Those Damn Door Guards

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:35 pm

I really hate the door guards on my 2003 neon, but I tried to take one off and what lay underneath scared me. There was tiny bubbly paint and stuff. So is there anyone out there that took theirs off to find the same thing? And if so any tips on how to get rid of the door guards and make the doors still look good without getting them painted? Thanks.

Mike

clancaster23 · Post by **clancaster23** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:44 pm

That happens to a lot of the older 2gn's. I have a black '00 and it has them too. Wanted to take them off, jut one partly off and felt underneath and they were there. put them back on. I believe it's from the guards being put on soon after they painted the car and the paint doesn't get time to cure or something in that area. I believe the older your car is, the better chance of this happening.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:47 am

I ended up repainting mine. The bubbles and flakes just kept getting bigger and looking worse. Not to mention everytime I saw it, I just got pissed off. You could try touch up paint, but the only good way to fix it would be to repaint the doors.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:19 pm

either live with the guards, or the bubbles

or get your door re-sprayed

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:58 pm

Those damn reposts.

Paul56 · Post by **Paul56** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:42 am

Hmm, taking the door guards off is like opening a box of chocolates... you never know what you are gonna get.

Might have bubbles and paint imperfections... then again might have no issues at all.

I decided to leave well enough alone on mine by not removing the guards.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:07 am

Paul56 wrote:Hmm, taking the door guards off is like opening a box of chocolates... you never know what you are gonna get.

Might have bubbles and paint imperfections... then again might have no issues at all.

haha, that's the truth. I decided to peel my driver's door back to see, and there was some bubbling, so i stuck it back on... a few days later i came home after driving on the highway and it was hanging off the car... that made up my mind... they came off.. There's some slight bubbling, but it doesn't look terrible on my silver car. The worst part was when I pulled the passenger side front door off it wasn't heated enough and I pulled too hard and took 4 little flakes of paint with it. I touched it up with paint, and It looks pretty good otherwise. It definitely looks a lot cleaner now!

Pics after I took them off:

you can see a faint line where its discolored and has some bubbling

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:22 pm

Did you heat them up before pulling them off? If so how did you? and by the way it looks great, much cleaner.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:26 pm

Thanks man. Actually I just did it outside during a hot day with the sun shining on it, that was enough to loosen them as long as you let it sit a while. Just be careful and don't pull too quickly like I did. Some use hair dryers, which is fine, but I didn;t want to go that route. I think had I gone slower I could've had more of the adhesive pull up with the strips than stick to the car. I used 3M Adhesive Remover and a credit card to get the excess tape off. I then followed that up with rubbing compound followed by some wax.

If you do it make sure you post up some pics!

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:08 pm

Maybe this weekend if it stops raining. Thanks

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:05 pm

No prob... Yep it's been raining all weekend here too. It sucks.

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:54 pm

Well I gave it a shot and the undercoating wasn't bad, but the outline of the guards were undercoated and bubbly and defienitly would not fade with time, so they went back on

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:59 pm

that sucks... I'm happy with mine even though they're not perfect. Silver hides flaws well

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:00 pm

I took off my spoiler to clean under it, and saw bubbling there. So that canned my plans of removing my door guards.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:03 pm

Yep... it was bubbly under my spoiler when I swapped to the SRT-4 spoiler too... ::sigh::

Pablodragon · Post by **Pablodragon** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:26 pm

kinda sux that it's just a crap shoot whether u got the bad paint underneath or not... I guess it kinda doesn't even matter where yer from, it's just how soon they attached those things before or adter the paint fully cured.

I took mine off and had no problems underneath. But think of it this way...I've got an SE...I don't got no power windows, power locks or cruise...

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:29 pm

^^ Should've got an SXT.... I don't have cruise either though. A lot don't.

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:45 pm

Mine doesn't have cruise either, but I like it. I think it is just one more way to stay in control and sync with your car.

Post by **racer12306** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:07 pm

It seems, from what I remember when I bought my car, cruise was mainly a dealer option. I don't think there were any Neons on the lot with cruise.

It was just a couple hundred bucks.

excon · Post by **excon** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:44 pm

Strange... Mine's a 2003 and I have cruise... but the dealer drove mine around...

Mopar65 · Post by **Mopar65** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:47 pm

I'm pretty sure there is a 'how to' for installing cruise control on this site. It only costs like $27 so it's not that expensive. Sure as hell beats the dealer charging a couple hundred

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:09 pm

My brother had my dad buy the add on kit for his neon, and install it for him. I didn't care that much though