Just purchased my Mini last Saturday, and the down tubes and interior door handles are worn, and need to be repainted.

My question is how do you remove the the down tubes and the door handles.

I noticed two screws on the downtubes as marked by yellow circles in the photo of my interior. The passenger side looks like a no brainer open the glove box to get to the top screw, how do you remove the top screw on the drivers side. Does that panel under the steering assembly come off.

On the door handles I have circled two of the screws with red circles, there is a third screw that didn't make it in the photo. If I remove those three screws will the door handle come off or are there more steps needed. I don't want to start hacking the car up, but want to bring them back to the showroom look.

Thanks in advance. Photo below.

 

Best of luck with your new MINI ! And you have an awesome signature already

Panel below flips down and is hinged at bottom. Grab opening under the steering column and pull downwards hard. Sometimes I bang my knee doing this while seated as it seems to be the best position when doing so....

You also have to pop the center console panel for the heated seats and remove the phillips head screw(s) under there, and the ones at the bottom of the cup holders. This allows you to articulate the center console back some to free up the bottom of the down tubes.

 

Look for heading "How to Remove Interior Bits" in this thread, has photos.

http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?f...line_interrior

 

Thanks. Made the signature myself. Made them on some Mustang forums for years, so I've had a little practice.

Thanks for the tips.

 

I never do anything with the center console. Just pop the dash covering out (there's a screw on the right, angled up), and the downtubes angle out an can be pulled out.


On the door panels - bad news. The screws identified (plus one under the reflector near the rear of the door) must be removed to remove the panel, but the handle itself is attached to the panel with melted plastic 'rivets'. To remove the handle you need to grind/cut the rivets off, then glue it back on after painting.

 

i wonder if this makes it easier then undoing the center console...

when i wrapped mine, i did the whole center console thing and still found it pretty difficult to take them out. it was hard to pull down and angle out... losening the dash seems like it wouldve been easier!

o well, good tip for next time.

 

Bummer!! I guess I'll have to mask off the area and paint them on the door panels.

 

Hey this is a great idea. Can you post before and after pictures of your work?

 

Just an FYI - the way I got the downtubes out without removing the cupholder was to remove the torx screw under the right hand side of the speedometer and removed the anthracite trim piece below the speedo. It allowed the downtubes to move enough from the top to be removed. Just my $.02

 

you can remove the arm rests though... there is a clip underneath the armrests - you need a tool to get back there to release it...

 

Sure thing.

Lot's of masking tape and plastic drapes.

 

Thanks Billy!!!

 

Are you sure about that? The '05+ has a removable armrest, but my '04 has the armrests stuck on, in addition to three *tiny* torx screws that can seemingly can only be accessed if the handle/armrest is removed.

 

Any progress?

 

This is my first attempt at painting the downtubes,vent and Nav trim.

 

WOW that's blue. Looks great!

 

Thanks, as i said it was a first attempt, was thinking of doing black, but then i said, too much black, I may do the door trim black, just to see how it looks. I picked up all extra trim peices just incase I screwed up. Just waiting on the speedo and tach trim ring, and then I will paint that.

looked at your photo's and the red looks real nice, actually my favorite color on a Mini