UKPylot’s MINI Blog

My new plates came yesterday and I think they look rather good:

After reading many excellent guides to installing the stripes I bit the bullet today and stuck them on. I think I did alright, they don’t look obviously mismatched though I am sure a tape measure would tell the truth.

Turned out to be really easy, if you fancy doing it yourself the best advice I can give is use plenty of soapy water on the vinyl back, and the paintwork. I squeezed out the soap with the squeege naked, not wrapped in a cloth as suggested, and it worked out fine. I can’t see any air bubbles and have already done a few miles with them on and they still look attached. Its like my already super car got even super-er!

Well, the pictures are ok, I guess. Click here to see Sarah’s adventures in the high desert of Joshua Tree N.P.

New Stripes! New Stripes! There Will Be No New Stripes… Or will there (with apologies to Strictly Ballroom)?

The new stripes are here and they look great except… that they aren’t quite long enough. They don’t go from the top of the bonnet to the grille, there is about a half inch missing. I’ve read that this is ’standard’ but I am not sure what I should do. Do I have a gap at the top? At the bottom? Both? Or just give up on the whole stripe fiasco?

Spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park today, Sarah got her first off-roading experience including almost getting stuck in some sand. I tried to take a few arty pictures - MINI meets desert, we’ll see what they come out like tomorrow.

The final concorde landings took place at LHR earlier today, I had meant to get up in time to watch them on BBC America but totally forgot But you can watch the first two landings on the BBC website. A sad day for aviation and Great Britain, I think.

So after waiting excitedly for my stripes I’ve now decided not to use them. I think they look cool on the base Cooper but I’m not sure I like the way they go around the scoop on the MCS. Then I watched the Italian Job movies and decided that I wanted my MINI to look like a traditional one, with the traditional short stripe. So… I’m selling the Shelby Stripes - email me if you’re interested.

The stripes arrived last night and I can’t wait to get them on. But, after looking at it for a while I think I will have a professional install them. I have so little talent when it comes to these kind of things I don’t want to ruin Sarah’s look by screwing it up. There are a couple of promising looking companies to do it in the phone book so I shall see if one of them can fit me in early next week.