chrome window trim

[kmanracing24]

I am about to paint my 85 caprice and I was wondering how the chrome window trim around the front and rear windsheilds and the trim around the side windows comes off specifically the trim piece on the bottom where the window come into contact with the windowfelt. And also would it be okay if I would just keep those trim pieces off or does it help seal the window some how?

[deesandvees]

I'm about to be in that same boat. My rear quarter window (2 door) has some really weird plastic type stuff over the metal trim. One thing I do is attempt removal on a junk yard car with some trim that nobody would obviously ever want. But Landau's are rare at my local yard. Guaranteed there's a 4 door there every day of the week.

[PMack74]

I just finished painting my 84 Caprice Classic 4 door. The trim around the windows is just pushed on. If you want to put it back make sure you look at the overlaps to make sure you take them off in the right order. Otherwise you will bend the ends that overlap. The good news is that this material is pretty easy to put back into shape. I have all of the trim still off of my car and there are no problems with sealing. The piece of trim at the bottom of the window is attached to the belt line weatherstrip and can be removed by removing the window and removing the screws from the inside of the door. I ordered new belt line weatherstripping for my car and this is the only piece of "chrome" trim left on the outside.

One more caution!!! The chrome strip that runs vertical between the quarter window and rear window covers a pillar that does not go completely to the top of the window. This chrome piece either has to be painted (what I did) or put back in place when you are done painting in order to hold the quarter window in place and keep a finished look to the pillar.

[kmanracing24]

thanks, just curious what color did you paint your car. i was thinking of doing the same thing with all of the chrome and painting it flat black. how does the front and rear trim around the windows come off around the rear window and windsheild?

[silicon212]

You can't paint the trim, because nothing will stick to it. I use 'black out tape' which does look like it's painted on and it's durable.

[PMack74]

I painted it black but shiny, not flat. But I did consider the flat black rat rod look. I removed all of the trim on the outside including the stainless panels along the bottom of the doors, around the wheel wells, and the strips that run down the middle of the doors with the little rubber bumpers on them. I filled the rivet holes and used a cutting wheel to cut off the posts that held the trim on.

It was originally blue with a vinyl top. I took off the top and sanded all of the rust on the roof. Then I used some bondo type filler call Rage Gold to try and smooth out the rusty spots and dents that I couldn't pound out with a rubber mallet. I sanded on the roof for 7 days before I finally said "good nough" and moved on. I took off the doors and the trunk lid so I could paint the backside and the door jambs. Then I put the doors and trunk lid back on and painted the whole car.

I also completely gutted the interior and found the wet carpet and rusty floors that have been mentioned by almost everyone on this forum. I treated the rust with some rust stopper that is supposed to turn the rust into a black primer. Then I coated the entire floor with aerosol rubberized undercoating and installed new preformed carpet in black. I painted all of the trim, headliner and the door panels with Dupli-color's vinyl and trim paint in gloss black. My dash had 4 huge cracks so I ordered a new dash cap in black that I'm gluing on this week. I even wire brushed the trunk and shop vacced all of the dirt and crap out of it. Then I covered it with Dupli-color spray on bedliner.

So now everything on the outside of my car is black except for the hub caps, bumpers, and the little piece of trim along the belt line weatherstrip on the windows. Everything on the inside is black except for the bottom of the dash, the seats, and the seatbelts.

The trim around the windshield and rear window is held in by clips that are either plastic or metal. The clips slide over little posts and the trim slides over the clips. I had my windshield replaced a few months ago and the guy who did the work had a tool that slid under the trim and freed it from the clips. I knew I didn't want to use the trim so I wasn't quite so gentle with it when I removed it. I'm replacing the windshield trim with some "windshield molding" I found online that comes in black. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rear window trim at this point. I ordered some "windshield weatherstrip" that I found online that I'm hoping I can cut to fit the rear window and fill the gap.

[PMack74]

Originally Posted by silicon212

You can't paint the trim, because nothing will stick to it.

I don't have any experience with black out tape, it is probably the easier way to do it.

But...on the "chrome" trim piece that runs vertical between the window and the quarter window on the back doors I painted it and it came out pretty nice. I scuffed it up with a scotch brite pad, hit it with self etching primer, hit it with primer, sanded it smooth with 600 hundred grit, hit it with 3 coats of black paint, and 3 coats of clear coat. This may sound extreme but you have to remember that I was painting the entire car so this was a very small amount of extra work if any.

However, I didn't attempt to paint the trim around the windshield, the rear window, or the piece that runs along the edge of the hood near the windshield. All of this trim appears to be a different material with layers of some sort of plastic. I know this because the piece on my hood was cracked and peeling.

[kmanracing24]

pmack do you have any pics i would love to see how it turned out

[PMack74]

I have the before pics and I can take some after pics tomorrow. Isn't there some trick to posting pics on here though? If someone could clue me in on how to post pics so they are visible in the forum I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

[comp]

Originally Posted by PMack74

I have the before pics and I can take some after pics tomorrow. Isn't there some trick to posting pics on here though? If someone could clue me in on how to post pics so they are visible in the forum I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

cool would like to see them

[mike561]

Originally Posted by deesandvees

I'm about to be in that same boat. My rear quarter window (2 door) has some really weird plastic type stuff over the metal trim. One thing I do is attempt removal on a junk yard car with some trim that nobody would obviously ever want. But Landau's are rare at my local yard. Guaranteed there's a 4 door there every day of the week.

I notice too that two doors are getting rare, though a friend of a friend of mine has an 85 two door

[comp]

Originally Posted by mike561

I notice too that two doors are getting rare, though a friend of a friend of mine has an 85 two door

mines a 4

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by PMack74

I don't have any experience with black out tape, it is probably the easier way to do it.

But...on the "chrome" trim piece that runs vertical between the window and the quarter window on the back doors I painted it and it came out pretty nice. I scuffed it up with a scotch brite pad, hit it with self etching primer, hit it with primer, sanded it smooth with 600 hundred grit, hit it with 3 coats of black paint, and 3 coats of clear coat. This may sound extreme but you have to remember that I was painting the entire car so this was a very small amount of extra work if any.

However, I didn't attempt to paint the trim around the windshield, the rear window, or the piece that runs along the edge of the hood near the windshield. All of this trim appears to be a different material with layers of some sort of plastic. I know this because the piece on my hood was cracked and peeling.

The problem here is the 'chrome' piece you speak of is actually stainless steel, and paint just doesn't stick to it. Even if you scuff it up, it will stick before it's cured, but it will chip and scratch and look crappy within a couple months. I've learned this the hard way. 'Black out tape' sorta looks like electrical tape, but it's thinner and has better adhesive.

Having said that, I have had some success with 'painting' trim using tool plastic spray - 'PlastiDip' etc, the stuff you use to plastic coat tool handles. I painted my radiator grille with a black can of this stuff back in '04 and it still looks good.

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by PMack74

I have the before pics and I can take some after pics tomorrow. Isn't there some trick to posting pics on here though? If someone could clue me in on how to post pics so they are visible in the forum I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

You need a way to host the pictures online. I have my own domain with its own server, so I host my own pictures on my site (the link below), but you can use Pbase or Webshots or PhotoBucket etc to host pictures for use on web forums such as this. It's just then a matter of using the img tags along with the URL to the picture to host them here. For example, to break it down below, the example and the real image

[ img ] http ://www. silicon212.org /gp60.jpg[ /img ] *remove all spaces*

[PMack74]

Sorry for the delay everybody. Here are the before and after pics.


Before: Split top and peeling paint.






After: No top, No peeling paint, Trim gone. It's not perfect but it is definitely better than before.









New carpet and painted door panels. All I have left is to glue the new cap on the dash and get it back in there.



Here is the trunk after I cleaned it and coated it with spray on bedliner.