Fresh Stripes and Completed Chrome Delete

For some reason the previous owner left a cup imprint on one of the hood stripes that kept bothering me so I ended up ordering fresh stripes from Mini USA to swap in.

Annoying blemish

The process was simple enough but tedious. I marked off the edges using painter's tape and heated then peeled off the old stripes. The problem is that it still left a sticky residue on the hood so I spent a solid few hours using adhesive remover to get it all off before applying the fresh stripes.

Edged marked

Residue left from peeled stripes

New stripes applied

I also picked up some "blackout tape" for the beltline to finish off the chrome delete look. It was also tedious and I'm not sure I like the finished look up close but it'll do for now. I may end up just buying the real replacement black trim to do it right.

Applying blackout tape

However the complete look with everything de-chromed looks so good.

Final look with the blackout and fresh stripes

JL Rubicon Steel Bumper

The factory plastic bumper on the wife's JK was quite scratched up by the previous owner and I had been looking for the 10th Anniversary steel front bumper for some time now but it's selling for a premium. After I learned that the JL Rubicon steel bumper is a direct fit, I went that route instead and saved several hundred over the 10th anniversary bumper in the process. 

Hooks scratched from shipping

Unfortunately the red hooks got scratched during shippping. It wasn't bad enough that I wanted to go through the process of shipping it all back for it to maybe just happen again. Instead, I picked up a can of Dupli-Color Perfect Match Chrysler in Flame Red (PR4) from Autozone and it's a perfect match. 

Perfect matching paint for the hooks

Perfect matching paint for the hooks

I sprayed on about 5 coats, waiting 30 or so minutes between coatings and you can't even tell I did anything.

Paint fixed

Installation itself was straight forward. I removed the OEM JK bumper and this one bolted right into the same place. It did come with OEM JL LED fog lights but apparently these don't work properly if your car is coded for LED lights. I also just recently installed the nice amber LED fog lights that I wanted but it doesn't bolt up directly to the JL steel bumper. To get around this, I picked up an adapter bracket from Amazon that allows you to bolt up OEM style bolt pattern fog lights into the JL steel bumper setup. The other advantage to using the aftermarket fog lights is that they already have longer cables meaning I didn't need to buy yet another pair of extension wires to make them work in their newer location further away from center.

Connect the amber LED fog lights to the adapter brackets

Bumper and foglights installed

Lights work great

Wiring loom zip tied to bumper

Clean install, even OEM plastic cover fits back in place

Also installed the Mopar bumper bar for it

Mini De-Chromed

I like cars with colors which is why the electric blue of the Mini works quite well. However, I'm not a big fan of all the chrome so I bought almost all the pieces needed to de-chrome. I did it over two days. The first day I just took care of some easy stuff like the emblems and the headlight and tail light trims.

Blacked out front emblem

Blacked our rear emblem, Cooper S emblem and tail light trim

I then went on to do the front grill trim and replaced the upper grill with a JCW grill with chili red stripe but opted to not put the JCW logo on (even though I have it on the back from the exhaust installation). I think it really makes the front look much more aggressive.

Front de-chromed

The previous owner also seemed to have managed to scuff the front passenger side fender trim. Since you need to unclip most of it to remove the front bumper anyway, I figured it would be little effort and cost to replace it with a brand new one.

Removed scuffed passenger front wheel arch trim

Lastly I replaced all the door handles and the fuel door cover with OEM piano black versions to complete the dechrome look. 

Replacing the door handles not just putting stick on black covers

Looking proper blacked out and front wheel trim replaced

Blacked out

The only bit of chrome left is the belt line. I want to replace it with the OEM black pieces but it's really expensive and almost not worth it so I'm going to attempt to just do a vinyl black cover first to see how it looks and if it doesn't look right, commit to the real replacement. The car also needs a slight drop but I've already got the solution for that. Just need time to get it installed.

LED Foglights

The previous owner of the JK had fitted LED headlights to get better illumination but it's still not bright enough on dark roads with little to no street lights. The factory foglights don't do much illuminate just the little area in front of you so I bought a pair of Raxiom Axial Series Tri-Bar amber LED fog lights to assist in getting more light out there without blinding other cars.

Raxiom Axial Tri-Bar LED fog lights

Unfortunately I've been a bit busy/lazy so it sad in the box for over a year until I finally got to install it. The installation itself was pretty straight forward. Although it's theoretically possible to unscrew the OEM foglights without removing the bumper, it's far easier to do it if you do remove the bumper first. 

Front bumper removed

Comparing the LED fog light (left) to OEM fog light (right)

Once you get the bumper off, just remove the four screws holding the OEM foglight in place, screw in the new foglight and connect the wiring. It's all plug-n-play.

Foglights installed and front bumper bolted back in

The color is perfect for a foglight and the added spread illumination really makes quite a different on dark roads so I'm very happy and mostly annoyed that I waited so long to get this done. 

Prepping For Sale - GTi

With a buyer now ready to take over my GTI, I wanted to hand it over in the best way possible. I always keep a bunch of spare fluids for all my cars so I wanted to at least get some basic maintenance of the way for the next owner so they can enjoy it worry free for a while.

Oil change was due anyway

Fresh oil and filter in

Next up was to change the tranmission fluid. I got the fluid some time ago and meant to do it last year but better late than never.

Fluids

Pumping in the fresh MTF

And last, it's probably a good idea to have fresh brake fluid so I gave that a flush as well.

Flush brake fluid

Then she was off to my go to hand car wash when I don't have time to do it myself to get her fully clean inside and out.

Last Wash

Looking fine as ever for the next owner

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 80,033

- New Mann oil filter and drain plug

- 5.75 quarts Liqui Moly 5W-40 Molygen

- 2.3L of VW manual transmission fluid

- 1L of ATE SL6 DOT4 brake fluid