Those two little dents are where the clips are under the arches. When the arches are loose, they lay flat. When you clip the arch onto the car and put stress on it, the dimples appear. It's easier to see on the painted arches because of the high gloss of the paint. The matte black of the stock arches doesn't show the deflection in the surface.

I didn't paint my arches. That would have been very cool, but I have neither the time nor the skill. Someone on NAM did do the sanding and prep work themselves and had them double primed and handed back for sanding again before passing them back to a body shop for painting. Search under 'painted arches' in the forums.

I know that the general flow is that the arches are chemically cleaned, sanded, cleaned, treated w/ adhesion promoter, primed, sanded, primed, sanded, painted, sanded, painted, sanded, and clear-coated. The paint and primer needs flex additive to keep it from peeling when the plastic bends.

I bought all new arches (about $300) from the dealer because I didn't want to be driving the car with no arches for a month. I also bought the aero side sills because I love the look of 'em but I like the stock MCS bumpers.

You should always replace the clips... they never hold as tightly the second time around and a completely new set only cost me $30-something from Classic MINI.

I took the arches and sills to a very high quality paint shop and paid for the 24 hours of labor + paint +tax + everything else. It was probably around $1400 for all of the paintwork. The shop has the reputation for being the best in Dallas and does all of the body work for the high-end dealerships in town (Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo, Bentley, Rolls...).

Most production repair paintshops wouldn't touch the work or, if the would, wouldn't warranty it. There are tons of compound curves, nooks and cranies. It takes a lot of sanding and meticulous prep or the paint will peel off and they will be stuck doing the work all over again... most wouldn't take the chance. The deep pores in the plastic are tough to get all of the release agent out of (wax) and, if you have ever used a silicone dressing (Armor All), that will have to be removed from those deep pores as well. It really takes a thorough, careful and knowledgeable body shop to pull it off well.

I'm loving the look of the gloss black painted arches. Very classy! If I hadn't gone PW, I would have thought very carefully about JB.

 

Jango looks even better in person! My wife and I met agranger on a recent Sunday run and Jango is stunning!

 

I think I must have gotten lucky...I only paid $300 for all of my arches. Then again, I have the aero kit, so there are a lot less arches that need to be painted (only the pieces directly above the wheels (not part of the bumpers). I don't have any pictures yet, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut until I do .


By the way...Lambspeed did the work for me. I bought new arches from Classic MINI and shipped them off to Lambspeed.

 

The dents were actually there before. It's the part where the arches' clips attaches to the bonnet. The colour coding made the divot more obvious.

Here's my contribution!

 

To all the examples...looks Great!!

I have been thinking about this for a while as well. The shop I have my car in now (slight run in with a taxi in DC) is trying to convince me to go aero kit. But I like the idea of buying new parts and combining stock arches and bumpers with the aero side skirts! I will have to look into this for the future.

 

I'll have to look at mine again. I haven't noticed those dimples.

 

Give it a few months or a nice, warm summer day... You can minimize one of them on the front wheel arches (the front piece) because it is held in place with metal bolts and black nuts on the inside of the bonnet... just back off the torque on the nuts and check it every now and then. There are other clips on the piece, just in case the nut comes loose, so you shouldn't loose the arch.

 

I have a bunch of "dents", actually more like chips, from trying the local dirt track. I would expect a bunch of filling and sanding.

 

Maybe we should get arches like these:

 

No for me, not my style.

MaC

 

Do it!! Do it!!

 

Ive had mine done from day one ...great when you polish and wax

 

Beautiful!! Great photos, too!

 

I think it's how it should have been from the start:

 

Slick!

 

Agreed!

 

pure Jet Black Sex!

 

checking out this thread has really lit a fire under me to do this on my HB/W MCS.

 

Do it!!! My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

Bster's car should give you a pretty good idea what to expect. Good luck.

 

Nuff,

I love your car in black, but blue can look cool too.




Bill

 

do you think that it would look alright to paint my arches white?

 

A few reccomendations:

Consider buying new arches to get it done for the following reasons:
1. Your car won't be off the road while it's getting done.
2. When they pull the other arches off, the plastic can get warped, and then they might not sit correctly when refitted (ie. gaps)
3. You can let the paint cure a bit (a week or so) and then get 'invisible bra' plastic fitted on the rear arches - they really chip up quickly as the front wheels throw lots of goodies back there to damage the paint...If the plastic is fitted while the arches are off the car, it could get done such that the seam isn't visible.

Also consider buying new clips, because many of them break when the arches are pulled off....

go for it!!

There's a guy down here who's car is painted to a smurfs theme with white arches:

Smufn's gallery

 

You can't be serious... Only if you paint the rest of the car, white.

 

Definitely a good idea i remember agrangers post about this in our local club board and i am already pricing all the replacement moldings, only difference is im going to get Aero kit side skirts to replace the OEM skirts, and im going to get the Lumma Tuning front bumper to replace the OEM one. My only worry (or current project) is that the Lumma Tuning bumper doesnt have spots on the fenders for the side reflectors (since over in Germany and UK they dont require them) so the question is do i just go without them and be "Euro" spec (since its not required by law in Texas to have them) or do i try and find a way to mod some lights (thinking about mounting some LEDs) into the fender arches.

 

All trim pieces for stock bumpers: about $300 at dealer
Aero side sills (primed): about $500 at outmotoring.com

PS: Don't try to buy a pre-painted aerokit. It sounds great, but the factory paints the bottom of the aero side sill flat black to blend in with the black arches... which you are going to paint anyway. It's just as easy to get primed sills and have them painted from ground up since you probably want them all one color anyway.

If you are going to re-use your arches, spring for the new clips ($30 for all needed clips from Classic MINI).

If you are going to buy new arches, new clips come with them, so there is no need.