4000 side molding

[Matt Daniels]

Oh boy, talk about Pandora's box! 

I decided "what the hell" the other day and just ripped off the drivers
side molding, thinking a little time with a hair dryer, scraper, and a
lot of WD-40 would do the trick. About 20 minutes later I decided I
needed a heat gun and other assorted goodies, so went to Home Depot, and
got myself a little more in debt. 

Heat gun + WD-40 + razor blades + elbow grease = the adhesive from the
small strips on either side of the doors is gone. But not without a few
scraps and heat burns, but no exposed metal. Oh well, the body is far
from perfect and I could live with those, plus I may repaint the beast
sometime in the future. The process did make me decide to try out the
little rubber wheel that was mentioned, picked one up at a local auto
body supply store and it worked well on small stuff and for getting rid
of the pin stripes I've always hated.

Then I decided to do the drivers side door. The bottom strip of adhesive
was easy to heat a bit then slice off with the razor blade without a
scratch - just a little left over for the rubber wheel to tackle. The
top strip was not as easy, since it is right on the little lip in the
sheet metal, the razor blade couldn't take it off cleanly. The adhesive
was dry as a rock and after a couple of hours I was about to give up. 

Then I got the brilliant idea to use a rust stripper wheel I have, and
well, now I'm repairing the small patches of rust on the door since I'm
going to be repainting it anyway. :-) At least the adhesive is gone (on
the front door), I just have to finish sanding tomorrow and get it
primered. 

So, I don't really want to go through this same process on the rear door
(and passengers side). Is there some sort of chemical I can buy that
will really soften up this adhesive to make it easier to remove? There
has to be some process that makes this easier.

BTW, as far as I can tell, the doors sound the same when I close them.
But then again my car isn't exactly a perfect example to begin with. 

Thanks for the help so far.

Matt Daniels






Stephen Bigelow wrote:
> 
> Heat gun and/or acetone will make a huge mess, BTDT removing "smear of
> toothpaste" stripes from a recent ($600 safetied!)Chev purchase.
> 
> Body shop supply companys sell a drill mounted rubber wheel that made
> _amazingly_ quick work of removing the remander. It was $20CDN, and left the
> paint unscathed.
> 
> > The leading edge of that strip lifted off the door gradually on my first
> > 4Kq and then, one day, when I opened the door the lifting edge dug into
> the
> > paint on the fender quarter panel, and I couldn't open the door to get
> > out.  Well, I got out and then I ripped that piece of %&*#@! off.  The
> > adhesive mess underneath came off with some rubbing one day later on when
> > the sun had been on the door for awhile.  A heat gun might aid in removal.