side moldings pt 2

side moldings pt 2

Ok, I went today to remove my side moldings, now my car is Lunar mist(silver) and when I lifted the molding, the underneath was a darker shade than the rest of the car!!!!!!!! Now I know some people on this forum have said to wax it after it is removed, but this color does not look like it would match back with anything but a paint job!! Am I being paranoid or is this a common problem. HAs anyone with a lunar mist removed their side moldings??? I put the molding back in place , it wasn't completely off, I just looked under it to see what was there, before I removed it.Thanks

D@mn, I would be pissed if I did that, and found out I need to re-paint the whole sides...

Of all the DIY, I think taking the moldings off is mental.

Just my $0.02

side moldings 2

hahahahaa, mental maybe, but I am a very curious person, so I do a lot of things that come to me and then I mess them up , so no biggy. I don't have a bunch of money sitting around so don't think that I do, I just try stuff and if it doesn't work, oh well it isn't the end of the world. I have messed up a couple of times, and my car is only a few mths old, but hey I am paying for it so............. It is amazing that for a person with hardly any money, I don't really worry too much about money, maybe someday I will have some until............, thanks

Re: side moldings 2

We're actually in the same boat. I guess that's why I really think about the mods that I get into before actually doing it. I don't want to screw it up, and pay big bucks, and since money is tight, that is very important...

side moldings 2

WELL it is great to know that I am not the only one on this forum, who has to save and consider b4 doing something to their car. I don't feel special anymore :cry:

Why is that "mental"? The Celica comes with no molding, a lot of Civic coupes don't, the G35 or even the 350Z doesn't. I personally HATE the moldings that came on my black CE, "black" moldings that basically always look grey and stuck on like an afterthought. Doesn't flow with the lines at all. I am very picky where I park, so I guess I already had the mindsight not to have moldings. I like the look and I haven't got a ding yet, but like I said, I am kinda anal where I park since people have ZERO respect for other people's property here. Pisses me off. Plus I don't think that dinky little strip will protect you from more than 20% of the doors anyways, not every car has the door protuding at a specific hieght.

Anyways, the paint underneadth my moldings has the same paint, but mind you my car is black though and was built in early 2002 if that makes a difference. If you moldings are body colored, I wouldn't take them off. Takes a lot or time and effort to remove the moldings. I do like the results though.

As for mods, for me it's a waste of money to spend it on the Corolla as I have a RX-7 that needs the mods, plus I don't want warranty issues and having to take mods on and off all the time. Stockwise I am happy with it and will most likely keep it that way until it dies.

Oh, I like mine without mouldings SO much better than it was with them!



Don't know how long 100bajan had his car before trying the removal job, but I'd suppose the longer you go with them on, the more you're gonna have a different color underneath them. You really need to go over the doors after you remove the mouldings with stuff like the Meguiars "Body Scrub" or some 3M Fine Cut rubbing compound. And, I'm not sure to what extent that might or might not even out any differing colors.

I looked around quite a bit before I took mine off. Indeed, look at the cars. LOOK AT ALL THE CARS -- it is virtually unheard of to see a four-door sedan without mouldings of some sort. Some are integrated into the styling very well; others are just insanely clumsy. Some, like those on our Corollas, are just "stuck on there," with really no integration with any other lines on the car.

Personally, I took mine off because I just HATED cleaning and waxing around them -- it took me as long to clean up the wax around those dang things as it took me to wax the entire rest of the car! I hadn't had such things on my previous car, so I sure had a low tolerance of the dang things.

Oh, and there is at least one four-door sedan with no side mouldings -- the Acura TSX, which was a car I checked out prior to buying my Corolla. I would have wound up financing double what I did with the Corolla! At any rate, check it out here:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdrives/04tsx_auto.htm

Anyway, I'm dang happy to be rid of the things!

thoots

painting the side molding

Hey guys/gals,

I was planning on getting my side moldings painted to match the rest of my car. (lunar mist) What do you think? In the back of my mind I was also thinking of just taking them off period but I don't want to have the same mismatched color issue as 100 bajan. Hmmmm :?

Re: painting the side molding

Hey OC Rolla, if you find a cheap yet quality paint store, let me know. I might need to paint some stuff too. Maybe we could get some discount together, since our color is the same and they could save time mixing the paint and stuff.

Side moldings suck on a CE sorry but I took them off too

TOTALLY AGREE! OFF WITH THE SIDE MOLDINGS!!! ARGGGGHHHHH!!!

i don't know about the history of your car, but i think the discoloration might be due to the paint fading. i'm not really sure though. i gues maybe if your car is always parked outside in the sun or something. i was thinking about putting an aftermarket spoiler and someone told me no to wait too long in order to make the paint match. this is just a theory. i would think that it would be the biggest problem on darker rollas, but mine is white.......

I am planning on buying a spoiler to go with my body kit but I'm not sure whether to get it pre-painted or not. The body kit is prepainted so I will find out this weekend if it is a decent match or not. (crossing my fingers)

side moldings

I think I will just leave them on for now, until I come up with something else

I think thoots mentioned that Meguiars Body Scrub can eliminate the dirt and two tone color look

Side moldings 2

Well, my thing is that I had the car for 6mths, it shouldn't be that way already should it??? I will contemplate if I am going to try the body scrub or not, I will have to see how bold I will ge tin case it doesn't eliminate the difference, thanks

Hi 100bajan,
Your car should not have faded in just 6 months. It is hard to tell exactly what is going on here, can you post a photo? If you think about the layers on your car body, it is the sheet metal, then primer, color, clearcoat, double sided adhesive, then finally the body molding. So is the darker layer looking though the adhesive that has been left behind or is the adhesive layer still on the molding? Are you lifting off the paint and looking at the primer?
If you take the molding off and the tacky part is on the car that means the adhesive is left behind and that may be what you are looking at. Goo Gone may be able to remove the residual adhesive, or 3M may make something else. Hope that helps,
RR

side molding

well I apreciate the response, but it wasn't the adhesive, that was on the molding still, the area looked about 2 shades darker. I will lift it up again and double check, but I am pretty sure about what I saw the first time. I put the molding back on, I only lifted it to see what was underneath, so a picture wouldn't help, sorry