Removing side moldings on an S5
 

I have finally started the process of painting my 90 vert and am in the prep phase. I want to remove as much trim, etc. as possible to get it done right but I am struggling with removal of the three pieces of side molding between the wheels. I looked at the factory manual and saw that the front and rear most pieces of trim were easy to pop off with a plastic trim removal tool. Got them with no problem but now I am a bit stumped with the other three pieces on each side. If I am reading the manual correctly at least one of them is attached with heavy duty molding tape. But when I look at a picture of someone else's S5 being painted I see what appears to be some holes in the door where the moulding should attach.

So the question is whether or not I can pop all the molding off the side of the car? If I have to clean 3M tape off then re-tape it I will probably leave the molding on the car when I shoot the paint.

Thanks for any help.

take a couple screw drivers and slowly pry it off...the tabs on the back will likely break off but can be reattached.

So there are tabs that fit into holes in the body versus it just being stuck on with 3M molding tape? I want to confirm that this section of molding has tabs that fit in holes versus the tape. The FSM is not real clear on that.

mine had plastic clips that snapped into holes in the body

same here plus some black adhesive around the trim couldve been old 3m

if you wanted to take the time of removing your door panels, you can have full access to the clips with the windows up.