Well there is one from Mazda - used on CX7 on JDM market.
And you can get your hands on it here...
http://mazda3online.web.aplus.net/
Body Side Protection
- Thread starter lateralg2
- Start date
Well there is one from Mazda - used on CX7 on JDM market.
And you can get your hands on it here...
http://mazda3online.web.aplus.net/
Side Molding Installation
As we all know, Mazda does not offer body side molding on the CX-9. The tall smooth doors seem to be a current design trend in vehicles from Japan. So adding molding may, in fact, reduce the "fresh new look" of the CX-9 right now and make it look a bit more like an RX350 from the side. That being said, I still bought moldings and plan to put them on my CX-9.
Since Mazda does not offer molding, there is no official height at which molding should be installed. The instructions that come with the molding recommend 12" above the bottom of the door. That is their opinion, and only one opinion. Before you install them on your vehicle, decide where you like them best. Who knows, two years from now they may come from the factory installed at 10.75" or some other height the Mazda designers like, and all of us will be at various other heights.
SO... before you permanently install them, try them out at various heights. Take 1" blue painter's tape and put two small pieces on the door, with the tops of the tape at the height that you are considering for the bottom of the molding. Now roll up pieces of tape and attach to the back of the molding. LEAVE THE MOULDING MANUFACTURER"S TAPE ON THE MOULDING! Put your temporary tapes every 6" +/- along the back. Tape the moldings to the doors and remove your two guide tapes from each door.
Stand back and take a look. Maybe take a photo or two. Now you can easily remove the moldings and try them at different heights. (When you take the moldings off, the blue tapes stick to the vehicle, but you can just peel them off and put them back on the back of the molding.)
IMHO, 12' was too high on my white GT. Here are photos with no molding, molding at 9" and molding at 10". I'm rotating the photos as wall paper on my computer until I decide on which height or perhaps what other heights I should photo - 9.5"? 10.5"? Other mods: My GT-AWD came with mud guards, I removed roof rails, wired fogs as DRL with 80 watt bulbs, and had front windows tinted 38, rear side windows 15, moonroof and back window 20. I'll probably remove the rear badges later.
As we all know, Mazda does not offer body side molding on the CX-9. The tall smooth doors seem to be a current design trend in vehicles from Japan. So adding molding may, in fact, reduce the "fresh new look" of the CX-9 right now and make it look a bit more like an RX350 from the side. That being said, I still bought moldings and plan to put them on my CX-9.
Since Mazda does not offer molding, there is no official height at which molding should be installed. The instructions that come with the molding recommend 12" above the bottom of the door. That is their opinion, and only one opinion. Before you install them on your vehicle, decide where you like them best. Who knows, two years from now they may come from the factory installed at 10.75" or some other height the Mazda designers like, and all of us will be at various other heights.
SO... before you permanently install them, try them out at various heights. Take 1" blue painter's tape and put two small pieces on the door, with the tops of the tape at the height that you are considering for the bottom of the molding. Now roll up pieces of tape and attach to the back of the molding. LEAVE THE MOULDING MANUFACTURER"S TAPE ON THE MOULDING! Put your temporary tapes every 6" +/- along the back. Tape the moldings to the doors and remove your two guide tapes from each door.
Stand back and take a look. Maybe take a photo or two. Now you can easily remove the moldings and try them at different heights. (When you take the moldings off, the blue tapes stick to the vehicle, but you can just peel them off and put them back on the back of the molding.)
IMHO, 12' was too high on my white GT. Here are photos with no molding, molding at 9" and molding at 10". I'm rotating the photos as wall paper on my computer until I decide on which height or perhaps what other heights I should photo - 9.5"? 10.5"? Other mods: My GT-AWD came with mud guards, I removed roof rails, wired fogs as DRL with 80 watt bulbs, and had front windows tinted 38, rear side windows 15, moonroof and back window 20. I'll probably remove the rear badges later.
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indeed, it is a gamble where to put them. As I said in a post way above, you would need 5 of these to keep door dings off your doors. The door ding that I had removed was right at 12 inches, but it could have been anywhere. However there is another type of dent that the molding can protect you from- the rare pole that grandma doesn't see when she opens the door. If you have the molding too low, it will not be the furthest point of the door curve, and you could get a dent that way. Of course, this is a very rare type of dent so it doesn't matter much. Still 9 inches is pretty low- there aren't too many doors that are going to hit your molding if you go that low. I think the people who made the molding for the CX-9 picked a good height for the average ding.
