Just installed stripes on my MCS. I've liked racing stripes since the 1960's, but never put them on my car. IMO, because of its heritage, the MINI begs to have stripes. The standard stripes don't do much for me. I'm told they harken back to the racing Coopers, but the stripes I recall best are the wide middle stripe with a narrow stripe on each side. Later came the dual wide stripes with the Ford GT and Cobras.

There have been a couple threads about not getting respect on the road (or off) -- not being seen and being a girly car. I have noticed that some drivers tend to think the MINI is something they don't want to be behind, can cut in front of, or don't need to move over for. So, another motivation for a stripe is to inform the driver ahead of me that the guy in that little silver car is a wild and crazy guy instead of a milk toast.

I started to put stripes on the boot, but didn't really like them and pulled them off.

Anyway, here are some pics:









I was originally (before taking delivery of the car) planning on dark silver metallic stripes with black pinstriping. However, MightyStripes.com was not keen to provide them (they'd have to special order the vinyl) and raised the price significantly between estimate and order time. So, I ordered plain black. I later learned that CooperFlags.com does carry the metallic vinyl and could supply what I wanted. However, I already had the black stripes.

Now that I have them on, I think they go with the black trim very well, and am not sure metallic dark silver would be an improvement.

Oh, and I did notice that people I come up behind, on a country road, do pull over for me more often now.

 

Very nice, I'm thinking of getting a set of bonnet to boot silver Vipers for my Astro black MCS, so basically the opposite colour scheme to yours. Gonna take delivery sans stripes first and then see if I want them put on or not. Great job with yours anyway.

 

They look great!

 

Oops, never mind the PM.
Did you try putting them on the roof for a continuous look? That'd give it a striking visual line IMHO.

Edit:
Oh and btw, you forgot to update your sig!

 

Yeah, wondering why you didn't put the stripes on the roof. I have lightning blue w/ a black roof/black sunroof, and am wanting to find stripes that will work. I'm thinking about something off center, just on the drivers side. Maybe a medium black stripe, with thin stripes on each side. That scoop tends to get in the way a bit; not much room for stripes in front of it.

 

Looks good. I agree with MiniMoMir that roof stripes might be a good addition!

 

absolutely loving those stripes. i've got a couple of 5" viper stripes waiting to go on mine when it arrives, both with 1/2" pin stripes, but now i'm thinking of just using one wide stripe and framing it with two thin stripes. i'll stick a pic up tomorrow night when the car is here and i've finished applying whichever design i decide to go for.

but yours looks fantastic - just hope i can get a result even half as good.

 

That looks great, but I am partial to stripes.

I would usually agree that since your roof is body color I would extend the stripes to the roof. But since you have already broken them at the scoop and below the bumper I'd say it looks good just as it is.

 

I wasn't thrilled with the look of those wide stripes on the MightyStripes site, but they look great on your car, Robin. I agree that the roof stripe would make it even greater, and, then that would make the flow to the boot stripes. But, even without the boot stripe, I thing the roof stripe would look great. Just to be sure, what was the name of the stripe you got?

 

The stripe is the 14" Racing Stripe from MightyStripes.com. If I were going to do it again I'd probably get them from CooperFlags.com. I hear that they use better quality vinyl and they seemed easier to deal with.

I thought about the roof, but I think I prefer it plain. Also, I used up some of the roof stripe doing the front bumper.

The top of the bonnet was very easy. Just measure carefully. The bumper is another matter. Because of the compound curves, a wide stripe is very difficult. It took me three tries and it is still a bit funky. It was very tricky keeping it from wrinkling. Vinyl covers on the domed fog lights were dead easy in comparison. If you aren't familiar with those, they give you a clear vinyl disk and you have to form it over a the dome of the fog lights. My silversmithing experperience really helped with that. I've made goblet cups out of a flat disk of silver just using a hammer and stake.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

The stripe looks really good. If you have any left over it would look even better if you put some between the bottom of the scoop & upper grill too. There are a few posts around NAM on how to remove & reattach the wings badge

 

And the lower lip!

 

I think the scoop starts looking odd when the stripe goes through the area with the MINI logo. I like it better this way. I might consider the lower lip.

 

Well after all it is your MINI so I guess you can stripe it how you like
but here is one of our Alabama MINIS, SB, with the continuous stripe & I love the look:

 

What you really need isn't stripes, but a gun rack.


Paul

 

Do they make rifles that small? Or, do you mean a sawed-off shotgun or pistol rack?

 

Sweet! Did you do the work yourself, or hire someone cause there's no way I could've done that ! It took me 2 hours to apply my stripes. Just don't have the patience for it...

 

Did it myself (a friend helped). Part was easy. Part was difficult.

 

i like those stripes