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I removed my door moldings. Whatcha think?

5676 Views 23 Replies 18 Participants Last post by  Junkhead
3
I have been riding the fence about doing this for a while and I got a wild hair today so I did it. The problem was that I couldn't find an eraser wheel so I had to get creative. After removing the moldings, I thoroughly soaked the 3M tape with adhesive remover. I let it sit for a while and drove to the nearest car wash. I was quite surprised that the tape rolled off in strips while being blasted with a pressure washer. Anyway, on to the pics....nothing fancy, just some shots in the driveway.





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Looks much better.
Looks good. Sweet ride.
Looks really good im ridin the fence too i took my chrome door handles off and removed my pinstripes im gunna think about it a little longer
Looks good. There's a guy around the corner without his and I've been thinking about doing the same. Now I'm pretty sure I will. Truck is looking nice and clean too.
Makes it look sort of modern-retro styled. Definately it's different and more unique.
I have been riding the fence about doing this for a while and I got a wild hair today so I did it. The problem was that I couldn't find an eraser wheel so I had to get creative. After removing the moldings, I thoroughly soaked the 3M tape with adhesive remover. I let it sit for a while and drove to the nearest car wash. I was quite surprised that the tape rolled off in strips while being blasted with a pressure washer. Anyway, on to the pics....nothing fancy, just some shots in the driveway.





looks great man! i removed mine for the same reason, looks much more clean w/o them
Very clean.... I like it Just don't pack close to anyone I would hate to see door dings on that nice Black paint...
Looks alot cleaner. Im fixing to do the same thing. Don't ya just love that sticky 3m tape??? It's no fun to remove!
Mine were real easy to remove since my truck did not come with them lol. Looks clean, now you just need to tint those tails.
It looks awesome! ....Really enhances that "blacked out" look..very smooth.
Thanks for all of the compliments guys. I've had my fair share of blistered fingers from debadging the truck, but the tape left from these was hell bent on staying on there. It just seemed so much worse than the rest. I may just order an eraser wheel to throw in the shop.

Bobby, I may tint the tails one day. That and clear the headlights, but I'll have to work up the courage first.
Looks so much better without them, I did mine a while back after "sitting on the fence" for a while and I wish I'd done it sooner!
Looks great man, love the truck

-JJ
I also thinks it looks alot better without the trim,nice & clean!
Thanks for all of the compliments guys. I've had my fair share of blistered fingers from debadging the truck, but the tape left from these was hell bent on staying on there. It just seemed so much worse than the rest. I may just order an eraser wheel to throw in the shop.

Bobby, I may tint the tails one day. That and clear the headlights, but I'll have to work up the courage first.




i think that looks great! did you just pull the molding off and then wrestle with the 3m tape or how did you go about actually taking off the molding?
As far as removing them, it's a simple process. You can use fishing line or even dental floss (floss breaks easily and you need a lot of it) to "saw" between the molding's and the door to get them lose. Then it's just a matter of gently pulling them off. That's the easy part of course. Once they are off they leave a rectangular outline of 3M tape...and that stuff wants to stay there. The best way to remove the tape is with a 3M eraser wheel (which can be tough to track down locally...at least in my case). It's a drill attachment that uses a wheel to essentially roll the tape off of the vehicle. Be careful when using one because it can burn the paint if you're not careful.

I couldn't find a wheel around town, so I went at it like every other badge on the truck....with Goo Gone and my fingers. When I removed the badges on the truck I would liberally soak the tape and let it sit for about 30 min. Then I would use my finger tips to roll off the tape. This is the best way to do it without an eraser wheel because your finger tips wont scratch up the paint. This is especially important on a black truck. The only problem is that your fingers will blister and hate you. After spending a healthy amount of time trying to roll this tape off with my fingers, I realized that it just wasn't working as well as before. Like I said, this stuff wants to stay. So I soaked that stuff some more with Goo Gone and then drove to the nearest car wash. A pressure washer at point blank range peeled that tape off in nearly entire stips. It actually worked quite well.

Once the bulk of the thick tape is off the truck, you will still have a very thin outline of where the tape was. It's basically just the adhesive residue. A little 3M Adhesive Remover, a micro fiber towell and a little elbow grease will eliminate this. Goo Gone doesn't do so well with this thin layer because there isn't really anything for it to adhere to. Then I apply a polishing compound by hand to remove any fine scratching/hazing. Then a healthy coat of wax and you will never know they were there.

Once they are off the truck, you quickly realize that they are flimsy pieces of plastic that probably cost $10 to make. What a joke what GM wants for them.
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Well i took mine off yesterday! i have a buddy that ownes a shop that wraps vehicles and well they will wrap just about anything so after hours me and him went to work on it. like you we used fishing line and then pulled the moldings off but i will tell you this guy knew something that i didnt and im not sure many people do know. he grabbed the end of the 3m that was left on the truck and started pulling it of while gently running his finger along right in front of where he was pulling off the 3m and it lifted off like nothing. then of course with them being a wrap and window tint shop he had some sort of citrus adhesive removal that we soaked the last little bit of addhesive on the door with it and cleaned it off with a paper towel and then cleaned it all up with pure alcohol and then put a nice coat of wax on everything! it looks awesome..i will post pics soon. Sorry i stole your idea but man does it look much better!!
Sweet. Glad it went easy for you.
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