On my s5 (and every car I've found in the junkyard) the black window trim on the outside of the door has a peeling, very thick finish.
Almost as though it was dipped rather than sprayed.

Do folks just sand and paint these or is there a secret refinishing process that will last longer?

 

i just go and buy new ones, about 60 a side. I have stripped and painted them too, but it didnt last too long. It lasted about an year and had to redo.

 

Yeah I bought new ones from Mazdatrix about 2 years ago and they still look great.

 

The window seals for sale on mazdatrix and at the dealer are only for the lower part of the window right? The ones that seem to split open a lot. Because I need all the black around the side windows, the car was resprayed and some overspray got on the black so I want to replace them. Does anyone know where I can get all new stripping for the windows?

 

you can try victoria british, i think they changed to black dragon or something close to that, rx7world is good, cheeper and quick shipping, but search around for prices. The long straight piece along the door is what I was talking about. The rest of the window frame, you can strip down and repaint. I did it on my 7 back in 90's. It got wrecked so i cant say how long it lasted, but i stripped down to metal, taped, rattled caned trim black. It looked good for me. If anybody else has any tips or things they tried post up. Hope this helps.