I am considering having the lower black body trim around the wheel wells, rockers panels, and front and rear valances painted in matching body color. One shop said "no problem", the other one does not recommend doing it, and will not touch it with a 10 ft. pole.

Has anyone here had the standard trim painted, and if so what are the results ?

Do you need to remove it from the car, or can it be masked in place?

How did the paint stick to the plastic?

Has it held up, or is it chipping off?

What type of paint was used?

Would you recommend it for a road going daily driver, or is it more hassle than it's worth?

Thanks for any help and insight you can offer.

 

There are a handful of people that have done it. Some say it holds up, some dont. Most people remove the trim from the car and take it to the body shop. My MINI is being worked on right now, and I asked about it. He just gave me a "look" and said no way. He said that the paint wouldn't stick very well. It would chip easily. One chip, then water gets behind it, then it will all start to come off.

He also said that he couldn't back it be any kind of guarentee.

He wont do it, but I wish he would have.

 

The black trim pieces can be painted any color you want. That said, however, if you are wanting a smooth texture (the trim pieces are rough textured from the factory), you are looking at some non-trivial effort to "smooth" the trim pieces. If you want to paint the trim pieces, you really should have them smoothed, as the result of painting on the rough texture looks kind of like a DIY repair job that went south.

The pieces will usually need to be removed from the car so that each piece can be completely painted. If you are wanting the texture smoothed, that is another reason to remove the piece from the car as the smoothing process will involve application of filler and sanding.

You will have a greater risk of chipping of the painted trim pieces, since they are mounted in places that have a higher exposure to road debris.

If you do proceed with smoothing and painting the trim pieces you should check into whether you need to purchase a defined risk addition to your auto insurance policy. The typical auto insurance policy comprehensive and collision sections cover bringing the car back to factory original (black trim pieces) condition; with no coverage for owner-installed additions.

 

The easiest way to do it would be to get the aero kit pieces. They are not textured and are new. If you have ever put "dressing" on your current ones, it is even more difficult to paint.

 

As mentioned above, you can paint all the trim, but it needs a lot of work before doing so. The best way to accoplish it is to either take the pieces off the car, or buy new pieces. The best place to do that is with ClassicMINI here in NAM (and you get 20% off by mentioning NorthAmerican)...

Anyways, after the pieces are off the car or the new ones arrive, you must sand the texture down to as glass-perfect smooth as possible. Best done at the body-shop, but you can give it a shot as I did and help them out, at least. lol.

After the texture is done, you need to primer it with a special primer, because the pieces are plastic and regular paint does not stick to plastic, so you need a "plastic-primer" - of course. Then it's just a matter of what color you want. Installation back is a breeze; wheel-trims just snap back into place, and the bumpers/side-skirts are also an easy 1, 2, 3 step.

Please do a lot more research than what is needed for this project, because it can run quite high in $$ and if it's not done propperly, it will kill your car's looks. Just to give you an idea, it cost me $850 at my local shop to get all the pieces sanded down, primed, and painted.

Final results:





Hope this helps,
Leo.

PS: I've gotten some minor rock-chips on the trim, but nothing else happened in terms of ruining the rest of the paint.

 

I would imagine that the cost of the aero kit is higher than smoothing and painting the current trim pieces.... The "dressing" can be removed with a chemical wax/polish remover prior to starting the smoothing process.

 

It absolutely can be done and there are a number of threads concerning this. You will need to find a reputable body shop comfortable in dealing with plastic pcs. It isn't a cheap (I paid $1100 just in paint/labor) process as all the texture will need to be removed and the pcs prepped for paint. I had this done on my convertible with great results. The shop that did the work does this all the time on Minis and fully guarantees their work. The top pic is my convertible and the lower is an S with stock pcs painted. Good luck!

 

I didn't say the cheapest... I said the easiest..
But I have seen sideskirts sold for relatively cheap.

 

Thanks for jumping in on this guys. The photos definetly do this process justice, I just love the look of matching trim. I've seen up close, and have run my hands down both those which are fully prepped, sanded, primed and painted, and it's just first class. I've done the same where they've simply just been painted, and although not nearly as nice, they are somewhat acceptable to me.

If I were to decide to go the streamlined route, and just paint the trim as-is with no filling, sanding, etc etc....what does the jury say? Do it, or stay way from the idea? Has anyone seen bad results from the quicker, easier, less costly approcah?

 

Doesn't do anything for me, unfortunately... I think the black trim makes the car lean and mean looking, myself. But, if you were getting the aero side pieces anyway. I can csee why you'd go all the way I guess.

 

Actually I'm not geting the aero kit or any part of it....I like the way the painted trim creates the illusion of the car having a lower ride height, thus being better connected to the ground. In my opion, the standard black trim all around, on anything other than a black car, gives the car the appearance of being somewhat higher off the ground than it really is. I also prefer the more mono-chromatic look that comes with the color coded trim.

 

Need to sand it down and then primer a few layers and then paint away!!
The whole thing ain't cheap but I think it's worth it.

HyperBlue/Black with Painted Aero grill.

 

Bad move. As I said earlier, it gives the impression of a DIY job gone south.

 

I have a dark silver/ silver roof MCS on the way. And recently the thought of painting the black ring around the car the pure silver like the roof. Just curious on everyone opions on this.

 

i think it may be cheaper to get a new aero kit, paint it and install.. no?

 

It might be, since most Aero kits come pre-painted. However, there is still the issue of the trim around the wheel wells. Depending on the level of effort to do the trim around the wheel wells, you may be out even more $ than just filling/sanding and painting the original trim pieces. The complete Aero kit parts price is ~$1,200 if memory serves. $1,200 could almost cover the cost of filling/sanding and painting the original trim items (plus with the Aero kit, you would have to still do the wheel wells...).

 

has anyone done this themselves (not taken it to a shop)??

doesnt seem to hard if u have the right equipment and sorta know what you're doin

 

sorry, can't help u, ours came off the showroom floor like so-


you could probably manage the sanding and priming urself, but I wouldn't attempt to paint by urself. Many people say to buy new pieces,too, cause they bend when you take them off and they won't be perfect when u put them back. But I haven't done it myself.