Insurance went out to Detroit Tuned, estimated the damage this round to just over $4000. New bumper is in already, but didn’t include any mounting hardware. Seems like this car is now cursed for bumpers.
We are considering a few options for lights and/or filling in some of the extra holes on the bumper to hide things. Hopefully it should only be in the shop for about a month.
Category: v2.0
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v3.0 Begins
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V3.0 new bumper
Well after a semi ran me off the road on an on ramp, destroying the Hamann front bumper that took 7 months to get and customize, I’m going with a different bumper this time.
The Prior Design bumper apparently isn’t anything new, but It didn’t show up at all on my searches last time. It’s more aggressive and some people called it ‘ricey’ but I think it looks cool.
Blue MINI Cooper v3 will be another beast yet again. It will need a light bar as well.
Prior Design link.
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Chakik 2.0 – Matte Blue MINI Cooper
Seeing the sunlight for the first time in 7 months.
The new Chakik 2.0 Matte Blue (Blue Dragon) MINI Cooper.
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Blue Dragon
It’s getting close (and we are running out of time!) The “Blue Dragon” paint sticker went on yesterday, so the color is now official. A few hoses and minor adjustments remain, I’m heading back to Detroit Tuned today to sign some final paper work, and hopefully help finish things up. It’s going to be down to the wire, literally. Poor Chad’s car is up on blocks…
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Out of Time
Dragon is in 4 days… car is not quite yet back together. A few minor tweaks and updates and it should be good to go tho. Here are some final teaser images, showing the tinted center cluster, DxR wheels on the car, and a photo that makes me wish I could run it without headlights.
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Almost there!
Not quite done, but its all down to the little details now. We still have 7 days before the dragon, so its all good. This will ensure it doesn’t get dinged up in the parking lot at work before we get to share it with the MINI world!
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Tires on Wheels Yokohama ADVAN Neova
We have tires! Chad is putting on his ‘gently’ used ADVAN Neova AD08 Yokohama Extreme Performance Summer tires on my fancy new wheels. In typical Detroit Tuned fashion, the balancing weights got the blackout treatment so that we don’t have any shiny on the outside, even if its inside the wheels. If you’re wondering I preferred the Yokohamas over comprable Dunlop Direzza ZIIs because of the tread pattern. #Details
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Joey Mod MINI Headlight Blackout
Well I finally did it, been wanting to ‘Joey Mod’ the headlights for years, and now was the time. I just happened to have my brothers heat gun (thanks Greg!) so today was the day to tackle this last exterior chrome.
It took a while to heat the lenses up enough for the black ‘goo’ to give up its grip. Once I got an edge up it came up pretty easy tho. Finding the clips from inside the upper bulb housing was a bit tricky at first, but they popped right off (be careful to hold your lights over a towel or something as when the second clip disconnect they fly off with decent velocity).
I could not reach the torx head bolts that hold the mid-housing in place, so I ended up taping off the rest of the light (including the inner reflector, to maintain brightness). A bit of the chrome ended up flaking off where I had cut the painters tape, which I touched up with some chrome paint I had, but you can still see them. So not perfect, but they look really good.
Reassembly was a snap, a brief heat with the gun before squishing the lenses back on and BOOM. No more exterior chrome! -
Details
Spent several hours at Detroit Tuned tonight (and at least one of them was actually helping) Car is coming together nicely, enjoyed some good company and a rousing game of “Cards Against Humanity”.
I am most excited now to see the engine back together, in its matching powder coated goodness.
The Redline Leather door wraps actually match up really nicely to the new blue, I’m very happy.
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Detroit Electric Blue?
Detroit Electric has revealed a picture of their first model, which looks awesome! But the color looks all too familiar.
Detroit Electric
Don’t get me wrong, this thing is sweet looking, and I doubt very much they looked at my minuscule blog and stole the color. Maybe something around here just says “Cars should be blue.” I know a lot of people that would agree.