Hi guys,
I'm a long time reader and FINALLY a first time poster.
Three years of waiting and a bunch of bank nonsense, my parents surprised me with my new hot chocolate R55s a week ago (after a well thought out prank that even involved the dealership...)

Anyways. here it is




and a day later it looked like this



I'm in love with this car because it never ceases to amaze me and I finally have my own car to drive to campus everday..

Future plans:
lowered on some coil overs
hella 500 driving lamps
amber side markers
cooler rims
dechrome exterior and interior
debadge

Its my first car so I'm open to suggestions. Thanks for reading!

 

Looks great! Who'd you go with for your light ring de-chroming?

 

@nvmini
thanks! I just sprayed them with plastiDip and it came out pretty well. I think i'll eventually do it over with some vinyl when i have money. I cant figure out how take off that little headlamp washer cover to paint though.

 

Very nice indeed!

I need to try this plastidip stuff

I have a lot of the evil chrome on my lower bumper

 

Oh by the way, be careful with the headlight washer, I broke one trying to take them off! Warranty :p

You can pull the washer physically out and hold it, i wrapped mine this way

 

Nice surprise!
You must be a great child...
Good choice of color, but hard to keep "looking new"... Find a good detailer, and make him/her your new best friend.
Here is the gallery of my old HC Clubman, just for some inspiration and stuff...
http://sisoje.zenfolio.com/p698573493

Good luck!

 

Thanks!
I tried removing it once and pinched my palm pretty bad, so the headlamp washer cover thingy is staying put.

haha i'm a 3rd year pre-health student and I never had a car to drive myself to campus, so this was my happy birthday/happy graduation/ merry christmas gift to make up for all those years

I really agree that the color is hard to keep clean, i just washed it and the morning dew already did a number on the roof..

ONE QUESTION!
Is there anything you would suggest putting on all the grey/black "plastic" trim around the car to keep it looking new? i don't want it to start fading into a lighter grey as the years progress.

 

There is only one thing that helps: don't put any wax on it and clean it with black wow...

 

thanks!
very nice hc clubbie btw, helped me visualize how i eventually want mine to look

 

got a DIY on the plastidip? i bought the spray but havent gotten around to using it do to bad weather.

 

Congratz man! give us the story about the prank they gave u?? lol im dying to hear about it =P

also, wat kind of add-ons does it have?? =D

 

@oreoSAll4
I would suggest to hold off on spraying until the weather warms up.
all i did was removed the parts (headlight rings, upper/lower grille surround, and scuttles)
i gave them each a good cleaning to take off any fingerprints and dust, then laid them out on a table and gave them each 4 solid coats in 20 min increments. (the first was really light and the successive coats were even throughout)

I would suggest not to go heavy on any of the coats though, and spray like a foot or so away to it doesn't start to run and get messy.
After that, just let it dry inside for a night and put them back on the car

 

@kcle730
thanks, well its a REALLLLYYY long story.

two weeks prior to getting the car we had gone to the dealer, and after hopelessly trying to negotiate a decrease in price, we walked out and went home to see how it would play out (the car was a demo and had been on the lot for almost 4 months so they were trying to sell it desperately.)
I watched the car like a hawk everyday on the autotrader and irvine mini dealer site to see if it had sold or not. a week had passed and they finally let up and dropped the price like $800.. next day it was down $1000.. A week after I was in SD for the weekend and that first night i was there it dropped $2,000 more.. so i texted my brother to tell my parents about it but no response. Monday rolls around and im checking the listings and everywhere it says that the car was sold.. around this time my heart was crushed. I sent my mom a picture of the listing saying it was sold and also showed it to my brother and both of their responses were like, "well.. that sucks. sorry" ......

So we went again just to start looking again for another car, and when we showed up the car was sitting in the lot with a IM SOLD paper on the dash. The salesman walked out and he was like, "hey man, im really sorry but we sold the car over the weekend. Shes suppose to be here today to pick up the car, come check it out" so I walk over and he hands me the IM SOLD paper.. at this point i was so confused as to why he was showing it to me, the name said "Amanda Huginkiss" (A man to hug and kiss). I looked at the paper for a minute because i didn't get it and when i finally turn around he was holding the key and my brother had the camera square in my face..

Turns out they had purchased it that Saturday when i was in SD and had told the salesman to see if he could play along in their sick little prank.. I got played so well. hahaha

Anyways, the car is pretty well loaded:
Convenience package
Sport package
Cold-weather package,
Premium?
plus:
Adaptive Bixenon headlights
Harmon Kardon System
roof rails
interior chrome package?

we got a pretty good deal so im extremely happy with the result

 

congrats. very nice car

 

Congrats! Maybe I'll see you around in Irvine

 

I see you have the adaptive xenons, these may be different from my std xenons in terms of the ease to remove the washer cover.

Also could you post a link as to where you got your plastidip from? :D Thanks

 

thanks!

@Sportspack Mark: I didn't know there was a difference, i'll look into it. I'm studying for finals so doing anything to my car is being postponed haha

But you can find Plastidip at Home Depot, or most any other Hardware supply store that has a paint department.
OR
www.dipyourcar.com sells them for slightly higher but they ship and sell kits

 

Hahah! awesome story man! so you're in SoCal! maybe i'll see you someday! around meets and stuff! I sometime do mod parties with other MINI so lets get together soon! ;]

 

haha yea it was quite a prank.

For sure! what city are you from? i see you're in OC so must be close

 

I love this color

 

in garden grove, about 5 mins away from Disneyland LOL i also got a Hot Chocolate R55 S ;]

 

no way!! I live borderline GG/santa ana haha just about 5 minutes from dland too!

haha geez small world. I hope i'll see you around sometime! i've only seen one other hc mini but it was a countryman..