I'm working toward having my 1996 formula repainted and was thinking about leaving the small moulding strips off the sides. [the small strip right above the formula emblems] I dont see it helping to prevent any door dings etc because it's so low to the ground! I was thinking it might make for a cleaner look without them,has anyone else done this or seen one with out the moulding? A photo would be great but all opinions are welcomed as well!

A friend of mine has his off and imo i think it looks better. I have been thinkin of takin mine off but not sure if the paint behind the molding will stand out from paint fading over the years.

Sorry i dont have pictures cause its not my car but it does look better.

thanks i'm gonna be repainting the car so the color difference won't matter! I thought it would be a cleaner look but wasn't sure.

I removed my side moldings from my 94'. Its a black car.

I think it looks better and cleaner. You won't regret it.

I don't have a picture of my car showing the moldings removed, but there are some in the Gallery and here:

http://www.theformulasource.com/forums/ind...showtopic=14624

Here's a couple of pics on my 97 without the side molding and the T/A badging on it.

Besides the "cleaner" look it also makes it easier to wax the car since you don't have to spend so much time getting any wax out from around it/them and you don't have to try to work around it.

Hope that helps.

I am so glad you asked that question. I have been toying with the idea too. After seeing those pictures, I'm sold! I don't know when but, it will be done.

so I take it you park far away from entrances at the mall and stuff...

You go to the mall? That's a scary place

you xenophobic or what?

Agoraphobic, this is often translated to mean "fear of open spaces" but the correct translation from greek is "fear of the marketplace". I thought all men were?

greek right, not geek?

Lol, yes "greek", sorry, fixed.

My initial reaction to this idea was "no thanks". Having looked at the pics, I'm sold. I think it looks much better.

I agree.

Sorry about the one pic showing the rim, that was the wrong one. lol I've put up the other one that I wanted to show you all. I'm glad though you all like how my car looks without the side molding on it.

As for where I park - I park wherever I want to - close, far away, near no one, near everyone. It doesn't really matter to me. But one thing I do do when I park closer to an entrance is to look for a spot that has newer or higher end cars near it. I do that cause people who own those type of cars don't want dings in their paint anymore then I do so they're more careful when they open their doors.

yeap, basic psychology

I might have to do this, I hate having mine turn yellow all of the time.

It does not matter where I park. I park at the back of the lot where the employees park. I come back out and I have 20 cars around mine. It is usually other gear heads, you can always tell. It really drives me nuts when you get the calico ricer parked next to you.

Matt

well if you think about it, people still stare at yours and get to appreciate it even more considering they have something to compare it to.

That white TA in your reflection on the third pic looks hot as well..

i heard about doing this but never really thought it would look good until i saw these pics. I really want to now...Sue what did you do to make sure it came off clean and didn't leave any marks? I may actually take mine off this coming weekend...and i don't have to worry about door dings, i NEVER EVER park next to anybody. I'm at the back of the lot haha!

Nope, I don't do the mall. As BrdWatti2d said, that place is scary!

Around here almost everyone drives SUV's. The only door ding I have is in the right rear quarter panel just above and in front of the wheel. The area of the moulding is untouched. So I figure if its useless and looks better gone then bye bye.

formula90 - yea that white T/A does look pretty good doesn't it?


Ryan - The way I took them off was real easy and if you follow what I tell you you shouldn't have any problems either. What you'll need are the following: the smallest flat-head screwdriver you can find; a couple of pieces of soft cloth; a yard or two of either waxed dental floss or fishing line and some sort of glue remover like Goo-B-Gone or similar product. Now what I done is I took one of the pieces of cloth and put it over the end of the screwdriver so that the tip of the screwdriver was totally covered, then using that I very carefully slide it under the leading edge of the molding and very carefully pried up that edge with it until I got about an inch of the molding loosened. Then holding that edge up with the screwdriver I slide the dental floss/fishing line under it (double over whichever one you use to make it stronger) and then I removed the screwdriver while keeping the loosened molding off the car with the floss/line. Now slowly and very carefully, using your fingers pull up on the molding while sliding the floss/line down along the molding infront of your hand keeping the floss/line pulled fairly tight away from the car. You do this so that when you reposition your hand as you pull the molding off the car the molding doesn't readhere to the car. You just keep doing this (sliding your hand and the floss/line) until you get to the very end and the molding is completely off the car. Like I said pull off the molding slowly and carefully and don't be tempted to just yank it off once you get about half of it off the car cause if you do you take a chance of the skin on the door especially "popping out" and causing a reverse dent in the door as well as you take a chance of leaving some of the double sided adhesive that's used to keep the molding on staying on the car rather then on the molding itself, so take it slow and easy.

Now once you have the molding completely off, the majority of the double sided adhesive should be on the molding still and not on the car. If some of the adhesive tape is left on the car yet rather then on the molding, carefully take the screwdriver with the cloth still on it and carefully push against the ahdesive tape to roll it off the car. Again do this slowly and carefully so that you don't gouge the paint and to make sure that you get as much of it off as you can.

Ok, now that you've gotten the majority of the adhesive off the car you need to get the other piece of cloth and the Goo-B-Gone and just follow the directions on the bottle to get any remaining adhesive off the car. Just do a small area at a time to make sure that you get it all. You might have to do this step a couple of times to make sure that you've got it all off. Once you have it all off go over where the molding had been one last time but this time go the full length of where the molding had been (not just a small area at a time). This will help "even out" where you used the Goo-B-Gone.

The final step after you've got the molding off and have used the Goo-B-Gone is to wash the car REALLY REALLY well to remove all traces of the Goo-B-Gone from the car since if you leave any of it on the car when you go to wax/polish it the wax/polish won't take/stick to this area and your car won't be protected in those areas. After that rinse the car well and then wax/polish it again. For good measure after the first wash you might want to wash the car again just to be sure that you've got all traces removed. Once you're sure you have it all cleaned up really good, go ahead and give your car a good wax/polish job.

I know it sounds sort of complicated but really once you get going it doesn't take too long to get everything off and cleaned up. If I remember right, from start to finish (getting everything together to when I was ready to wax the car) took me about 30 minutes tops. The longest part (besides wahing the car to remove the Goo-B-Gone) was using the Goo-B-Gone to remove the adhesive residue.

So there you have it, how to remove your side molding in some fairly easy steps. If anyone has any questions or doesn't understand something just let me know and I'll try to help you out as best I can.


Oh and Matt, the reason that the molding turns yellow on a white car while the rest of the paint doesn't is because the side moldings are actually made out of a type of rubber so as the rubber deteriorates over time the paint changes color. The only was to stop that from happening is to do one of a couple of things - either take the moldings off the car; have the original paint stripped off them and then have them repainted or buy new moldings and have those painted to match your car. Either way isn't cheap or fun so that's why alot of people with white cars just remove the moldings when they start to discolor.

Thanks for that write up Sue! I started workin on it today and did the passenger side. I started with the front piece by the side vents on the car. It came off with no problem. So then i went ahead and did the door and GREAT...there is an outline that i can't seem to manage to get off. I tried washing it and then using bug and tar remover on it, but that really didn't work so i'm gonna go out and get some goo-gone tomorrow and see if that does the trick. I can't tell if it's a problem with the paint itself or if it's the adhesive. The very last piece also has that outline too...it never goes perfect for me

Ryan the Goo-B-Gone should get rid of that "outline". I've seen that happen on other cars before and on those cars it ended up being caused by years and years worth of wax/polish and dirt built up in the adhesive edges. Regular washing and even bug/tar remover didn't remove it but the Goo-B-Gone stuff did.

But post pics when you've got all the molding off.

Thanks Sue for those directions I just got in from takin mine off. I also had that outline but the Goo Gone worked and took that right off.

You're welcome for the directions. Glad you got the moldings off without any problems and that the directions I posted helped you out.