[Rayman]

Since the weathers decided to pick up a bit I decided to give the cooper its first wax of the year. Also for the past few weeks ive been trying my hand at painting a tailgate handle in body colour.
Today I fitted the tailgate handle to the cooper, im pretty chuffed with the results and wasnt as hard as id first thort it was going to be. It took me two attempts to get the correct finish i was after, the first attempt came out a little bobbly but the second was nice and smooth, the key to it was in the sanding with 1200 wet/dry between coats! If anyone wants any advice Pm me, I have a good web link on my favourites and will also offer some tips!

I also removed the cooper badge off the back, im after getting rid of most of the chrome off the back as i just dont really like it. I used a hairdryer to heat up the adhesive and some floss to pull the letters off, works a treat.
I prefer the look of the Cooper S on the back and am going about trying to create that on my cooper! Next to come will be the aerokit rear without the alu look stickers!

Here's the pics of the new look:-

Before with heaps of chrome:-



After debadged and new colour coded handle:-


Close up of paint match on new handle:-




Close up of debadged area, no marks or paint fade!


What do you think is the new look better?

Cheers

Ray

[luke o'callaghan]

looks sweet ,nice subtle mod, good job

[Rayman]

Thanks Luke!

[ImaVunDerBrah]

LOVE the debadged look. Very nice work! I've been thinking about doing it to my Cooper as well.

[Kaj]

real nice i think i might take badge off my one 2moz

any tips about doing it or is it just hairdryer and floss all the way

[nylo]

yeah, it looks a lot cleaner. That was one of the things I preferred about the S way back at the start when I was looking at getting one- the lack of 'mess' on the back- the one colour just makes all the difference! Good work man

[Rayman]

Thanks for the kind comments people!

Kaj the best method to removing the badge is just to heat the badge up with the hair dryer then just run the floss behind it and pull down, each letter shud just fall off providing youve heated it up enuf!

Once the letters are all off you will have some remaining adhesive wher the letters were. Use the hair dryer again and rub the adhesive off with yer finger. This way the adhesive will just come off easy and you wont scratch the paintwork.

The adhesive is a bit tricky to remove if you dont heat it up.

Good luck with it!

[Kaj]

cheers man ill post pics 2morrow of how it goes

[Veron781]

Looking good

[Gr8Dain]

Looks great. Are you thinking of getting rid of the chrome on the bumper? You mentioned the aero bumper, but what about until then? A little more painting practice eh?

I like the paint job. Looks OEM (or better).

Dain

[CC1970]

would love to de badge my car . but just had a new tailgate due to damage by a car wash the week i got it (dont ask) and the tit who put the new one on has dented under the badge..gutted..
What wax did you use ? been using auto glym super resin on mine (had eight coats0 but i dont seem to be getting that finish i want.

[Rayman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kaj

cheers man ill post pics 2morrow of how it goes

Yeh nice 1 please do that! :-)

[Rayman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gr8Dain

Looks great. Are you thinking of getting rid of the chrome on the bumper? You mentioned the aero bumper, but what about until then? A little more painting practice eh?

I like the paint job. Looks OEM (or better).

Dain

Am currently practising my painting skills on an aero grill (will post that in another thread), the big chrome bar on the back will stay like that, i will be getting the aerokit or cooper s rear bumper very soon so its not worth painting it!

[Rayman]

Quote: Originally Posted by charliecroker1970

would love to de badge my car . but just had a new tailgate due to damage by a car wash the week i got it (dont ask) and the tit who put the new one on has dented under the badge..gutted..
What wax did you use ? been using auto glym super resin on mine (had eight coats0 but i dont seem to be getting that finish i want.

Have been using turtle wax but its not that great, u want meguires. thats generally thort of as the best i would say! I will have to buy some of that fine swirl remover stuff they do!

[Rayman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Veron781

Looking good

Thanks! :-)

[onemini]

I waxed my car for the first time in ages... must be the sunshine that brings the mini nuts out. The colour coded boot grip is such a nice mod... I did mine last year and it makes such a difference. I previously had the mini One black then the chrome but coded is the way to go

[wibbly]

Very Nice

[PortRhombus]

Well thats frigin gorgeous.

Boot handle hard to take off? Iv been thinking of doing the same thing.

Is the handle plastic with a chrome paint on it. Which you then sanded off ready for painting?

[Rayman]

Quote: Originally Posted by PortRhombus

Well thats frigin gorgeous.

Boot handle hard to take off? Iv been thinking of doing the same thing.

Is the handle plastic with a chrome paint on it. Which you then sanded off ready for painting?

Boot handle is easy to take off, ther are 4 torx screws underneath the handle. U may need to remove the plastic cover from the inside of the boot to unclip the wire connection!

The handle i used for painting was originaly chili red bought off ebay. I sanded it down then used plastic primer and sanded between coats of the indi blue! It wud be possible to use a chrome one but ud have to get rid of all of the chrome else the primer wud not stick!

You can also buy them ready primed from Bmw , i have one here that i bought as a spare, i will be putting it on ebay soon i think, the reason i bought it was because i thort id get a better finish with a pre-primed tailgate but having used the ex-chili red one i no longer will be needing this!

[onemini]

Quote: Originally Posted by PortRhombus

Well thats frigin gorgeous.

Boot handle hard to take off? Iv been thinking of doing the same thing.

Is the handle plastic with a chrome paint on it. Which you then sanded off ready for painting?

The other day I saw some boot grips in most colours for sale on ebay for a good price. I think they were by the same seller so keep your eyes open.. he might list a load again.