Well I finally did it! I ordered my MINI! Pepper White, top to bottom. Of course my boyfriend is excited too. He wants to make it unique, but still have classic touches. He went out and bought a model this week and is starting to fool around with stripe colors and such, typical guy.

Can any one do us a favor? We have access to vinyl at a cheap price and want to do our own striping. Any one with either bonnet stripes or stripes that look like an old race car can be of help. The race stripe we like is a wide stripe with one smaller width stipe on either side of the wide one. The stripe goes from from to back down the middle of the car. THe bonnet stripes are I guess just like the ones on the movie The Italian Job? My BF describes them as having a contrasting pinstripe on each edge.

He wants to try different stripes on this little model. So if any one could give us some dimensions, he can make scale stripes.

So I guess what we need is the width of the bonnet, the width of a bonnet stripe and for any one with a racing stripe, the width; of the whole stripe combo, the width of the wide and skinny stripe and the space betweeen the wide and one of the skinny stripes.

Personally I don't know why he just can't eye them and not worry about these details, but he's a bit ****

Thanks gang!

 

I rather think you like him ****. Just a guess though.

Why don't you just go to the dealership and get the dimensions first hand. You might even see some in for service and in person with various configurations of the stripes you like.

 

Dealership is where I'd suggest also. You might also just consider having Cooper Flags do them, they are a sponsor.

 

>>I rather think you like him ****. Just a guess though.
>>
>>Why don't you just go to the dealership and get the dimensions first hand. You might even see some in for service and in person with various configurations of the stripes you like.

Hey now

We live 200 miles from the dealer. Any other ideas Mr. Mind in the Gutter?

Thanks for the advice, any one out there with a tape measure and 5 minutes? (Don't think about it rrypma! )

 

These are both pics of my MINI. I had these done at a local sign shop.


Note how I spaced the stripes further apart to be more similar to the striping of the classic Minis. I recall that those stripes were 3.5" wide




also my MINI. White edging is 7/16" and the black is 3.5"

 

Have you seen this new feature on the MINIUSA website? It allows you to customize a Mini electronically. It might help you try some ideas.

Good luck!

 

Thanks Dave!

Did they just make straight strips of vinyl? We saw a kit on line, I think it was a european company and they had a illustration of the stripe kits they sell. They looked like when laid flat on a table that they had a curve to them. I guess so they would compensate for the curve of the bonnet at the front? Bonnet! Each time I say that I think of a silly baby hat!

Any one have racing stripes?

 

there is a curve on the hood whch prevents you from putting stripes straight stripes on, there has been a few threads of people trying this and no luck. I haven't seen what angle the stripe has to be at ( if you find out post it please). My friend has access to vinyl and the machines to make all the cuts. i designed some stripes (see tribal Stripes thread on this forum) But she also made me the thick thin stripe for one side (may put it on if I get tired of the tribals) but they were mabe straight and I have no idea how well they will fit. As for how wide they are, experiment and find a size that fits how you want it to look. We made two of the tribals the first was about 6 inches and looked too small the present ones are about 7 3/4. If you have the access experiment ( mine was free so mistakes cost me nothing)

 

My stripes were straight pieces of vinyl.

 

>> As for how wide they are, experiment and find a size that fits how you want it to look. We made two of the tribals the first was about 6 inches and looked too small the present ones are about 7 3/4. If you have the access experiment ( mine was free so mistakes cost me nothing)

Here's the situation:

We have no car. We live 200 miles fron the dealer. We don't know of a car nearby to go see. We have a small model to work with.

If we could get an actual dimension of a car we could have a scale to work with. The distance from one corner of the bonnet to the other at the windshield would work. Then we could scale that on the model and make scale 3.5" bonnnet stripes. When we come to a decision we will have a mini of our MINI to treasure.

Racing stripe help?

 

Mine are 6 inches and 2 inches with a 2 inch gap from a place called vinyl-effects.com but lots of places sell these..

I can get you measurements later tonight if someone does not get it to you sooner.

 

I don't think(I'm not 100% sure) measurement will take into account the curve in the bonnett. You will have a straight line from front to end or from side to side. But what you actually have to measure would be the degree of curve of the hood and how that would effect how you would have to curve the stripe so it would be straight. do we have any math majors to help with this. All I know is a straight stripe won't work it has to be curved in order to appear straight.as confusing as that is afew people have tried to do this and ended up buying stripes because they couldn't figure it out. and they had cars in front of them. I wish you the best of luck and if you figure it out post it o more people can do it.

 

I had to adjust the stripes as they curved around the front of the hood.

I just cut a notch in the backing that held the 2 inch gap and slid the smaller stripe around until it looked good

With the offset stripe there is nothing to match against, so just eyeball what looks right.. no need for complex math or measurements..

I found the centerline of the hood by half the distance between the windshield washer jets on top and the MINI badge on the bottom, and just used that as a guide to keep the stripes straight..

 

The approximate measurements are 57 inches near the windshield area, and 50 inches from the top centers of the headlights

 

It's possible but difficult to get stripes over the curve of the bonnet. My installers spent 2 days, testing different methods (it was their first MINI), and by the time they settled on the method, it still took about 4 hours to get it on and the air bubbles out.

It really looks fantastic, but it was by no means easy. After I had this done, it became obvious why people put 2 stripes in a V pattern--as they are the flattest portions of the hood. I also thought I would have it go up to the windshield, but decided against it during the install. I thought since I wasn't trying to do a racing stripe that continued over the roof and to the boot, it wasn't necessary. I liked the contrasting look as well.



The main stripe is 7 inches wide, the stripes are 1/2" wide, and the gap is 1". I originally had a black border on the main stripe but upon installation felt it looked best without it.

I used a local sign place called Signarama. It's a franchise. I had used them before for other vinyl work and knew they worked hard! And this really tested their determination!

I will have full details soon on the install on my site at http://www.3forces.com/mini

Btw, I mocked it up on 2 MINI models. At 1/18 scale on my Maisto and a larger R/C MINI that I bought off eBay. I also used Photoshop on digital pix of the car. All the graphics were created straight--with no curvature. The installers needed to use a heatgun to stretch the stripe over the bulge, and make sure it was optically correct, versus technically correct!

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Octane Guy

 

Going for exact scale seems a bit overkill (I won't even repeat that other term). When mocking up a model for design "eyeing" is fine. Try some 3M automotive pinstripe tape in various widths and colors. It forms to contours easily and even though not exact scale will represent the finished look. Cutting bulk stock into thin straight lines is too tedious for me.

 

It took me and my brother some work to get my stripes on, but I like them because they're unique (so far). Of course, that was nothing compared to the invinca-shield we had put on the weekend before.

Edit: whew, posting the pics themselves, was HUGE...just go to the site below to see them.

There are other pics here you may want to check out.

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http://www.urdaddy.com/2003_mini_cooper_s.htm