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Hey everyone...I'm trying to get this little piece of the exterior of my car so I can paint it as it is flaking horribly....

SEE THE RED BOX

I removed the headliner...all the inner plastic pieces and the automatic seatbelt track and don't know where to look now....

Please help - thanks so much -Justin

I know for a fact that it hooks into the exterior a-pillar trim (side of the windshield) and the rear quarter window trim (above the back window).

I just sanded mine down, masked carefully and painted it still attached to the car. Normally I am all about removing stuff to paint, but they are kinda annoying to remove.

You have to pull out the rubber door seal that runs the length of the doors. Once you pull it out you will see the little phillips screws that holds the trim on.

Is that all that holds the trim in? A few phillips head screws? I removed them on my parts car but still couldn't get the trim off. I need to repain mine badly and want to take it off first. A detailed explanation of how to remove it would be great.

I think stipro said it best....

The rubber peice that seals the door (but is attached to the car) has to come off...you'll see a few circle things you have to dig out with a straight edge and then it will pull up and off..

I decided to screw it and just strip/paint them with them on.....just taped/newspapered all around them

Yeah, I've had the rubber out and have removed the phillips screws but the trim still stayed in even when I really pulled on it.. I'm thinking that perhaps it needs to come off in a certain order like front to back or vice versa or there may be more retaining clips in there somewhere.

To remove it you must first remove the two side pieces (long piece by windshield and the triangle piece around the rear quarter window) once you remove those pull the weather rubber seal from both the front and rear doors... but just the upper sections. Once you have removed all the Phillips screws, I believe you gentle pull it off from the plastic clips. Let me know if you need anymore help... should be pretty straight forward and only take you about 5=10 minutes to do.

Awesome! Thanks Tone-us. That's the info I needed.

one last thing.... Do the windshield trim and triangle window trim just pop off?

Yes... they are just held on by clips. Just be sure to pull them slowly as to not break any clips. The clips pull straight out or up... or however way you want to think of it. LOL.

So how well attached are those trim pieces? Is there something more secure just on the inside of the trim strips supporting them?
I'm asking because I've wondered how fast I can go with a loaded bicycle/canoe roof rack (Thule). They don't seem to attach to very much, and if being old and gunky with ages of tree sap is helping keep them stuck in place, I'd rather not take them off to find out what's beneath them.

Im not sure if this helps or not but i think there is also a little phillips head screw holding the rear window trim on as well. Its just by the back of the rear door where it meets the trim. Well thats the case on jdm vehicles anyway

Sorry to tell all of you this but....... MOST OF THIS THREAD IS WRONG..... or at least very incomplete. I just removed all the trim around the windshield, windows and rear triangle and I learned a few things along the way. I'll try to sum it all up so whoever tries this next will be able to do it smoothly and without breaking too many things.

Step 1 - Put all your windows down
Step 2 - Pull out the weatherstripping starting at the front of the front window. It will simply peel out from the metal retaining strip. You don't have to remove any fastening buttons, just peel the weatherstrip back. Go from front to back and don't stop until you have gotten below the rear triangle window. In between the two doors you only have to peel it down a few inches.



Step 3 - Remove all the phillips head screws you can see. You don't need to remove the two on the pillar in between the doors.



Step 4 - Using a flathead screwdriver or pry tool remove the front weatherstrip retaining strip. This is the piece that you just pulled the weatherstrip from. It is "glued" in by the piece of foam that lies between it and the door jam. Here's the pry tool I used that works great for this kind of stuff.




Step 5 - Remove the rear weatherstrip retaining strip next.

Step 6 - Now you should see some more phillips head screws. These also hold on the trim. Remove these.



Step 7 - Remove the INTERIOR rear triangle window trim. Yes, I said interior. There is a retaining screw that holds the exterior triangle window trim in place. I broke this mount because I didn't know it was there. Remove the 10mm screw at the top/rear of the triangle.
I don't have pics of this because I only learned about it after I broke my triangle trim.


Step 8 - Gently pull the exterior triangle trim from the window starting at the lower/front corner. There are 2 clips there and 3 more mounting pins along the side that is adjacent to the rear window. Pull these all gently and directly away from the car. The triangle should pop off.

Step 9 - Now remove the long window trim that runs along the top of the windows.

Step 10 - Remove the trim along the side of the windshield. There are 3 clips that hold it in place. One at the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom. Pull directly away from the windshield and it should pop off. You have to slide it up to avoid the corner of the fender.






Step 11 - Clean the rain channels that you have uncovered.

Step 12 - Prep the trim for paint by rubbing it down with a Scotchpad

Step 13 - Prep the trim for paint by wiping it down with rubbing alcohol to remove any grease.

Step 14 - Mask the trim if you don't wish to paint the edges and the chromes strips.



Step 15 - Paint the trim. I used an epoxy style black semi-gloss spray paint that I got from my local autoparts store. I think it came out well.





Reinstall parts in the reverse order.

Thanks for the report with pictures. My '91 SS needs this, but think I'll use my son-in-law's '91 L as a test mule before I do mine. Can you post up some end result pictures? Reinstalled.

that was a great write up but before i would do all that i would mask and paint them on the car.

i did mine 4 years ago and they are doing just fine.

Awsome guide, thanks!
Could you explain how do you remove the interior triangle window trim? I tried once but couldn't release the clips there. And had to remove the rear seat too.

I haven't taken off the interior triangles in a while. I really don't remember if they just snap out or if you have to pull the seat.

one bolt by the seat and protect the seat from rubbing on the ratchet.

this bolt is for the seatblets.

one screw on the bottom of the plastic piece after you remove the seat.

the rest are snaps.

After all that work...... my paint job started pealing off after the first snow storm..

It only pealed from the places where I painted bare chrome. I guess I should have primed everything first. Oh well...... Now I know how to remove everything quite easily so I guess I'll just have to repaint.

Thanks for the pics and guide, Soarer.

I have Soarer's old car, and the trim pieces have held up quite well.

I just had to refinish the ones above the door, because they were peeling, as stated above.
But, i sanded them down, primed them up and going on almost a year and still holding in there.

How's my baby holding up? Have you done any more work to her? Drop me a pm so we don't hijack this thread.

Does anyone have any experience painting the trim pieces on a wagon? obviously you cant put the rear side windows down, is it just like the triangle windows in the sedan? thanks..

that flaky black paint coming off the chrome looks really trashy on my car..

Welcome.

There's a lot of information on the board. This thread will probably help.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... trim+paint