonnet repainted if you wanted
to change it out ... plus paint chips just as bad.

most decals on showcars these days are vinyl.

 

lets put it this way:


it would be cheaper to chage your stripes once a year for 5+ years then to paint them on.

this gives you the good looks (they are always new) and the option to remove them whenever you like.


need I say more?

 

I don't know. Painting them on would probably only cost a weekend's work and booth rental. And changing them wouldn't be necessary until the paint needs to be changed (which, in my experience, is up to about 10 years on a well-maintainned car)

and I'm a little confused by the comment "paint chips just as bad." While I'll agree that paint chips look just as bad, most of the paints I've seen are quite impact resistant. As long as proper panel prepping procedures are used and hardener and additives are measured accurately, paint can be surprisingly tough to damage. Especially when clearcoated.

I'm thinking about the cost issue... $100 per set of stripes, plus 200-300 more for installation... that would be 1500-2000 for annual changes for five years, assuming Mini's labor is used. If I do it myself, a paint job would run up to about 300-500 if the paint is ridiculous expensive, and that would give me enough to touch it up if need be. Figuring my best guess for professional labor would place the job at about 1000-1500.

bah. I think I'd rather do it myself, now. I have a buddy at work that does a lot of body work on cars. Maybe he knows someone who could get a cheap booth. Or maybe I could take a paint and body course at a local JC.

 

You can still check NAM vendors. They have better vinyls, plus you can have them made in magnets. Haven't issues with them in almost a year.

 

Interesting variant on the questions of stripes. I have been told by someone on NAM who does stripes that the factory vinyl is not top grade quality. You may want to inquire with aftermarket makers.

I have black "factory" stripes (actually they were installed by the dealer) and I love the baby racer look. But a couple of weeks ago I parked under a pine tree and the sticky white pitch has left imprints on the stripes. A high pressure hose was able to remove the pitch from the paint and glass but the stripes now feature white spots. I hope to obscure them with shoe polish if I ever attend a MINI meet.

In my overindulged past I once had my 66 GT350 repainted with the same Wimbeldon White with blue stripes. The stripes turned out crooked--impossible to see unless you followed the car and then could see that the stripes leaned toward the driver. I thought it was funny but other Shelby folks were not amused. The paint job was done by a well known shop.

I agree about silver stripes on a MINI. It's about time.

 

1. If you paint them on and want to change them, what are you going to do ... repaint the bonnet? People put on and take off graphics depending upon the season Painting them on would make that difficult
2. How many MINIs have you seen with painted on stripes (there are a few on MINI2)? What does that tell you?

 

I have black bonnet stripes from the factory, and i had and still have problems keeping them clean. Rain spots and bird poop are big ones. I cant be everywhere all at once and clean these off *** soon as they happen. But theyre there, im not terribly bothered by them...ill get replacements eventually.

 

The vinyl stripes will last for years. I put them on my CR/W Cooper and they look better IMO than the factory ones. It's easy to apply them, and the price, including shipping, is only $38 from www.mightystripes.com and about the same from www.cooperflags.com. I'm sure there are other vendors also. If you want a pinstripe, it's available from Autozone, O'Reilly's etc. for $2.99 roll. Looks great and this 62 year old had no trouble applying it perfectly.

In short, it's cheap, easy to do, looks good and can be easily be changed if you want something different. Don't see why you'd want painted stripes.

 

Agreed. I would do vinyl. Painting them on isn't cost efficient and it doesn't allow for changes. The prices that the above poster is quoting are way high. I would figure about $100 for the install of fairly simple stripes, more for the elaborate varieties.

I have factory white stripes and I haven't noticed any wear or problems with them (hot Texas summer sun here). That being said, if they weren't part of the sports package, I would not have bought the factory stripes separately. I would have gone to see Ed at Cooperflags and designed something more unique.

 

1. Well, obviously, if I painted them on, I'd expect them to stay. If they're not good enough for the long term, I wouldn't paint them on.
2. Billions of people eat with chopsticks but we eat with forks and knives. What does that tell you?

 

anyway, I think my mind is made up. The silver stripe looks cool but not enough to outweigh my opinions of vinyl. I went to a high school with way too many ricers to respect any vinyl, giant exhaust tips, oversized rims, and tricked out appearances. I don't think I'll ever associate stuck-on vinyl graphics with the same amont of class as a good, clean paint job. When I finalize my order, I'll drop the vinyl and if I really want a stripe, I'll do it myself with paint.

And, as I expected (and the reason I wanted to hear from the people with neutral or negative stories), there is a lot of momentum behind the vinyl meme. A few of the replies to my original post have very Hoffer-esque self-persuasive tone. It's hard to avoid eliciting cognitive dissonance when subjective values are questioned. Oh well. I tried.

Regardless, thanks to everyone who has replied. Your comments have all been very helpful.

 

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect..... F. Kafka

Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.... A. Camus

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there....E. Hoffer

 

It's possible the vinyl stripes don't exist in the world you inhabit thereby negating the necessity for agreement with those who would settle for bourgeois fare.:smile:

 

I got mine on Ebay for about $30.00 shipped Black w/ Silver metallic pinstripes.

It took about me about 45 min to install them. They lasted until I traded her in on my 2nd Mini. I went after market due to the fact the OEM stripes look funny because the are short on both ends I like the fact the the after mkt ones wrapped under the hood on both ends.

 

that run along the top of the car (trunk, roof, hood).

It's under the clearcoat.

It also costs $5000 for the stripes.

That's the nicest strip I've ever seen though.

Get the stripes!! I hear the aerodynamics of the vinyl stripes add an additional 2 hp to the MCS. The molecular compound in the vinly efficiently diverts air away from the windshield converting potential energy to keneitic energy. To the surprise of the mini engineers, this inadvertantly increased hp by 2.

 

maybe a Type R sticker, too. I hear those are good for up to 30 hp.

 

That should be nice! Funny thing is that around here folks went for stripes early on to do something different. But then everybody did it. Now I'm the different one w/o any stripes at all!! Go figure!!

 

So, in essence the answer to your question is "Not to you", which you probably should have known from the start. The real question then becomes "Why ask a question to which you already have the answer?"

Probably a weakness in my character, but I've never understood why someone would ask anyone else's opinion of an entirely subjective aesthetic question.

 

exactly what I'm thinking... I've only seen maybe 4 minis in my town and never a HB/W... until yesterday. it had the stripes on there too. I highly doubt he lives here and will be around much, but just in case I'll be ordering without stripes. Maybe eventually I'll put on some vipers or something, but the last thing I want to do is have the same car at first glance

 

i hadn't thought about aftermarket...

 

well, my main curiosity was as to the quality of the vinyl. That contains both objective and subjective portions, and I was hoping to find out the objective qualities; I think I have, and what I have learned has confirmed my earlier conlusions.

As for subjective discourse, I personally believe that it is the same as to why cultures have, for example, horrnedously disgusting 'delicacies.' It provides a certain amount of community and togetherness to share and build some kind of group aesthetic.

 

What is and isn't food, aside from toxicity issues, is entirely a cultural issue. It's also an altogether different issue. As is what constitutes _disgusting_.

But I still don't understand why anyone would need to validate their own aesthetic sense by some sort of groupthink. If you like the way something looks, that's pretty much all the validation you ought to need. The approval of others is a fickle and transient mistress.

 

Perhaps the intent was to validate their perceived superiority of personal think by eliciting group think of expected results and therefore elevating one's own preconceptions to a higher plane of intellectual self-gratification?

 

Ah! Mental masturbation.

Sounds right to me.