[Guran]

I own a Liquid Yellow / White MINI Cooper S, 9/2002 build. Since the first day I washed the MINI, the one thing that has bugged me is the cheap & nasty black plastic wheel arches and side-skirts. They are a bugger to keep clean! I've been toying with the idea of getting them painted but the question is ... what colour?

Here's a few pics to show what I'm starting with ...

... more in my Gallery

I've been searching the Galleries and seen lots of body-colour-coded MINIs in various colours ... the dark colours seem to work the best. I also found the gallery of Mini Cruiser ... a Liquid Yellow Mini One with body colour arches/skirts and roof:

... more pics here

Hmmm ... now I'm starting to wonder if this is right for me. It looks a bit too yellow don't you think? Makes it look a bit too high in the body. The black arches/skirts seem to do a nice job of making the MINI look smaller than it actually is. Or maybe my judgement is off because this MINI doesn't have the bonnet stripes or the white roof? I'm puzzled about how a LY/W MINI would look with the body-coloured arches/skirts. I've already tried searching the member gallery but had no luck finding this combination. Can anyone help with some pics?

Another option is to paint the arches and skirts in glossy black, similar to S2000&CooperS. That way, I'd get to keep the contrasty look that you get with the black arches/skirts, but now have a finish that's easier to maintain and doesn't look like cheap plastic.

Of course, colour-coding will be more prone to stone-chipping but at least with a black finish, they won't be so obvious as they'd be with yellow ... another tick for black.

So ... I'd like to hear some opinions. No change, yellow coding, or black coding?

[ScottyB]

Quote: Originally Posted by Guran

Another option is to paint the arches and skirts in glossy black, similar to S2000&CooperS. That way, I'd get to keep the contrasty look that you get with the black arches/skirts, but now have a finish that's easier to maintain and doesn't look like cheap plastic.



.....or black coding?

Personally, I'm a lover of the black coding. Up until 5 minutes ago I hadnt seen that thread of S2000&CooperS's - but seeing as its the same colour combo basically as me, I'm sold - it looks blardy fantastic.

That said, My trims are still pretty good after ~10-11 months, with no treatment apart from the regular washes every weekend. Just the usual stone-chip central on the rear forward-facing arch flares, and the bottom of the sideskirts.

The full yellow bit isnt my thing, so I'd vote for the black painting if you wanted my opinion

[Guran]

Quote: Originally Posted by ScottyB

That said, My trims are still pretty good after ~10-11 months, with no treatment apart from the regular washes every weekend. Just the usual stone-chip central on the rear forward-facing arch flares, and the bottom of the sideskirts.

I made the mistake of following the advice of my Mini Garage and used tyre black to liven up the arches/skirts. It came up pretty good at the time, but now it's aweful!

Quote:

The full yellow bit isnt my thing, so I'd vote for the black painting if you wanted my opinion

Thanks for the comment! The full yelow, definitely not my thing either. But yellow, white roof, white bonnet stripes, yellow arches/skirts ... dunno. Maybe it might work.

[Gr8Dain]

What about white-coding? That would match the stripes, roof and mirrors? Not sure how it would look, though. Probably tough to keep clean.

Just a thought.

Dain

[Guran]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gr8Dain

What about white-coding? That would match the stripes, roof and mirrors? Not sure how it would look, though. Probably tough to keep clean.

Just a thought.

Dain

Thanks for the suggestion. Have you seen smurfin's MINI? No offence to smurfn, but the white skirts/arches are definitely not to my tastes!