What to do with the black trim around my car...

[Arseassin]

Hey all, newbie question here...

I'm sure yall have seen the 89 accord lx's with that ugly black trim around it...

Well, the black trim on mine has lost its shiny luster, and I've done everything I could think of to get it back on there, and it wont work...

Honestly I would prefer to have the trim gone anyways, and I've seen a few pictures of some of the accords that dont have the trim on there..

Would it look like crap if I pulled my trim off of the car.. and if not, how would I go about taking it off....

If it would look like crap, then how would you reccomend that I paint it so that it will look as good as the rest of the car?

[Vinny]

Ther trim is held on with clips. The best way to remove it is to pull off the door panels and pop it out. I know the fronts doors are held on with clips AND a 10mm Crown nut, so you would have to take the nut off then the door panel and push the trim pieces out. The rear doors may be the same way I'm not sure. The fender pieces are held on the same way. On the coupe or hatch you would have to take off the panels beside the back seat on a sedan you just take off the door panel.

If you dont want to take the door panels and side panels off I'm sure you could just take the dome nut off and yank the pieces off but you will break the clips and may damage the trim pieces.

If you take them off there will be holes that will let water in and an indentation where the trim was, the area under it isnt flat.

I took the trim off the hatch, primed it with plastic primer (Walmart or an auto parts store) and painted it with black bumper paint (again walmart or an auto parts store) then put the trim back on.

[87accordlxi]

Don't bother taking the trim off to fix it up. Wal-Mart or an auto parts store will carry the flexible primer and bumper paint you need to do the black trim around the bumpers. For the door trim, I don't see why you can't use regular automotive spray paint or something like Krylon Fusion.

[Arseassin]

Would it look terribly bad if I primed it, then painted it the same color as the rest of my car? or would the paint eventually chip off?

[HostileJava]

The problem with that is, you will have trouble color matching the paint without access to a mixer. So you will more then likely end up with trim a few shades off from the rest of your paint. Even if you get the exact factory color you have to understand that over the years the paint will have faded some to a different color.

[88accordhb]

yah wat jim said, if you can get the right color--which isn't hard--then it will look awesome. but the thing is you'll have the trim look new while the rest of the car's paint is faded and that problem will arise.

[88' Accord Ltd]

Yea, I would just repaint it black, do all the trim even on the bumpers and it will look mint. The shaving is ALOT of work, especially if you want to do a good job. Definately not something achieved in a weekend.

[frankie89]

i didnt even paint mine, i just took mine off and im in the process if fillin in the holes and evening out the door straight up and down..but it will take some time tp perfect the job..

[PortugalFocus]

Instead of repainting it you could try a tire shine. I used it one on my DX and ti worked very well of a few weeks.

[NXRacer]

i've heard shoe polish also works well. if you use that you wont have to mask off the car to paint it, although im not sure how durable and lasting it is.

[88accordhb]

i didnt even paint mine, i just took mine off and im in the process if fillin in the holes and evening out the door straight up and down..but it will take some time tp perfect the job..
in other words, shaving. duhh

[88accordalltheway]

i taped all of them off and painted them. Id say if i knew that i could take the door panel off and thake the moldings off, i would have done that. Taping it off taks alot of work. Dont use shoe polish, it last for about a week then its gone. Be sure to dans b4 painting, i had to redo it my first time because i didnt sand and the paint fell right off and didnt dry at all.

[frankie89]

some memberz just gotta b wiseasses dont they!!!

[Arseassin]

Ok all, thanks for the help, I'll just tape the car and paint the trim.

Whenever I decide I'm ready to paint the car, I'll yank them off and bondo the gaps so I can get rid of the trim, its a shame the trim is put in like that, I hate the way it looks on there.

[88Accord-DX]

I sort of wish I didn't paint my trim all the way around my car. It depreciates the so call "re-sale" value, so I heard. That is what this collision guy said to me when I had insurance claim.

[HostileJava]

I sort of wish I didn't paint my trim all the way around my car. It depreciates the so call "re-sale" value, so I heard. That is what this collision guy said to me when I had insurance claim.

If you ask me that's BS. It gives the car a more updated look.

[AccordNut]

i think the car looks a little weird if you just shave the sides off, i guess you cant really shave the ones off the bumpers but oh well. keeping it black instead of the same color as your car is a good way to go. when i had my car painted 2 years ago i had them repaint the trim black

[Arseassin]

Well, there is one accord out there that makes me love the shaved look more than the trim look.

I have no clue how to put an image on here, or else I'd show you the pic, I'm sure everyone has seen it anyways, I'm not sure what the site was tho, but if anyone could explain to me how to insert an image in here I'd show you..

It kinda gives the car an oldschool beamer look... absolutely goregus if you ask me.

[Arseassin]

Actually, now that I look over my thread again, the guy who has the car I love posted in here :)

Look for this post


88' Accord Ltd Yea, I would just repaint it black, do all the trim even on the bumpers and it will look mint. The shaving is ALOT of work, especially if you want to do a good job. Definately not something achieved in a weekend.

I love your car man :P

Stunningly goregus.

[HostileJava]

You're probably talking about Pearldrops car.

[sofaking_bob]

i'm planning on "shaving" my trim.. i don't really see what the big deal about doing that is though.. i mean.. if you've seen "pimp my ride" or "overhaulin" then you've pretty much seen how to do it.. and popping those things out and bondo'ing them up isn't that hard.. the hard part would be sanding the bondo back down and making sure that it was all uniform, but for someone gifted in things of that nature.. it would be a fairly light task.. and there are LOTS of body shops around here that do good work.. so that's what's gonna be happening to my hatch as soon as i get the funds. that's gonna be a long long expensive trip to the body shop though.. shaving the door handles, shaving the trim, and installing the slightly modified body kit.. prime it up, paint it, pick a bale of cotton.

[87lxaccord]

I think you should paint it but then again it depends on the color of your car. When I painted my car I just painted it black with the rest of the car. If you are going to do that. Just use 400grit sand paper and sand them a bit to get the pores to open up and accept new paint and you should be fine... :)

[smufguy]

shaving it required welding a piece of metals all along the doors and fenders and then sanding them, priming them and fianlly color matching them (yeah good luck with that). Or you can always take a fine sand paper to it and sand it lightly to take out all the dirt and stuff according to the insturctions on the Bumper Restore Paint (Duplicolor ) and then paint it back to stock form. THey are good. DO know these black trims are the only precaution against angry shopping carts and other doors slamming open onto urs. I dont know if this car is your daily driver or what, but mine is staying on and it looks much better this way.

[buster133]

I am a little late replying to this topic, but when I had my 89 LXi coupe, I removed the door trim before I painting it gloss black. There is a trick to removing the door trim without removing the door panel. I just removed the small bolt on the edge of the door molding, then with a little force, you slide the door trim toward the front of the car and the molding will free itself from those small white clips and then you can carefully remove the white clips from the door. I learned this after trying other methods unsuccessfully.

[kauffman21]

has anyone here ever tried to take the moldings off, fill in the 'white clip' holes with bondo and then just paint ? i dont think it will look good, but i was just wondering if anyone has done this....in the summer i plan to shave the moldings, but i will do it in another way than welding a peice of metal onto the side of the car....thats got to be stupid....

[HostileJava]

has anyone here ever tried to take the moldings off, fill in the 'white clip' holes with bondo and then just paint ? i dont think it will look good, but i was just wondering if anyone has done this....in the summer i plan to shave the moldings, but i will do it in another way than welding a peice of metal onto the side of the car....thats got to be stupid....

What's got to be stupid? Welding a piece in? Your probably right, people have more then likely not been doing it right for the last 40 years or more.

[Vinny]

Bondo is a bad idea bacause of the amount of area to be filled. The more area you fill the more room for error. Eventually it will crack and then you're left eith having to do it over the right way, which is welding over it and going from there

[smufguy]

i will do it in another way than welding a peice of metal onto the side of the car....thats got to be stupid....

The right way to do it is to sand it down to bare metal and then weld a piece of metal and then sand it down again then prime it and paint it. Its the only way and the right way to do it. Bondo, like vinny said, obviously would crack and also wont have the smoothness that a metal would have. Leark it from Juan (oldschoolswap) he did it that way and its good.

[crazykamper]

sorry to bring back from dead, but what kinda primer/paint should i use if im going to paint my moldings??? i know the flexible primer, but what kinda paint,

also, should i just take the moldings off and paint them off of the car (how do i get the very front side moldings off, the ones that are diff plastic from the rest of them, and are all faded....)

[smufguy]

sorry to bring back from dead, but what kinda primer/paint should i use if im going to paint my moldings??? i know the flexible primer, but what kinda paint,

also, should i just take the moldings off and paint them off of the car (how do i get the very front side moldings off, the ones that are diff plastic from the rest of them, and are all faded....)


You can use a regular primer if you want, or you can use a very fine grade sandpaper and sand off the old coating, wash it with soapy water and then use the Bumper paint and it with that. Its a non glossy flexible paint available from Duplicoat ~ Duplicolor at walmart for around $4 a can.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/bumper.html

http://www.duplicolor.com/gallery/gallery_images/can_bumber.jpg

[TWOLOUDNPROUD]

hay guys you just replied to a thread for a guy that has not been online for over a YEAR .Arseassin Last Online: 04-17-2005:Owned:

[mkymonkey]

well thats crazykamper for you...he's in love with bringing threads back from the grave! lol

[crazykamper]

thanks, i got that paint at kragen for 5$ (we dont gots wallmarts around here. lol)

^ well, either bring back from the dead or post new topic wich everyone is sick of seeing and hearing. lol. wich would u rather have?

[nskforlife]

Mothers makes a product called " back to black" i'm trying this to see how it works, it does REAL good for oxidation and wax buildup. try it out before you start tearing your car apart for som ole trim piece. it's only like 3-4$ at walmart.

[ghettogeddy]

back to black is hard to use and u have to keep on using it i just used a satin black spray paint with no prob

[mkymonkey]

back to black fades really quick and just like geddy said...its actually really hard to use. if you dont apply it fast enough it makes weird shades of shiny-ness...if you know what i mean.

[nskforlife]

lol, no i dont know what you mean, just apply it on when it's 60-70 degrees and you should be fine. i did mine at night and checked out my trim and mirrors the next day and they didn't have a double sheen on them. but i also try to take good care of my car too. Read Directions and google it to find out the best way.
but if i were to totally try to restore the trim, ya i'd go with a areosol semigloss or satin.depending on if youre wanting shine or not and the paint color and sheen. just my $.o2. I just started working at a paint store so i'm figuring out a lot of stuff dealing with paint and other things. if you have any questions about it pm me.