CPL55

Yesterday I removed the protective strips on the sides of my car... (kind of like the cleaner/sleeker look without 'em, plus they were a little faded and scuffed and I couldn't restore them to the same lustor/depth that I could do with the body panels.)

The process is simple, of course—heat and dental floss or silicon scraper to pull them off, and once I scraped off the foam tape that was under them, there were some lines of greyish residue. I used Adam's scratch and swirl remover to get that off, worked like a charm.

I was very worried about removing this, in case the paint underneath didn't match the rest (in case the exposed paint had faded), or would get damaged when I removed it. It was completely fine. (The PO kept the car in the garage, so my paint probably had a little less risk of being faded.)

Just wanted to share my experience (and good outcome) in case anyone else is thinking of removing these strips, and worried about fading or paint damage. (Pic below... please ignore how dirty the car is, I haven't had a chance to detail it yet!)

royalschwarz

These cars look so much nicer without the side molding. I get why they were put there. For a DD, I would definitely keep them but for a weekend car, take em off.

chudson

Thanks for this post. I need to remove them from my track car and had pondered how much effort would be required. Planning to decal / possibly wrap portions of the car and the moldings are in the way. Now as to my silver car, not so sure about removing those...

Cliff

CPL55

It was really easy, @chudson —much more so than I expected. Probably took me 30 minutes to remove all six pieces, including the time it took to remove all the adhesive and grime.

Yogii

Great Job!

Can tell at all.

-Y

JimmyB

Looks so much better. One of the (many) previous owners had tried to remove the side moldings on my car but only got as far as the front left piece before damaging the paint. So one of the (many) subsequent owners stuck it back on. I'd love to remove them, but I fear it'll have to wait until I'm ready to get the whole car painted.

edit: Also, does that piece of blue tape indicate a new windshield? If so, and apologies for the thread hijack, can I ask where you located it?

CPL55

Hi @Jimmy B ,

Good catch, yes I had the windshield replaced... the glass replacement company I used just called the dealer and was able to get OEM glass in about 3 days.