What did you do to your MINI today?

SameGuy

SameGuy

Well-Known Member
I was hoping to be able to dig up a thread with this title in order to drop in a silly little mod I did today that doesn’t really warrant a thread of its own. Anyway, I’ll start off with that silly little mod, and please feel free to add a post, letting us know what you did to your MINI today, Silly, serious, happy, sad… whatever!
 
I de-badged the rather nondescript, energetic yellow blob on the hatch the first weekend I had the car. I know some folks here think that’s heresy. And that’s fine. I like the cleaner look without it, but to each their own.

That said, every so often I do wish that I could let people know my MINI Cooper “S” is electric. I rather do like the simple, lower case “electric” found on the tailgate of every Kona, Soul, and Niro EV. I checked online, and saw that every official source for the emblem was asking between $20-$30 plus shipping. I actually found a place up here that had it for $18 Canadian, but then when I tried to order it, they wanted to charge me $20 for shipping! So I moseyed on down to my local Hyundai store, and the parts guy told me it was $25 plus tax and would take three days so I ordered it.

5EEC22FF-3185-4109-8A19-ABA198A365D3.webp

Then stopped by the dollar store. My idea is that I do not want this emblem to be permanent, just to slap it on once in a while. My wife has had magnetic bumper stickers on all her cars, so I figured if I pick up an adhesive magnetic sheet, I may be able to cut out a magnetic backing for the emblem. And on we go.

I took a photocopy of the emblem and tried to adhere it to the adhesive backing paper of the dollar store magnet sheet, then started cutting with a utility knife. It turns out that this 26 mil sheet was very thin and could easily be cut with a fine point hobby knife like an X-Acto. When I weeded out all the letters I dropped them onto the emblem, which is when I discovered one problem with my plan: the emblem ships in a die-cut piece of foam core with the backing paper on one side and transfer tape on the front… because the letters are not attached to one another! This won’t work. I paused, then took my individual magnetic letters out to the back of the car to see if they would attach strongly enough. They did not. I’m pretty sure however I affix the emblem to the back of the car with this sheet, the air back there would rip it off before I even got to the highway.

08077CFE-E24D-4A00-9FA1-1163676A7696.webp 9796D11D-69BA-477B-BEDC-2E1C32C054E5.webp
F401742D-0969-4E96-BCCD-5004984BCA98.webp

So I ordered a couple of 30 mil and 60 mil sheets from Amazon and waited for them to show up.

New plan: I pencil-etched the emblem onto a sheet of paper, then added connecting bars between each letter, and cut out the template. I used the negative as a stencil, and a fine-point Sharpie to trace it onto the backing paper of the 30 mil sheet. I got out an X-Acto and started cutting. It was a little more work than I had hoped — next time I will bug a friend with a Cricut machine! Once I weeded the string of letters out of the magnetic sheet, I placed it on top of the chrome lettering again, and it looked quite good. Only when I removed the backing paper to adhere the two parts together did I realize I made one small error, but it’s not very visible in the final product: the I and the C of the chrome emblem do actually have a connecting bar and I put mine in a different place. I just didn’t look closely enough (and yes, it’s RIGHT THERE).

AEE4B937-541E-4617-8DDD-82A3E092A857.webp 01C0AE6F-99F4-4020-BF37-36D9312CFF16.webp

Anyway, out to the car!

66150ECE-E554-4A8A-B746-C513DA5E6B72.webp
 
SameGuy said:
I rather do like the simple, lower case “electric” found on the tailgate of every Kona, Soul, and Niro EV.
Click to expand...
It's funny you bring this up (the mod you made is really neat, btw). I was thinking just the other day how obnoxious I find cars with "PHEV" or "PZEV" on them, it seems kind of preachy about using less fuel. In my opinion, anyway. I much prefer having the yellow "E" badge the SE has. And an "electric" badge to me seems more in line with something like having "Hemi" on your car, it's touting the performance technology. I don't think anyone anywhere ever considered a hybrid as a performance vehicle. Maybe electrics will be considered the new "muscle cars" some day? They're already out-accelerating just about everything else.
 
I realized with the plastic bar between the I and C, I don’t really need a magnetic bar, so I snipped it off.
 
Puppethead said:
It's funny you bring this up (the mod you made is really neat, btw). I was thinking just the other day how obnoxious I find cars with "PHEV" or "PZEV" on them, it seems kind of preachy about using less fuel. In my opinion, anyway. I much prefer having the yellow "E" badge the SE has. And an "electric" badge to me seems more in line with something like having "Hemi" on your car, it's touting the performance technology. I don't think anyone anywhere ever considered a hybrid as a performance vehicle. Maybe electrics will be considered the new "muscle cars" some day? They're already out-accelerating just about everything else.
Click to expand...
Well this is pretty much what de-badging and murdering is all about. A lot of that was boy-racers picking up older E320s with hazy headlamps, then de-badging, tinting everything, and installing 22s trying to play-act driving AMG Hammers. Nothing wrong with de-badging, or leaving it alone. I mean, I wouldn’t personally do it to (or kill all the chrome on) a classic, but personalizing a new car? Hey, whatever turns you on.
 
I love that “electric” mod! Well done! : D

All I’ve done so far on the ‘23 is the Bimmercode suite of changes, but on the list is applying a sealant and hardwiring the dashcam. Possible other considerations include a clear bra, ceramic coat, chrome delete, interior piano black delete, euro spec convex side mirrors, and lastly thinking about stick on window shades in lieu of a tint. I live in a sun state where tints are great to have (and really necessary if you spend a lot of time in the car), but I also love being able to see the car’s interior from the outside.

Oh, I was thinking of a “high voltage” sticker with a skull, but it would be awesome to make something more OEM-looking like that “electric” decal
 
SameGuy said:
I de-badged the rather nondescript, energetic yellow blob on the hatch the first weekend I had the car. I know some folks here think that’s heresy. And that’s fine. I like the cleaner look without it, but to each their own.

That said, every so often I do wish that I could let people know my MINI Cooper “S” is electric. I rather do like the simple, lower case “electric” found on the tailgate of every Kona, Soul, and Niro EV. I checked online, and saw that every official source for the emblem was asking between $20-$30 plus shipping. I actually found a place up here that had it for $18 Canadian, but then when I tried to order it, they wanted to charge me $20 for shipping! So I moseyed on down to my local Hyundai store, and the parts guy told me it was $25 plus tax and would take three days so I ordered it.

View attachment 18502

Then stopped by the dollar store. My idea is that I do not want this emblem to be permanent, just to slap it on once in a while. My wife has had magnetic bumper stickers on all her cars, so I figured if I pick up an adhesive magnetic sheet, I may be able to cut out a magnetic backing for the emblem. And on we go.

I took a photocopy of the emblem and tried to adhere it to the adhesive backing paper of the dollar store magnet sheet, then started cutting with a utility knife. It turns out that this 26 mil sheet was very thin and could easily be cut with a fine point hobby knife like an X-Acto. When I weeded out all the letters I dropped them onto the emblem, which is when I discovered one problem with my plan: the emblem ships in a die-cut piece of foam core with the backing paper on one side and transfer tape on the front… because the letters are not attached to one another! This won’t work. I paused, then took my individual magnetic letters out to the back of the car to see if they would attach strongly enough. They did not. I’m pretty sure however I affix the emblem to the back of the car with this sheet, the air back there would rip it off before I even got to the highway.

View attachment 18503 View attachment 18504
View attachment 18505

So I ordered a couple of 30 mil and 60 mil sheets from Amazon and waited for them to show up.

New plan: I pencil-etched the emblem onto a sheet of paper, then added connecting bars between each letter, and cut out the template. I used the negative as a stencil, and a fine-point Sharpie to trace it onto the backing paper of the 30 mil sheet. I got out an X-Acto and started cutting. It was a little more work than I had hoped — next time I will bug a friend with a Cricut machine! Once I weeded the string of letters out of the magnetic sheet, I placed it on top of the chrome lettering again, and it looked quite good. Only when I removed the backing paper to adhere the two parts together did I realize I made one small error, but it’s not very visible in the final product: the I and the C of the chrome emblem do actually have a connecting bar and I put mine in a different place. I just didn’t look closely enough (and yes, it’s RIGHT THERE).

View attachment 18506 View attachment 18507

Anyway, out to the car!

View attachment 18508
Click to expand...
This looks great!
 
We finally got some really wet weather over the last couple of weeks, and indeed I saw how much water gets into the charging port. A while ago — while I was in full prepping-for-delivery-and-ordering-all-the-things mode — I got the smallest D-profile, black EPDM weatherstripping I could find. As noted in the original posts about sealing the door, it’s a tight fit and it takes a conscious effort to close it properly, but I’m confident it will keep most moisture out (when I’m not charging outdoors).

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I didn’t get it specifically for the MINI, but a kinda sorta did: replaced my ~10 year old tire inflator digital gauge (which I never really trusted) with a much better inflator. Based on online reviews, I went with the JACO FlowPro 2.0 and while the gauge looks a lot like the one I don’t trust, the whole unit just works so much better. I tightened on a 3/8 male I/M fitting and went out to check the MINI’s tires, and sure enough, they were all over the place: fronts 34.3 and 33.7 and rears 34.8 and 31.6. Bumped them all up and went for a ride, and I swear it felt different!
 
SameGuy said:
I’m pretty sure however I affix the emblem to the back of the car with this sheet, the air back there would rip it off before I even got to the highway.
Click to expand...
Only a couple of on-ramp/off-ramp blasts to 60 mph today because of traffic, but I can report that the emblem didn’t move. ;)
 
I just installed the Bimmer Tech amp upgrade (basically a preconfigured Audiotech Fischer MATCH UP 8DSP.) I did the subs a few months back and that helped a little but the amp pushed it over the edge. Sounds great for 40 minutes of work and fixes my main complaints with HK. It’s fully customizable with PC software so you can tweak to taste, far more control than “bass and treble” sliders.
 
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