A friend is going to my paint my 86 NA and he asked me if I wanted all of the molding and seals painted the same color. I think most people paint the side moldings, but what about the sunroof seal and the seals around the door handle assemblys and the seal where the nose piece meets the body? Should those be painted also? Or masked?


ash

 

The paint will usually crack and fall off of the seals over time, sometimes taking the paint on the panels with it, so it's usually best if you can actually *remove* the panels and paint them, so that the seals aren't even there, then put everything back on.

And don't forget to charge you tazer for the leg humpers soon to sniff this thread out!

 

i agree, but i would like to be the first to get shocked. lol but as for the seals do what sonic says. when i bought my 7, the person who painted the car (bad job by the way) painted the rubber window seals and now it's crumbling and cracking.

 

Good taste says do the best you can to paint it like a factory job.
The factory painted the side moldings on the S5's.
Also, you don't want internal condensation getting trapped between metal surfaces & seals.

Here's a trick to add that finishing touch. You can paint the plastic trim around the windshield and at the side windows with satin black.
Satin black also looks good on the wiper arms & engine bay plastic.

 

i re-painted my nasty rusted and fader wiper arms and they look alot better. and i would paint the side moldings if i was you. i think it looks nice

 

like sonic said, remove the mouldings if you are going to paint them and then put them back on when it's dry. Also, don't paint the rear hatch metal anything but black, it looks weird if it's color-matched IMHO.

 

Thanks for all the input. I really don't have the time to take the 7 apart... piece by piece. I found rolls of really small masking tape at the auto body supply. The 1/4 inch size is a perfect fit for the gasket on the front nose piece and the 1/8 inch size fits the gasket around the door handles. The guy at the shop said that unless you pay extra (a lot extra) to have your car disassembled, most body shops use masking.
But if you are looking for a $2000 paint job, taking the parts off is the way to go. I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. It is supposed to be getting painted today. Original color....... Royal Maroon Poly. I think that is what he called it.


ash

 

Yeah, I usually tear it apart and prep it myself, then haul everything in and say spray it!