I searched for a thread about it, but didn't see one. The weather should start improving here in hell, er, Rhode Island in about three weeks, enough so I can do some serious work to the ol' Sebey. I'd like to have her in for paint in late summer/early fall, and one of the many things I'd like to do is get rid of all the side moldings. Is it stuck on with adhesive, is it screwed on through the sheet metal, pegs, what?

Anybody?

 

some crazy *** glue!!!!!! looks good without the molding though

 

Just glue? Sweet, I thought I'd have to fill in screw holes or some such ****.

 

Double sided adhesive tape, some strong stuff. Heat gun, flexible putty knife and patience will get them off.

 

Or if your car is mine, it falls off on its own because it is 21 years old lol...

 

Do the cars look better with or without the side molding? Or does it depend on the color of the car?

 

This is one of the guys' on the forums car. I want to say Max7?

 

Yeah that's Max

The car looks better, but I could never get off the second piece of adhesive tape. Now I just have a black line across my car on both sides. I'm going to take a heat gun to it sometime when the weather is nicer.

 

Well, I'm going to take the whole thing to primer and try some other experiments this summer, so I'm not really sweating the adhesive. I just want the body as straight as possible.

 

Are you also planning on removing all of the emblems and making it as smooth as possible? I've been thinking of doing that but still deciding.

 

Yeah, I'm taking off everything I can except the door handles, lock holes and mirrors.

I'm going to take my old bumpers and see if I can modify them to remove the trim. It's molded into the bumpers, so it seems the only way to do it is to cut them out, fiberglass them back into one piece, and bondo and smooth them. Hey, it works on "American Hot Rod" I've also got an idea for a front airdam and rear spoiler that I'm going to try out this summer while everything is apart.

We'll see.

 

i took the side trim off of mine, it looks ok, but i think its because the bumper moulding is painted body color

 

i removed it, as well as the antenna and side marker lights when i had my car repainted. i makes it look so smooth.

 

^^yeah if you also remove the sidemarkers and fill them in and sand it all smooth is looks really nice

 

i yanked mine. they didnt take much to remove. i used a huge *** flat-head screwdriver and a rubber mallet to knock on the top, than just pulled them off by hand. it really depends how well yours are stuck on, if they are still permantely affixed i'd go with a heat gun and something wider, softer to pry it apart.

dont be suprised if you find interesting issues when you do this. on the drivers side i found a lot of rust (in pic) and on passenger side it managed to pull off about a pound of old bondo at the same time. looks like someone mangled that door long ago and bonded it back.

this pic is before i painted. notice there is lots of surface rust and a ton of goo that was holding it on there, i used a drill and a sanding bit to remove all of it. then went over it with primer.

 

I guess I just got lucky, I have some black adhesive tape on there that hasn't come off yet

That surface rust is harsh!