Well here is a blast from the past. It occurs to me that I still haven’t got around to posting the one final thing I did on my old R50 Mini Cooper before selling it; Replacing the bonnet stripes.
When I obtained the car from the previous owner one thing that was included with it was a roll of new bonnet stripes. The original stripes looked nice from far, but they were far from nice, with shrinkage, fading and peeling.
Before I sold the car I decided to finally have a go at replacing them. Before removal the old stripe position was marked with tape, so the new stripes would go in the same place. The old stripes came off fairly easily and quite cleanly with some heat from heat gun
Due to the stripes shrinking there was old dry adhesive left in places though.
Trusty old De-Solv-It sorted the adhesive out
It does clearly show the fading of the paint though, it’s a deeper yellow under the stripes
The new stripes come in a self-adhesive roll
After a quick clean (and a wipe with isopropyl alcohol where the stripes will be), the new stripes were carefully applied, using a plastic blade to try and reduce the bubbles under the vinyl. I started at the top by lining the edge up with the edge of the bonnet clamshell, but you could also fold it under at the top too.
The stripe is slightly too long and needs to be trimmed
I trimmed it slightly longer than needed, and using a heat gun to soften it, folded the vinyl under the edge
The protective backing was then carefully removed
The other stripe was applied in the same manner
Sadly, but as expected, there were some bubbles. Using a heat gun helps to lessen them, but in general, there are some that just won’t go away
And it was done
The stripes still looked great over a year later when I last spotted the car at British Car Day 2019
Well worth the small amount of work.
Discover more from Tastes Like Petrol
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.