McCaffrey

Sorry for the lightweight-ness of this question. Looking to buy a ZJ on craigslist and turn it into a moderate use crawler, but the lower body plastic makes an otherwise very nice car look like crap. What's under that 1-foot wide plastic trim at the bottom of the body, between the wheels? Is the body painted painted and can the plastic be removed? I've seen a few without it but most have the plastic. Thanks.

Gee oh Dee

If its glued on or stuck on with 2 sided tape then its pained. If its held on by clips there may be holes there.

Bustedback

There are clips that hold the cladding on, but there are pegs that hold the clips on they are welded to the door. The doors are painted under the cladding, you just have the pegs sticking out after you pull the cladding and clips off.

McCaffrey

Thanks. Pegs sounds better than holes. Just cut them off, grind a little and some color matched paint from the auto store.

baseman

Yes you can take them off and it is painted underneath but there are 2 reasons why they are there.

1. They are cushions and I have had an incident that I am glad they were on...a door from another car slammed into my drivers side as we were waiting for a ferry in a lineup...needless to say there was no mark at all on the cushion...if it was not there I think it would have been a $500.00 bill to fix!
2. I think the bumper to bumper look without the cushions sucks. You get a big gap at the doors...m2cw

Basslicks

I agree with what you're saying, but I don't think he's worried too much about lower quarter damage like that... he said he's wanting to turn it into a moderate crawler

I would personally keep the plastics, just look into painting them... they look pretty good when they are painted to match - but again, crawler=body damage

McCaffrey

Thanks for the advice. If it was going to be a street car I'd completely agree with you. I follow one all the way home yesterday and kept looking at it. It will definately get beat up on the very fist outing. Sad but that just the way it is and I don't plan on fixing minor stuff. Bumpers will be replaced.

Not too many things bother me but that much plastic just makes a nice car look cheap. I'd rather see bents than the plastic. Just my opinion.

Bustedback

Here is what it will look like without the cladding and a picture of the clips.