Door Trim Removal
 

I'm in the process of doing a bunch of sanding/prep work to get my car repainted... I want to remove my trim. I've got all of it off except the door trim. None of it broke... but the door trim appears to be glued AND snapped in... Anybody know a trick to get it off without breaking it/stretching it out? I'm thinking of breaking off the tabs inside the door, and using chemicals to dissolve the glue from the outside.... then glue them back on during reassembly.

Any ideas?

--Micah

Just an update:

I went and looked again... Looks like I might be able to preserve the tabs if I can dissolve the glue... Laquer thinner?

i assume your car is a S5 (since there's tabs behind the trim/molding)...

i have a S4 and i've got to share that when i removed the trim, i did it rather RECKLESSLY... i basically yanked them off!! i just didn't care since my car will be heading to a body shop, however, i really did wish i removed them cautiously. it's just a pain for me to look at the damage i've done!! hehe, the door trim even took some paint with it!!

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/4...207sidefm5.jpg

anyway, a friend of mine recommended that i should've used a HEAT GUN to soften the adhesive, and a STRING to sort of "floss" the trim off...

it makes sense to me, but yet, S4's don't have tabs on the back of the trim that would most likely get in the way for a S5...

just thought my input would help ;)

Yeah.. S5.. as in my profile. :)

Actually, *JUST* got back in from the garage. I poured some wax/grease remover (pre-painting stuff) on it... appeared to soften up the goop inside. Then I took a long flat chisel (a dull one I wasn't using anymore) and wedged it underneath.. slowly wiggled it to get it in initially... then just slowly pried it up. I got to the first fastener and it popped out. I didn't realize they were pull-out type fasteners.. from how they looked inside the door, I thought the entire receptacle of the fastener came out... So.... Knowing this, I'm going to go to home depot or napa or something and get a nice LONG trim removal tool type device. Should come off no prob.

Also, I'm not worried about how yours looks.. I'm taking off the paint anyways. :) In fact, I'm taking my entire car down to bare metal. Its UC white crystal.. the shittiest color code ever. It was flaking off so bad, that if I went too fast on the highway (65mph or so.. lol) it would start coming off in large sheets. Heh. So, I took a pressure washer to it and took off 50-60% of the paint. However, after reading the TSB on this, I have a feeling it wasn't the white paint thats the problem, but rather a bad bake on the primer... regardless, I'm taking it down to bare metal and building it back up.

In summation:
I over analyzed the situation and didn't yank yard enough. :)