My Recent Acquisition

June '18 - manual Steve.

Now swapped my plates over (4D), also got rid of the chrome light trims but the chrome grille remains as this is a 'remove the bumper' job.
I'm not into doing this myself so will need to pay someone else to do it.

Finally got round to doing the grille surround. I baulked at the idea of coughing up £95 for this part (cheapest on eBay). Anyway, I found the same company flogging it on Etsy.com for £85 so just went for it. Looks good.
Also put a bonnet stripe on it a few weeks ago.


That's me done as far as cosmetics go with the MINI.

Chrisnj said:

Are your Zak Graphics, the same style as you took off? That's the style I'm looking for in 'JCW red' to match my roof but I can't seem to find Zak Graphics when I search online? Can you put up a link for them or DM one ?

Click to expand...

No they are not the same style mate


They are JCW red though, I've not got round to putting them on yet but I peeled a small edge back to compare, bang on. There's 3 different reds to choose from - 'Matte Red' 'Red' and 'Tomato Red' - Select 'Red' if you want to match roof.
The vinyl is top quality, night and day compared to the previous stripes I put on.



I wanted 'genuine' F56 stripes (part no. 51142414310) I found 3 different companies, their prices ranged from £65 to £69.

This site I found does them for half the price - £35. Link.


I don't know when I'll get round to applying them but once I do I'll put pics up.

Right! I made a pigs ear of putting the stripes on There were no instructions with the product so I went for a 'dry' application, that turned out to be full of trapped air, small 'bubbles' which I tried to repair by pricking them with a pin.

So for the larger piece I decided to go wet, absolute disaster it was, in the bin it went. I wasted my money again! I'm hopeless at putting vinyl on a car, totally hopeless, never again.

Anyway I've taken a pic of the one wee little bit I managed with 'pierced bubbles' the JCW red looks good right enough, but that'll be ripped off as it looks awful. The car won't ever have stripes now, I move on.


If my missus got wind of my stupidity regards this car and bonnet stripes she'd kill me.

Okay. Some of this vinyl I still had left over (for the rear) I've brought it to use. What ya think? Rip off or keep?

I quite like as is, but if it looks ridiculous just say. My mind changes like the weather anyway.

Could very easily be the case here today, gone tomorrow.



I still have a little more of the vinyl left, was thinking of doing something similar to this next pic obviously going up the way.



What's the peoples thoughts?

When the sun shines.

Put these side stripes on today. These are meant only for the R56 but with some trimming they fit the F56. They came from the same company the bonnet stripes came from.

Got the front splitters, OEM part, cost me £122 off eBay (cheapest I could find). My local garage fitted them for me £45, thought that was very reasonable.



Rather satisfied with the 'look' they offer to the front of the MINI.

I put this photo up on another media platform, thought it should deserve a place on here too.

Blacked out rear side window today, failed at this last week as it isn't an easy job for any amateur like myself and requires lots of patience. Practice makes perfect though. Took me hours on and off.
Will get round to doing the other side and then the rear window at some point.
For this type of work the professionals are asking £100 for 2 side and rear, I paid £6.95 for a 3M x 50CM roll, this is the very dark Limo 5% tint. Visibility from inside the car is fine.

Other side done, this is a very difficult job for me, not quite perfect but close to it.

I had a go at the rear window (not something I was looking forward to btw) and really messed up, ruined what I had left of the tint so will need buy another roll, no big deal as it's very cheap (quality is tops). I know now where I went wrong and will try again and again until I've nailed it.