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.
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| Blacked out front emblem |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Replacing the door handles not just putting stick on black covers |
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| Looking proper blacked out and front wheel trim replaced |
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| 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.
