In this thread I'm going to post up my progress as I go of unwrapping my Mini.

It's been a tremendously difficult task and I at least find it interesting the various levels of Matte and Astro mixed together as I progress.

In addition, how does the lease return work? I initially was going to extend my lease so I put off my end of lease inspection. Now I'm going to return it and the return date is actually today. However I was told by a dealer there's a 10 day grace period. A grace period I will have to exercise as there's still 6-8 hours of wrap removal to go. One nice aspect, if I were keeping it, is the paint is absolutely perfect underneath.

Also, I'm way over on the miles. A little over $4k in penalties over. Is there any way to negotiate this? I presume there's not as it was a contractual obligation. However if anyone has any insights or suggestions on this please let me know. The car is not worth buying and then selling so that's off the table.

Initially a few photos of what the car looked like. Not the best lighting. The car looks better in person and looks phenomenal at night and in the rain. The top photo is the best indication.






The result of the first day. Took quite a long time to get even this much with a heat gun.


Results after day two of removal. The door came off with relative ease.


Starting on the hood. I've found any of the wrap facing up is far harder to remove. It's very brittle due to constant heat baking. What you see here is about two hours of diligent work with a heat gun.



...to be continued.

 

Can't see any of your pictures. But $4k over!? Ouch!!

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the full wrap cost? I've seen pictures of your car before, it looks amazing matte black.

 

Yeah it was a 36,000 mile lease and I'm at 52,xxx now. :p

The place where I got it done normally charges $1500. IMHO the most bang for the buck you can do to a car. It completely transformed it. All the time people would come up to me and say "I don't normally like Mini's but yours is sick"

-Gene

 

Is anyone else having problems seeing the photos?

 

The only real way to negotiate the penalties down is if you're purchasing/leasing another car from that dealership at this point.

 

That was my plan but now it's 99% I'm picking up a GP.

 

I can see your pics. Man that wrap looks nice - too bad you gotta undo it! The bonnet is a total PITA, I've removed just stripes from the bonnet and it took forever.

I would agree that if you were going to buy a car from them, you'd have some room to negotiate the mileage...but without, you have no leverage. Doesn't hurt to try though.

 

It always costs you in the end to mod a leased car. The benefit you got was the lower payments while you drove it, but in the end it all catches up to you....

You committed the two worst "sins" when leasing a car, extra miles and expensive mods that have to be undone, next time you'll be smarter and either buy the car or if you lease, set up the mileage right or don't drive it so far and don't spend money modding a car you don't own!

Once you get all the wrap cleaned off and the adhesive off the paint, I'll bet it looks beautiful!

How did the hood hold up against rock chips and such, did the wrap save it like a clearbra does?

Enjoy the new GP!

 

Oh god, I thought it would have been way more. For $1500 it's definitely worth a drive to LI too. Maybe I'll add that to my list if I could ever pick a color.