We started our day with a fun run from Chantilly to Quantico, even though Brandy cracked her rim in a pothole (sorry about your rim, Brandy!) We all lined up in the parking lot around the corner from Brandy and Corey’s house and took a few pictures because we drive MINIs and that’s how we do!

Photo of the day credit to Nick Wing for this awesome shot! So cool, we made it the official DCMM Facebook banner. Thanks Nick!

I wanted to do the most work so Corey suggested that I pull my car into the driveway to get started. He had an extra set of 17″ tires to put on my car so we could take off the 16″ and start dipping. It didn’t take me long to learn how to jack up my car and remove my tires.

Dirty hands, just like a real mechanic!

After I got them jacked up, I got a lesson in how to unscrew bolts, remove them and put on new ones. Everyone pitched in to help me learn how!

Hey MINI, why you gotta make the holes that those bolts fit in so small? That just makes it really hard to get your fingers in there to unscrew them!

My tires were really, really dirty because I forgot to clean them, so we had to spend some time on that as well.

The cleaning process was a lot quicker once Ali started “helping” out!

I got all the wheels off and then Corey began teaching me the fine art of Plasti Dipping.

Corey found coffee cups that were the exact diameter of the center of my wheels. So I could spray yellow centers with with petals. Sorry about your coffee cups Brandy!

We convinced Rey to pose with a cup of coffee so @DCMetroMINIs could finally contribute to the @menandcoffee stream on Instagram.

We included a shot of another @menandcoffee picture so everyone could see our club knows what they are looking for. You’re welcome.

Between coats Nick, Melissa, Corey, and Rey began attaching my new Hella driving lights.

Melissa provided the expert measuring required to ensure my new lights were properly centered. We didn’t actually connect the wires, though Corey said he can do it later. I just wanted the happy face covers.

It was getting even hotter and I found out Laura had set up her vinyl cutting station inside. Brandy was in there helping out, so in between coats of Plasti Dip I went in to watch.

Laura made my all time favorite sticker. The pink polka dot #EpicMINIRally sticker will be on my car forever. Now I guess we need to make sure it becomes an annual event! You can visit Laura’s shop at ETSY

Ali was going to replace her belt line. Half of it was chrome and the other half black. Ali had black tape so that it would look the same all the way around.

That black belt line was a great idea, but the heat was overwhelming and it caused the black tape to stretch. This might need to be a fall project… Looks like we need to have another PD Party!

Also, Melissa pulled her car in to begin installing her new sway bar.

Thank God Little Rey was there or those wheels might never have come off!

Sadly, something went wrong under Melissa’s car. The bolt attaching something snapped off and though Melissa and Corey tried everything, they couldn’t get it out.

Domo was still drivable, but we had to take it easy on the way home. Hopefully our favorite mechanic (David Rockwell) will be able to fix it right up. We’ll find out shortly!

We were quickly running out of steam. I cleaned most of the Plasti Dip off my tires and then drove my car back to put them back on.

For the record, rubbing Plasti Dip off of really hot black rubber tires will ruin a manicure. Lesson learned.

We added our new #EpicMINIRally stickers because we wanted other drivers to know how to find out about our epic event!

Still time to register at EpicMINIRally

Finally, we were ready to go. While not all of our projects were successful, everybody had a great time. The #DCMetroMINIs members are some of the most fun and most helpful people you are ever likely to meet!

Daisy wheels and Hella lights. Huge thank you to Corey and Brandy for hosting and all the #DCMM members who showed up and helped out!