Bubbles under mouldings

clancaster23 · Post by **clancaster23** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:56 pm

I was going to take off my mouldings knowing the possibility of the color fade or bubbles under the paint. Well I got about a quarter of the first moulding off and pulled it back. Removed some of the dirt and saw the small bubbles that some talk about. I just pressed what I had gotten apart back on and it stuck well.

My question is, is there any way to remove these bubbles from the paint short of taking it in to the paint shop to fix? No way to buff them out or anything like that?

jake_tim · Post by **jake_tim** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:20 pm

Same problem here, besides the obvious fading that shows when you remove the moldings, paint bubbles usually show up. The most effective way I have seen to remove these bubbles is to wet sand them off; Risky, I know. Or you could of course re-paint your car.

After seeing a few, I just put my moldings back on.

-Jacob

clancaster23 · Post by **clancaster23** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:26 pm

I'm not touching my car with sand paper LOL! And although I have enough little scratches here and there, I only plan on having this car for another year so that doesn't warrant the cost of a total new paint job. Guess they will have to stay on.

jake_tim · Post by **jake_tim** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:55 pm

the whole 2K and upwards cost for a paint job doesnt warrant taking off those side moldings. lol. Mine are staying on too.

What are those things on there for anyway? I never figured that out.

-Jacob

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:50 pm

they're door ding guards. Some doors hit those instead of sheet metal.

jake_tim · Post by **jake_tim** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:01 pm

Thinking about it, I pretty much figured, still dumb IMO.

-Jacob

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:19 pm

Yup. I removed mine with horrible results. Bubbles, flaking etc. Just going to repaint it with my dad here in a few weeks. We were having some chipage on the bumper too. Dang plastic.

clancaster23 · Post by **clancaster23** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:01 am

Yeah, the bottom of the top half of my bumper is chipping too but still not worth the cost of a paint job since I will only have the car for another 14 months then it goes bye bye.

King Crab · Post by **King Crab** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:25 pm

Wenuden wrote:they're door ding guards. Some doors hit those instead of sheet metal.

When I took my moldings off they didn't have one mark on them from other cars hitting them in 8 years.
On the other hand my passenger front door itself had some dings, but not where the door guards were.

Guards my ass,

better off without them. That is if you have good paint under them. [/rant]

Pablodragon · Post by **Pablodragon** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:52 pm

Must be how old the car is that matters
I have a 2004 that I bought in 2006 and took off the trim in Spring of 2007 with no problems at all

..and that comment about the "door gaurds"... it's fine and works well if the car next to you happens to be another smaller/lower passenger car...but since most other cars out there with bad parking/idiots driving them are giant SUV's, doesn't do much good when thier door is nailing yours right about where the door handles are!