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One of my 2nd cousins visited after Xmas, this is their 2001 Cooper, one of the last ones built. It's been a daily driver since new & TBH I don't know how much more life it's got left in it - maybe a couple of years of increasing patching, but it's really got to the point it needs a full restoration, which will be completely uneconomic

My first attempt at vinyl wrapping - satin birdseye maple on the two hard dash trim parts:

Also had a go at the mirror caps - after the passenger side took a bit of a knock I wanted to make it a bit more visible ... I got a used pair off eBay, and hoping that BMW's use of water based paint extended to the mirror caps, I gave them a light rubbing down, primed with Hycote White Plastic Primer, then rubbed down again..

The first colour coat (Hycote Fiat Golden Yellow) went on fine, but near the end of the 2nd coat, one of the caps got hit by what I thought was a kamikaze greenfly. After leaving it 48hrs turned out to be a very small flower petal held on by the merest touch, so came off really easily.

Colour coat 3 went on, then a couple of coats of clear. I went a bit too far on one & got a large sag I left it for a week before rubbing out. TBH I'm happy with the standard I achieved, but I'm unconvinced by the overall look now.

Amazing work on your cooper Jonny. Congrats.

The R50 is no more, fixing problems early / doing basic fluid checks are not "a thing" on that side of the family


My R56 (despite having the "chocolate" N12 engine ) continues to be fine, although it had been overdue a clean for a while ... those silly wheels get dirty really quickly, but  the amount of cobwebs, dust & leaves accumulating were beginning to get embarrassing.

I did the wheels this morning & had planned to do the rest properly - but piecemeal - over the next few days. It went from overcast to quite bright sunshine between starting to get stuff out & starting work, so TBH I did a pretty half-assed job - chucked some Mer polish in the bucket along with the shampoo, wash, rinse, (artificial chamois) leather off. 

I think I got away with it due to there still being a lot of wax/coating on it from doing it properly the time. It must have been a while, apparently from before the false Spring this year, if the squash ball sized abandoned wasp nest in my stack of buckets was anything to go by

I put it on the bird table - something must have thought it had some nutritional or nest building value as it went quickly   

After 6 years of getting baked in the sun & pelted on by rain & hail, the mirror caps I sprayed up were looking a bit worse for wear ...

If you look at the top side of one (on the right) vs the underside of the other you can see tha the clear has peeled in places & was going opaque in others, and the yellow had faded.




I only rubbed the existing paint down as far as I thought I needed to rather than taking it all off. I think the issue here was a combination of contamination from waxes, and me trying to get an even, thick layer of primer in one go rather than several light coats ... either way it all had to come off & if much more careful with the degreasing second time around.




I went with Post Office Van red this time, not sure how it will really work until they are back on the car, but the clear needs to sit for a bit longer before I rub it out

IDK how well it shows up in the photos, but the 7-year vinyl on my Mini roof was in its eighth year and showing it - the blue was a whole shade lighter and cracked in places, and the red, almost pink in places. The definition of "unservicable" is pretty nebulous, but like "quality", you know it when you see it. 

The last couple of years, I'd used wax polish on it & it was just about ok, but this year it was clear that it needed retiring, and replacing.

I'd already washed it here, so you'll have to imagine the stuck down leaves, and algae Still wet in the middle, and probably hiding the worst of it:




Note cracks:




No photos of the removal process, I used a hot air gun to warm up a small section at a time, and an orange plastic "razor" blade in a scraper. I was a bit skeptical, and I won't say it was quick or easy, but I didn't create any new problems for myself.

All edges (including tthe cracks) had sticky stuff that needed removing - I would have used my bottle of Detailed Online Tar and Glue remover, but couldn't find it so had to use IPA instead.

I did try to replace the Tar and Glue remover, but now the nearest thing is called "Tar and Grime Remover", which doesnt sound like it's the the same thing at all  



New vinyl came from the same supplier on eBay as the first one, fitting process was a lot quicker the second time around.

TBH I didn't think about the lifespan of the vinyl when I'd first put it on, if I had I probably wouldn't have expected to still have the car that many years into the future. The Mini is now 16 years old, so I'm pretty sure I won't be doing this again in another seven years  

Again, I don't think it shows up that well, but note the deeper blue & the reflection of the bare tree in the red.





 

A fine name indeed.

You know, I'm fan of the mini. Austin as BMW.  And you should keep yours. My daughter had a cooper bmw mk1. In my legendary color. Red with white roof. The roof flag vinyl is awsome. If it can help you, for further stickers remove, a gummy tool exists to put on a drill and remove stickers on real car bodies.