Heya fellas,

I'm tempted to replace the side trim on my Cooper S, as the current trim is beginning to come away in places due to a shitty job done by the car's previous owner (lots of nice deformed kinks that don't line up properly on the arch's for example).

I recall hearing that doing this is a royal pain in the balls. So can anyone give me some tips (and basically convince me) to go about doing the job myself?

I'm guessing the best thing to do is wait for a stinking hot day and lay the trim out in the sun for a few hours to soften it up.

yeah it comes rolled up and instead of fitting it with the natural curve going with the curve of the guard, you fit it upside down to assist in the bends onto the straight section

Put it in hot water to soften it up its much quicker. It wont matter what you do you will still get kinks in it till you have done it a few times

Hairdryer, carton of piss, couple of mates, and lots of patience - I tried all of them and there's still a couple of small kinks and little splits on a couple of the bends, but OK from 10' away
Happy with it seeing as it was my first go at it - hopefully get it better next time - one day

_________________
1969 Mini Cooper S MKII (1330)
1972 Honda 750/4 (his),1976 Honda 400/4 (hers)
1982 Honda CB1100RC (ours)

maybe you need to lower your standards a bit...

then you won't have so much of a problem with kinks

_________________

Buy yourself a coupple of beer, take your time. Not really hard but quite painfull. A bit of glue does miracle. Done mine last week end. And if budget allows buy 3

_________________

seriously this is the way. sadly i didnt get a photo no camera

Get the trim and if u have a clothes line run it along the longest wire that is on it, strill being patient with it though as it has been coiled up for ages. leave it for two days as im sure the time wont matter to u if u want it with no kinks. and seeing as they are $35 a side.
it will be plenty straight to go on. still be patient though as it is a bit tedious trying to get it on esperiously if u have flares. took no longer then and hour after that.

thats how i did it and its perfect. no kinks

_________________
PrOuDlY aSkInG qUeStIoNs FoR uR aMuEsMeNt

its not to bad, I have grp 3? flares and I got it on without to many tears. I didnt heat it up or anything...it was 40 degrees that day though. Just take it slow and rivert it as you go.

_________________

Hot water and/or a hair dryer is the go. I have done it on my car and it is not a difficult job! It just requires alot of patience. To get it spot on I spent about 1.5 - 2 hours per side (I am a perfectionist).

I didn't bother putting mine in the sun though so if you do that it may be alot easier and take less time to put on.

_________________
"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Does it just snap on or do i need to buy some clips aswell?

I didn't use clips, it just fits on. It would almost stay there but I pop rivited it on to keep it in place because it would probably vibrate off without the pop rivits.

_________________
"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

The proper Cooper S trim is held on with clips.
Pop rivets are for the plain type of trim fitted to the plain type of Minis.

I found years ago that there were two different brands of the Cooper S type trim. The dearer one was easy to fit, the cheaper one is still rolled into a tight roll even after 20 years. No amount of hot water, hair dryers or heat guns was ever going to straighten out the cheap one.

M1100, I held my trim on with pop rivits but I managed to get it straightened out. I paid $35 a side so is that the dear or cheap trim?

_________________
"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I just hate the way all this plastic trim shrinks in the Aussie sun, then looks like crap shortly befor it falls off.
The number of pieces is then 1 more than the number of pop rivets used.

Real Coopers (997s) had REAL S/S trim, 3 pieces per side. Then BMC went cheap.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

it will need something to hold it on