Yeah. No worries on the hood. Some fit well, some don't. I'm not all that worried about it. If I get the carbon hood, this one may stay in the attic for a while just to give me the option of switching back.

That hood just never agreed in the rear unfortunately.  It was close but sat a bit high in the center if memory serves me. If you decide to ditch it I could actually use it on my pickup.  You also picked the worlds most complicated metallic to spray lol.  Even the guys that mixed the paint commented on it.  Thanks for the compliments though.  I'm seriously sick of working on other cars for now at least.  Still have one shell to knock out and then back to working on my own toys!

I can tell you first hand that Dan's work is FAR above any body work I've ever seen done by others that have worked on my cars. And it was done in  BARN! haha. The gaps are perfect and everything is square. The hood itself is an issue, but I'm thinking it will be put on a shelf soon and replaced with carbon.

The paint? That's the best part. Honestly, I'd do it all over again. Dan might not want to, though haha. He knows the level of detail I like and he delivered more than I expected.

dan, i'm sure you have. i've read everything on your site and love the way you

work. it's really amazing.i just finished the thread on mighty mouse's rebuild.

i wish i lived in ok., i'd be knockin on yer door.lol

I've seen far worse, it's not that bad.  To me wings and a-panels are cheap and easy.  Might as well pull them and clean it up right and put on fresh metal that's been sealed to last.  

i'd rather get heritage panels or m-machine ones. don't like after market panels.

always read or hear everyone complaining about them. funny thing is the front end

fit really good. bonnet was a real good fit.i just cut the welds on the top and the

wing popped out a little. the gaps were decent i thought. i didn't like how they did

the a panels. to me that was the real butcher job.

As you are going to the trouble of media blasting you might as well uncover all the issues and make it right with a nice fitting front end, panel gaps on Mini's are not the greatest but a badly fitted front end sticks out like a sore thumb. Try to buy Heritage panels if possible as they tend to fit better and fit everything around the hood/bonnet.

i have a feeling you might be right, mal. falling off would be alot easier tho.lol

i didn't show the welds on top of the wing or the welds in the bonnet channel.

or whatever you call it. they popped pretty easy.

Yuck !!!! By the time you mess with those wings as poorly as they have been welded on you may be ahead of the game just replacing them, on the plus side they should just fall off. :-)

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you can see the quality job they did.lol

If you are replacing the A panels as well take the wings off you will be glad when you have to re align everything up. With regards to how to remove them it depends on how they were attached/welded.

Some pics of the welds may help.

well mal, i guess that is what i was referring to. can you remove

the panels without ruining them.the other thing is when i did have the

wings and hinge panels put on long ago, they did a half ass job.

i didn't say they were recently installed.23 yrs ago they were installed. they've got some

surface rust but other than that they are really good. the hinge panels will have to be

replaced as will the front valence, so i figured taking off the front end would make

other things more accessible to be blasted.

Remove the front panel and leave the wings on the car, they are easy enough to remove if you are scrapping them but to remove them and re use them would be a lot more difficult to do without damaging them.

Why remove them if they were recently installed?

Just ask the media blaster to stay away from them perhaps

i'm thinking of removing the wings and the front valence before i take my shell

to get media blasted. how does one go about it? i'm wondering how to separate the

seams on the hinge panel and wing panel. specific tools? is this somethng a DIYer

should attempt ? the wings are in excellent shape, as they were put on before it

ended up being stored away. the front valence will be scrapped as i have a new panel for that.