Mini Cooper Boot Stripes: DIY Install (with pics).
This step by step diy guide to installing the boot stripes for a Mini Cooper will easily take you from start to finish and help make that Mini Cooper stand out in a crowd! A big Thanks goes out to Matt Cook for allowing us to use and archive this information.
We’d been warned by another NAM member that the instructions were for BONNET stripes, so we were prepared, but really all the techniques covered in Mike’s directions apply to the boot stripes as well. All in all, the install took only about 30 minutes, not including the time it took to saw off the Cooper badge (no more than 10 minutes tops).
Here’s the car the day before, sans stripes.
Here, I’ve cut off the Cooper S badge with dental floss. It was a hot day, and I didn’t even need to heat them with a hair dryer or anything. As you can see, very little glue was left behind and the little that was peeled right off with a fingernail. A dash of WD40 dissolved the remnants. Note that I’ve marked the location of the old badge with bits of masking tape- this will be my guide for replacing the badge after I’m done.
I placed a strip of clear tape across the badge prior to remval- this way, if I ever need or want to re-use it, I won’t have to worry about getting it straight.
The strips all laid out and ready to go.
The nice thing about Cabrio stripes are the rounded notches a the bottom of the stripe that fit around the external trunk hinges. Even still, we had to adjust the tops of the stripes a bit to assure they were equally spaced. The stripes, still on their backings, are secured with masking tape at the top, bottom and center. I recommend taking your time, getting them straight then walking away for a few minutes to make sure they really ARE straight before the next step.
The top edge of the stripe is un-taped and the backing is peeled away down to the middle tape. The top half of the backint is then trimmed off with scissors. Here, the backing has already been trimmed away, leaving the top end of the stripe to dangle. It’s squeegee time!
Holding the top end of the stripe AWAY from the car, smooth the stripe gently, but firmly upwards. Your first instinct here is to go fast, lest the sticky stripe fall and cause a bubble. RESIST THE URGE and go slow, “sweeping” gently upwards. This will greatly reduce the number of air bubbles in the vinyl later.
Smooth the top half all the way to the chrome top of the boot (you should have about half an inch extra- don’t worry about that yet. After, lift the bottom half of the stripe and repeat the process, using the same even motion as before. We found it helpful at this stage to have a second person hold the two “halves” that bracket the chrome hings, just to be sure, but you can probably do it all alone. Just work slow.
Repeat on the other side. Here, I’m trimming off the top half of the backing from stripe #2.
…then smooth the top half down. Note how I hold the exposed sticky end AWAY from the paint, letting the squeegee do all the work.
When the top and bottom are secure, trim away some of the excess with a razor leaving enough to wrap over the top edge as seen above, being careful to not cut into a rubber seal or into the paint. Again, Cabrios are wonderful for this since their boots are hinged on the BOTTOM edge.
Once you have all the edges firmly squeegeed down, get a fingernail under the clear plastic top sheet and GENTLY peel it back. We can’t be sure, but we are fairly certain that the tiny air bubbles we saw in our boot stripes were actually caused by the top layer being peeled off and taking a bit of the vinyl with it, and not by us accidentally trapping air under the stripe- in a few places the top coat was so sticky that it pulled off pinholes of the black stripe material. We’ll try to fix them with a black ink dot in the morning, but we did get a few pinholes in the black part, which was frustrating. Also, DON’T FREAK OUT if you have a few bubbles after this step- I talked to at least a dozen people before doing this, and they all told me that a few days later the vinyl “shrunk” down till all were no longer noticable. In other words, don’t start sticking the bubbles with pins if you see any- wait a few days and see if they go away all by themselves.
Mini Boot Stripe Installed
The chrome replacement badge comes on a tape strip, too. Align the badge using your tape marks from step 1and then press ‘em on.. Peel the tape away and you are done.
Complete and Looks Great!
Mathew Cook (ImagoX) was nice enough to allow us to use his how-to install Mini Cooper boot vinyl stripes and pictures. Mathew Cook is the Author of the Popular Blood Magic book series that was nominated for the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Check out his books below!
Blood Magic
Blood Magic - Nights Of Sin
Good thing that he is also a Mini Maniac and provided us with some really good info for the site.
Alternative how-to Youtube Video Created By:dlopez8a
A simple a quick video on youtube with some helpfull tips for installing vinyl stripes on the boot or hatch lid of your Mini Copper.
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