Hey everyone, so i went to spend the entire weekend paint the trim of my car(skirts, side moldings, door handles and mirrors). well, i ran into some trouble. I coudn't get the door handles off. I couldn't seperate the mirror from the housing, and i couldn't get the side moldings off. So the only thing i was able to paint was the skirts. On the mirrors, i got like all but 1 screw off, and it looks like that is the last screw that would need to be removed for every thing to come out, but it looks impossible to get to. Its behind the mirror and i can't get at it. With the door handles, i unscrewed the bolts(2), and saw that there were 2 rods connected to it. one for the lock, one for the door lever. well i couldn't detach either of those!? and with the moldings, i couldn't push the blue clips? any one, help and tips are needed
thanks

 

tape up the mirror glass and paint, doorhandles are tricky search for how to take them off and moldings come off poppable with a flat head be careful tho.

 

i don't want to just tape up the mirror. i want to take it out so i can thoroughly clean in there, and also fully paint the housing. my motto, if your not going to do it right the first time, don't do it at all.

 

just tape up the glass. I tried to take the glass off my jdm mirrors and they wouldn't budge. don't try to hard or you might break the glass or worst cut your self. like you said do it right and it will come out clean. don't worry just tape the glass up. I would remove the door panel and rear panels to get at the moldings. they are hard to get off if you want to save them.

 

i took mine out, but i would reccomend taping up...the reason is b/c you have to pull on them like a **** to get them off. not to mention they are held by some plastic suction bolt, it would suck to break them, b/c they are made of plastic.

 

ok, to answer your question.

To take off the side moldings you will need to do a lot of work...

First take off your inside door panel and then use pliers to gently squeeze the clips from the inside, have a buddy pulling gently on the trim from the outside. be very careful, the clips and trim a easy to break and damage.

To get the trim off of your fender you need to take off the plastic lining of your wheel well, this usually means jacking up the car and using a small phillips head screw driver. Then it's the same as before, use pliers to squeeze the clips from the backside and pull gently on the trim.

Then to get the trim off the rear quarter panels you are going to have to do a lot more work (unless your bitch is stripped) you may have to remove the rear seats, remove the b pillar garnish, and other assorted interior pieces before you can get to the clips on the back of the trim. Please be careful though, you will feel much worse about your car if you have nice and black moldings but your interior is all jacked the **** up.

To remove the mirrors there are 3 10mm bolts, you may have to remove a piece of trim on your door panel or you might have to remove the whole door panel to get to the bolts. If you have power mirrors there will also be an electrical connection. Again be careful with all of this.

Oh yeah and if you want to remove the glass from your mirrors be prepared to buy new glass. I don't think there is a safe way to remove these....

I strongly advise you to get a service manual of some kind so you know where all the clips are for your interior pieces and door panels.

Enjoy

 

well, i took the door panels off, and have the mirror housing off the car. i suppose i will just tape the glass very nicely, and clean everything as best i can. i know that to remove the moldings there are the blue clips, but when i squeeze them and push, it doesn't budge. also, at the end of the molding on the door,closest to the side that swings open, there is like a rounded plastic nut, that when turned does nothing but keep turning.

 

the clips that hold the molding on the doors are fairly cheap to replace. destroy them if you have to but dont screw up the door with the screwdriver prying them off. they will come off just be carefull or you'll be painting more than molding.