How To: Shaving Side Moldings.

Equinox

Daddy Warbucks
Contributor
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09 370Z Nismo
HOW TO: Shaving Side moldings

Hey guys, here is an easy way to make your car look a lot cleaner.

On the sides of your P4s and P5s (I think MP3s don't have moldings) there is side molding along the doors and a little on your fenders. Unlike most cars, our side moldings are not mounted with screw holes... they just glued them on. Because all of us have relativley new cars, there is an easy way to shave these moldings.

1. You need a sponge, and somethign that will be a little harder to get.. '3m General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner'. ONLY this stuff will work, everything else like 'goo off' or other adhesive removers cannot be used on car paint and if they can, they are too weak to do anything. The 3m adhesive remover I bought at a local ACE hardware, but any hardware store can get it for you. I had to have them order it because ace only sells 'ace' brand adhesive thinners. the 3m I.D. no. is 62-4787-6509-2, or try the UPC code: 51135 08984. This is what it looks like: 3m General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner

2. Pour a little bit of 3m adhesive remove on the top of the side molding along your car that you wish to remove. Give it about half a minute to a whole minute to soak in the adhesive, the waiting makes a whole lot difference. Then slowly pry the molding off with your fingers(your paint wont peel because the adhesive will stay on your car, also your paint is too new.)or what I used was a 'shoe horn'. Anything that is softer than the metal of your car and not sharp (plastic wedge).

3. Now that you have no moldings on your car you will probably have two lines of adhesive for each strips. To get the adhesive off it is somewhat time consuming but comparitivley easy. Just pour some 3m on your sponge, soaking it to the point of dripping. And run the sponge over the adhesive strips, soaking the lines, you may need to soak the adhesive a few times to start off.

4. The most repetative step... peel off the the adhesive in a recently soaked area with your thumbnail - anything else will leave marks in your clearcoat. Now the first time is not going to get it all off, so when the adhesive stops coming off with your thumbnail, soak it again with your sponge, and scrape it some more with your nail. The process is slow, it took me about 15 minutes for just one door, but the end is great.

5. If you happen to be one of the rare people that is able to see some difference in the color of the paint under your car's sidemoldings now that they are shaved (you bright color cars) just wax the area and it will BE seamless.

A picture of finished car...
wwff08.jpg

and yes believe it or not, I wasted tons of money on the wingswest bumper to get rid of the ugly orange sidemarker on it (that and to have bigger foglights than my friend's subaru! :D )
 
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The side mouldings saved my door from a nasty door ding. The moulding took a beating (a gouge out of the plastic) but I'd much prefer that than a dent+scratch.

Mine are sticking around.
 
Humvee said:
The side mouldings saved my door from a nasty door ding. The moulding took a beating (a gouge out of the plastic) but I'd much prefer that than a dent+scratch.

Mine are sticking around.
My exact thoughts, Humvee. My moldings are the only thing I can count on when I park my car. I only park next to smaller cars whose doors will hit the molding first, prior to raking the metal. I never park next to big trucks or older "detroit tanks".
 
Bagged P5

YellowBaggedP5


Do you have a link to some pictures of your ride? also what bag setup do you use, could you please provide me with some more info on that!

Thanks
 
Just incase anybody was woundering, when i took off my side moldings I weighed them before I threw them away. Now keep in mind this was on my dad's bathroom scale, and it's not the most accurate scale around, but it read about 5lbs. Every pound counts!
 
Rather than going to ACE Hardware for the 3M Remover, check the Yellow Pages for a auto body supply house in your area. That stuff is always on the shelf.

Nice how-to post, BTW.
 
can this also be done for the rear badges or are they screwed on?
 
I remember someone saying that while the logo badges are on with adhesive, there are metal posts on the trunk that act as a guide for the factory worker to get it on straight. They would have to removed and the holes filled.
 
AS bondo said, yes the rear emblems have adhesive, but they also ALL have 2 guide holes each. I removed all of them, painted them body color of the car, and put them back on. Hey atleast it's BETTER. ALso, even if you have a silver car, the difference of silver and chrome is huge.
 
behind the emblems o n the little pins are clear plastic covers. When you take the emblems out chances are they will stay on the car, if not, they are on the emblem, take them off the emblem and put it back in the hole - just click the emblem back in to place when you are done - no adhesive is needed - mine have stayed on so far even with spirited autocross driving - been about 5 months now.
 
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Just some help for you guys...

I shaved my moldings this weekend, and it looks great. To make the job a little easier though, I found some of that same 3M adhesive remover, but in a spray can. It made the application a lot easier, and saved about 10 minutes per door(I tried 2 doors with the bottled stuff, 2 doors with the spray adhesive_. Just some food for thought.
Oh yeah, got the spray at WAL-MART
 
I have owned my car since aug 2002...do u think there will be a difference in the paint colour if I remove my moldings now?
 
I'm gonna venture to a no, on that one, wont be any difference, if anything, you may just need to wax it.
 
hey equinox, i know this is a bit off topic but can we see ur car with the 18s on it?? post a pic bro, nice thread too.
 
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