im thinking about removing the side trim on my rig, i was just wondering if it comes off easy or if theres anything i need to know about to remove it. and if you have done this do you like it better with or without the trim

 

althought ive never done this myself i heard the glue is a *insert profanity here* to get off.

i was told that autozone sells a rubber wheel that you can put on a drill and it will basically rub the glue off.

 

Getting the trim off can be a real pain because the adhesive is super strong, although it's commonly done and if you're patient, you can make it come out nice.

Basically, you're going to want to use a heat gun to help melt the adhesive so that you're not straight up prying on it with your hands. Then, you're going to mess something up.

After you put some heat on it, try prying slightly; you might even use some kind of plastic spudger to wedge between the trim and the body.

If you have some leftover adhesive still on your paint, do as the above poster said and use an eraser wheel that attaches to any dremel or drill to clean it off. Use it for a little bit, then back off so it can cool, so that you're not damaging the clear coat or paint.

 

I just pulled it off my 89 with no problem and almost no glue left over. Took less than 5 minutes to do all of it.

 

Newer style (97-01) trim is a lot tougher.

 

I used a hair dryer and a plastic scraper to get the molding, residue was tough to get off though. Very time consuming.

 

 

Yea don't simply yank on it..lol I did that and part of my paint job came along with the trim

 

I used a small propane torch to heat up the trim and some goo gone to take off the glue with a plastic putty knife worked pretty good.

 

I did the same but let the glue soak in bug/tar remover for awhile before scraping it off... it was not that bad. Used a plastic squeege like for window tint.

 

Getting the plastic off is the easy part.

I did mine over the summer. Go down and buy two or three bottles of 'Goo Gone.' Also, go to the dollar store or the kitchen, and get one of those plastic pan scrapers. .99 cents at most places.

Then just gently start scraping off what you can, and then goo gone the rest of it away.

Took me about an hour in total, and no problems with the paint at all.

 

If you live in cold areas, I would take it all off. The trim on my drivers door had started to peel and flare out with the cold and one day it got caught in the fender when I opened the door and pushed the fender inwards. Wasn't impressed.

 

Same exact thing happened to mine on the driver door. I was pi$$ed and ended up hacking the end of it off with my knife. The rest is coming off when it warms up.