I'm thinking about repainting part of my car since I bought it at the dealership who got it at an auction and the morons that 'repainted' it for whatever reason did such a sloppy job that now the new paint is chipping off and the old paint is still under it and looks just fine but looks terrible since you can see where it's all chipped out. I have no idea why this car was even repainted but they didn't even sand the original paint first before painting it.

So anyway, I'm taking up the challenge but since I really want to try doing it right, how would I go about taking off the rubber door trim in the middle of the door? Is it something that will be simple to do or something complicated enough that I should just tape off the trim and work around it?

It'd be cool to remove the trim up by the window too since I really want to do the whole door just so it'll match and not look like crap. It it worth doing that or should I ultimately just tape off the trim and go from there?

I suggest just finding one from a donor car. It will be hard to find based on the color.

 

That appears to me the clear coat is coming off.

The rubber window gasket has clips that hook inside the door lip to hold it in place.
They can be a PITA to get off/out.

 

The rubber window gasket has clips that hook inside the door lip to hold it in place.
They can be a PITA to get off/out.

Really? I did not know this. I think the molding probably has a bit off adhesive on it as well to keep out moisture as well. But, I could be wrong.

 

Also interested in how to remove the trim. It would make painting it that much easier.

 

Looks like they def didn't sand much if at all and didn't pull up the trim (likely why it's peeling). How do the door jambs look? Are they the faded?


To be honest a correct FULL paint job would require pretty much a full break down. The last thing you want to do after a paint job is open the doors, trunk, or hood and see the old or faded color.

Not to mention: Sanding in steps, filling, more sanding, primer, paint, wet sand, then clear, wet sand again, then polish and wax. Def not something a lot of body shops do but, in order to get it done right that's what should be done.

 

Well, the back doors are rarely in use but the jambs don't bother me too much even though I think they are somewhat faded. Truthfully, I'm not even that fond of the color but didn't have much choice when I bought the car. But hey, it's an Impala and that's what matters!

As for the trim removal, I don't think they removed anything at all. But I went to the junk yard and saw an Impala with the trim starting to come off and it looks like it's basically just adhesive holding it on with a few pegs to go into the door for whatever reason. I don't know if the pegs themselves anchor into anything but it didn't appear so, it might just serve the purpose of holding it in place instead of it wiggling around or putting it on and having it appear off center. Are there any instructions online you'd recommend me looking at to help me better understand how to properly paint a car?

 

The pegs/posts are prob just for aligning when installing. If the molding is held on with adhesive, it may require a heat gun and/or an adhesive remover.

 

I don't have a heat gun at my disposal unfortunately so I was thinking of taking a hair drier. I'm hoping it'll be sufficient enough to get the trim off. With the Impala sitting in the junkyard and the trim falling off on the one door, it seems like the pegs are just holding it in place as the door was undamaged so that's my best guess.

 

We have a charger that was cheaply repaired, the paint is doing the exact same thing. Personally, I'm pissed about it, and never want another car going to that guy. Unfortunately, the boss likes the fact that he is cheap...

 

Well, the dealer got it from an auction so god only knows what they did to it before then and had this happened earlier, I might've gone back on the dealer. But I bought this car in 09 and it was actually certified used with only 53,000 on it which I've close to doubled that now but after all the money I put into it, I don't want to get rid of it since I got rid of a lot of major issues. But I paid $9800 out the door for the car. I could've gotten a local trade from them which was an 2002 LS but it had the leather bucket seats and I hate both of those but personally I would've liked the LS on the stance that it had a gray interior and it was silver. I prefer the gray interior over the tan myself.

 

So what color you going to paint it?

 

I'm just going to paint it the color it came as so it'll be what GM calls Cashmere metallic. Personally I would've liked to have changed the color but that would be a lot of work and costly for me at this point in time.

 

lol ohh yeah i would try at least black

 

Did you get the trim off? My trim piece paint/coating has dried and cracked. I would like to replace the piece and I don't know how to go about it.

 

usually the side molding is held on by like a double sided 3m, my body guy uses fishing line or fishing wire to get it off. you know like getting the fishing line underneath the molding then slowly pulling back to break the bond