for those interested, i added the JCW red mirror caps and air ducts today. took no more than 15 minutes.

for the mirror caps, after searching on the boards, i found that you can pull off the actual mirror to get to the clips to pop off the old caps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317852342/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317852342/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317849654/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317849654/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

for the air ducts, i wedged a bicycle tire iron to take off the old ducts. new ones pop right in.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317862606/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317862606/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317865436/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317865436/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317860340/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317860340/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

gonna probably black out that orange side marker and black out the headlight and taillight rings.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317858044/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7317858044/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

 

I used a couple of plastic fast food knives to get between the inlets and the clips on my CM. No scratching and the knives have enough flexibility to work their way in.

The mirror glass - not so successful. I broke the passenger side mirror glass. I have the aspherical mirrors from the UK Ebay store that cover that right up.

 

Nice! Where'd you pick up your design package from?

 

ozarkgolfer - i was worried about breaking the glass too. good idea on the plastic knife

livestrong - bought it here http://mini.sewellparts.com/accessor...2012/4808.html. quick shipping

with this...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...iting-for.html

 

That's what I figured - I wish I had jumped on that when they were $20 cheaper + 10% off! Doh!

 

i guess i'll just add to my thread......here are pics of how i blacked out the taillight rings. sorry, but i guess i never took pics of the front rings.

there are two outer nuts that you have to loosen to remove the tabs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438232530/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438232530/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438233842/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438233842/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

what they look like off
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438230138/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438230138/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438231272/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438231272/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438228346/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438228346/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438235206/http://www.flickr.com/photos/59240565@N04/7438235206/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/59240565@N04/, on Flickr

 

Thanks for sharing that! I thought you had to loosen all four of the clips to get the assembly out, so I wasnt sure how everyone was doing it. Thanks to you, I now have matching headlight/brakelight trim!

 

glad i could help. i'm not sure it is the best or right way but it worked for me. just make sure you wedge the inner tabs (the ones you didn't take off) really tight before you put back and tight the outer tabs.

 

Looking good! Great adds!

 

thanks! love the look of yours

 

Hey Cursor718,

How for you manage to gain access to those nuts? Did you have to pull off the flooring and insulation to get to those 2 clamps? I don't even know where to start. Any insight is greatly appreciated!

 

Nice write up on the Tail Lights. Are you going to black out the remaining chrome trim?

 

the tail lights can be accessed by removing the vent grill on each side in the boot area. yup.. it's tight.

 

sorry i don't visit these boards that much and just saw your post......i haven't looked inside in a while but there are a couple side panels that you pop out. no need to remove carpet or flooring. it helps to have smaller hands though

 

i was actually thinking about blacking out the front grill trim this weekend

 

These pics are spot on, but this is not, IMHO, a simple job. There are 4 of these nuts/fasteners, upper outer, lower outer, lower inner, upper inner. If you remove both outers you can wiggle the entire tail light assembly out, disconnect the wiring harness, then use a screwdriver to pry the tabs loose of the old ring.

Here is how I did it.

1. Remove outer nuts and pieces pictured above. The lower outer can be removed with an 8mm nut driver IF it is a deep socket to take in the screw to get to the nut. You cannot use a nut driver on the others though. I used a 5/16" closed in wrench. Closed end is critical. You'll never do this with an open end wrench. 8mm and 5/16" are close enough and these aren't hard to turn.
2. Wiggle the assembly out.
3. Disconnect the wiring harness. Just wiggle and tug. It isn't real tight.
4. Pry old ring off one tab at a time. Having a 2nd pair of hands here is helpful but not necessary. Sometimes they flop back on as you work your way around.
5. I removed the side from the sticky tape on the new rings, then put on the assembly. These were BMW part numbers from Way Motor Works. The factory models didn't have the sticky tape.
6. I then loosened the other two nuts (the inner upper/lower units)
7. Put the outer pieces in place, but didn't tighten.
8. Put the assembly back in.
9. Outer lower is simple - nut driver. I got it finger tight then went to the others.
10. Outer upper not too hard. Put the closed in wrench on the screw and use 2-3 fingers to tighten the wrench
11. Same on inner lower.
12. Inner upper - good luck. I am pretty thin. 160lbs, 5'11", and a runner, so I have those thin arms and hands of someone who runs 50mi a week and does maybe 10 pushups a week. I got my wife to do it. I couldn't get my hand up there and tighten it. She said her secret was to turn the wrench so it curved towards the rear bumper (exactly opposite of logic as I usually have the handle of a wrench curve towards me.)
13. Finally went back to outer lower and tightened it up.

Then repeat on other tail light. I am still not 100% certain I have it on water-tight. It doesn't seem to fit exactly like it did when it came off, but there is a nice rubber seal around it. I guess I'll find out in Jan/Feb when it actually rains in SoCal. I took the left one off 3 times and finally called it good enough. The right one I did once. If either leaks, I'll take to the dealer and pay them to fix it. They probably have a special tool for this that doesn't require yoga moves to get in there.

Anyway, they look FANTASTIC. As I said, the parts from WMW were BMW parts, so sort of surprised the Mini dealer didn't have them.

Highly recommended, but unlike the front rings, this is not a 10 min job.

 

just my 2 cents...

i had to replace the right tail light because a van driver decided to gently squeeze it with its vehicle

i could have let the service guys do it, but i said wtf...so, long story short, if you want a tight fitting tail light you have to make sure the 4 nuts that hold it in place are quite securely fastened. This is especially hard to do as far as the inner upper one is concerned. I used a short handle 8mm closed in wrench and, i must tell you, it was a job fit for a contorsionist. Not to mention that a new tail lamp has, what seems to be, a much beefier rubber/foam insulation outer layer which makes it in turn all the harder to achieve a proper "flush to the body" final look.

I suspect that removing part of the boot side trim would make access to that particular area much easier.

...and i think you have to place the tail light in FIRST, and then AFTERWARDS fasten the nuts in place. The first couple of times i did like you described it, with half-way fastening and then fitting the light in, but I just could not get that eye pleasing result as the light seemed to pop just a little bit off the body.

 

If you just remove 2 of the 4 bolts on one side, you run the risk of not having a tight fit when reassembling.

I did it this way at first, and when I put it back on, I had to angle the light to allow the tabs/bolts that were still attached to the light to feed into the groove of the body frame to make a tight fit...but every time I did so and attached the remaining 2 bolts, i was able to very easily pop the whole light out with my hands. It was apparent that the bolts I left on were not grabbing correctly.

So i wound up doing it the right way, which involved tearing the @#$%^& out of my hands trying to angle my wrist to properly attach the upper bolts. It sucked. I hope I never have to take them off again.

 

But Pidge, I don't think you have to remove all 4, but they do need to be loose to grab.

 

Yes you're correct, though tightening those inner two were the biggest PITA. I put on the entire JCW aero kit and that was easier than those 2 damn lights.

 

Ok, then it wasn't just me!

 

Just curious... If all bulbs are covered in the service plan that I have for the 6 year 100000 miles, then could I have them place the rings on at the same time they change the bulb? Or does changing the bulb not involve remving everything down to the trim?

 

No. You can change bulbs by twisting out modules. No tools required. Just like the headlights and fog lights.

 

Curious but do you really HAVE to remove the whole light just to take the rings off? The gen 2 MINIs just pop off by prying from the bezel side. The pic above of the tail light hanging out with ring removed shows what appears to be the same style clips as the gen2 models so it seems it could be done similarly without all that work.

 

The rear? Yes. The only person I've seen on this board that didn't destroyed the rings on purpose, and that you can do without damaging the tail light assembly, but there is no way to safely pry them off with the tail lights in. Even with the tail lights on my workbench, it wasn't easy to get the rings off. You almost need 3 hands to do it as it pops back in place and requires a LOT of pressure to pry off. It isn't like the fronts at all. I think you'd destroy your paint if you applied that kind of pressure while on the car.