door/window trim deterioration on LX-i coupe

[derolph]

On the LX-i coupes, the trim around the doors and windows was black, not chrome. Actually, however, the same chrome trim used on other accords was simply covered with a black covering. This is evidenced by the occurrence of trim on coupes such as mine where the black covering has come off and the chrome is then visible. The photos below show what I'm talking about.





My son once tried painting some of the exposed chrome along the sides but the paint did not stick. I do not know exactly what product(s) he used to do that.

Have any of you dealt with this and found a good solution?

[Dr_Snooz]

Clean well, sand lightly and rattle can it. You'll want to remove the remnants of the old coating carefully. It blends seamlessly into the weatherstrip for the windows. If you don't cut a clean straight line, it will show up through the new paint and look tacky.

[derolph]

Good points. Thanks.

[DBMaster]

You know what worked really well on my back window trim? Tape. One of the guys on the forum referred to "blackout tape," but I could never find any. I bought the heavy duty 3M black electrical tape and it was still looking good five years later when I toasted the car. As Dr Snooz says, remove the remnants of the rubber coating carefully. For the side pieces you have a bigger challenge. The kind of paint I like for anything metal (including the wide door frame trim and wiper arms) is satin black trim paint. It may have been Duplicolor brand. Sand the bare metal lightly with fine grit paper and apply the paint in 2-3 very light coats. That ought to hold up nicely.

[derolph]

I would have thought the tape would not stick so long. When it gets hot in the sun, I would expect that the sticky side would become gooey and pull loose. So, I'm surprised to hear that worked for you. I'll probably go the paint route. Thanks for your additional input on that.

[DBMaster]

I hear you, and I thought so, too. But, 3M heavy duty (slightly more expensive than standard) electrical tape is DESIGNED to take heat. It did not fade, get gooey, or come loose at all. I was, frankly, surprised. This is Texas and it gets plenty hot. I did it as an experiment and it was an unqualified success.

[Vanilla Sky]

I'm going to try Plasti-Dip on mine and see how it holds up.

[DBMaster]

^That is pretty cool. Are you actually going to remove the pieces and dip them, or can that stuff be applied with a brush? That sounds like a way cool idea!

[2oodoor]

I did mine one side at at time. You may need to use a urethane caulk on the door sash because part of that black coating merges into a seal to keep the water out of the door. I defiantly had to use it on the quarter windows.
It is crazy, my 94 Civic did the same thing, almost 10 years later the process was still being used. Im sure it went longer than that...
Semi gloss, or semi flat. tomato tomatoe... I believe they are the same thing?
plain gloss or plain flat looks out of place.

[DBMaster]

Looks good, Guy. I actually removed the vertical trim pieces from my coupe doors when I painted them. The little strip of rubber seal at the top of both of them was pushed down behind the trim piece so I was able to glue it back into the proper orientation.