side molding removal?

ASSISTANCE Exterior
1

I searched for this with no luck…
I want to remove my entire side moldings to add new ones but cant figure out how they come off without breaking them… anyone have some insight.

2

For the door there is a screw and clips. The screw is at the edge of the door where you open it from an the clips are on the inside. You have to remove the inner door panel to get it off. The front fender and the back one I am not sure about.

3

Same goes for the front and rear pieces. For the front, peel back the fender lining and pinch the clips. For the rear piece remove the interior paneling and pinch the clips from the inside. The door is the hardest piece cause there’s the most stuff in the way.

4

There is also the possibility of using two 1" “putty knives”. One from the top and one from the bottom. Slide it between the car and the molding, find the clips, and press in both directions (from top and bottom) at the same time and see if you can’t get them off. It worked for me once when i didn’t want to remove the inner panel…Though removing panels and accessing from behind is the right way to do it, just thought i’d mention this way if you wanted to try it.

5

I wouldn’t attempt that unless I was painting the car or had some SUPER thin “putty knives” which I knew couldn’t scratch the paint.

6

I dunno Colin, I managed to get them in there easy enough. They were flexible hmm 2" maybe not one?

Either way, you do have to be careful of your paint but yeah, if you feel like your gonna scratch somethin dont try it. :slight_smile:

7

maybe i can find those plastic putty knives and use those. so the only other way is just to squeeze the clips from behinde and thats going to take a good effort… wow.

8

yup its a lot of fun… good luck on not cutting yourself on the many razor sharp edges in there.

9

Also my 92 LS 4dr had nut and bolts at one end of some of the side-moldings.

Was able to remove by removing door panel. On some of them the bolts rusted and broke off when unscrewing the nut.

Was able to squeeze the clips from inside the door panel - start at one end and work your way along.

10

i know this gonna sound like monkey fisting, but if you got new clips with your new moldings, you can just pull the old moldings off swiftly. some clips will break, some won’t. you can try pulling downward from the top of the molding. a lot of times the clips will stay behind bending the metal ridge in the molding. then you can use a small flat blade to pull the clips out

11

it is not that hard to replace your moldings…I did it when I replaced them with thing side moldings…

steps for fender:

  1. remove inner fender liner get ur hand in there and press the clip from top and bottom at once and push it out…they will come out

Steps for door

  1. remove the door panel pop the clips out the same way by pressing from top to bottom and your window should be rolled p all the way so you can access it.
  2. there is one clip that is hard to get to which is on the door towards the front of the car, get some light in there and you will see what im talking bout…a long pair of needle nose pliers will do the job for these clips.
  3. uncrew the 10mm size nut on the edge of the bolt that is holding the molding in.

Steps for rear:

  1. Remove the panels
  2. take the pliers and take them off the same way and they will pop out.

Hope this helps…

12

if anyone wants to use the putty knives you can cover the tip with 3M painters tape and your all good