Cheap Mods: Peeling Window Trim

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
02/20/2015 at 10:31 • Filed to: cheap mods

Here's a funny story: If you bought a 90s Honda Civic that was anything above the base model you would get metal trim around the windows. If you opted for the base model you got black plastic trim, which turned out to just be metal trim... with black coating on it. Amusingly, as time went on the black coating would wear off exposing the metal trim beneath. That's right, if you bought a Civic, it would gradually become a higher trim level as time goes on.

Of course, none of this matters to me because I hate chrome.

Here's what the trim looked like when I started. Flaking off black rubbery plastic shit, scratched up chrome, ew. Just ew. I was originally going to Plastidip it but then I realized I had another solution that looked much more like the factory finish.

What you need

Black electrical tape and a steady hand. If you want to be adventurous you could do it in other colors. A knife of some sort helps, too.

Step 1

Just... put the electrical tape on the trim. This should be pretty obvious. What I did is line it up with the top edge of the trim and put it down, then roll it down to cover the whole trim piece after. Use a knife to cut it off at the ends.

Step 2

There is no step 2.

The Result

Aaah, that's much nicer.

So for the cost of $notmuch depending on if you have electrical tape lying around, you can vastly improve the looks of your doors while screaming "LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU" to your dented and scratched-to-hell paint.

Jake is a college student from Kansas who recently bought a $500 rolling headache Honda Civic and revels in being a cheap bastard saving money and ruining improving the looks of his car. This series will share some of the more worthwhile cheap fixes for common car aesthetic issues.

DISCUSSION (15)

CalzoneGolem > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:35

It's only a matter of time before you plastidip it anyways. Look into your heart you know this to be true!

Garrett Davis > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:39

Actually not a bad idea. Let's see how it holds up.

Pretty much cheaply vinyl wrapped your window trim: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrica…

Mattbob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:41

given a bit of time and heat, the electrical tape adhesive turns to goo. That is going to fall off and leave a mess come summer time.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:41

Wow, it looks way better than I'd expect! I'd probably still opt for the rustoleum bumper and trim paint or plasti-dip. It will be interesting to see what happens to this in the summer. It could peel off once it heats up.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
02/20/2015 at 10:45

Yeah, I might end up painting it anyways. My dad blacked out the trim on his Malibu wagon in the 90s with some sort of tape and it held fine.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Mattbob
02/20/2015 at 10:45

Quite possibly, but I can always just plastidip it then.

Takuro Spirit > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:45

I heard of this mod back when I had a Crown Vic, and everyone wanted to black out their chrome window trim because.... well, if you owned a certain year P71, it was the only chrome trim on the car.

My Camry has chrome trim around the rear, and side windows. The rear started peeling, and turns out it was a chrome film on black rubber. So I peeled it all off. I wanted to do the sides to match, but they are chrome metal, with black thick tape around the edges, so I have factory thin chome, or peeled off FAT chrome.

I tried the electrical tape trick to see what it would look like, with plans to Plastidip the mouldings in the future. The tape held up for a bit, but with changes in temperature, it shrunk leaving visible chrome at the ends of the mouldings.

So I peeled it off, and will be dipping them maybe this spring.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > CalzoneGolem
02/20/2015 at 10:46

Nope. My boss has a paint booth. I'm hoping to respray it with factory black paint.

CalzoneGolem > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 10:47

Nice!

magman007 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 11:23

What part of kansas are you from Jake? I did 5 years at KSU-Salina.

desertdog5051 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 11:49

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

There is no step 2.

There is coffee on my keyboard.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > magman007
02/20/2015 at 12:10

I'm a WSU guy

magman007 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 12:58

Sweet, I spent a lot of time in Wichita, most of my friends lived there, I used to love the tunnel that runs under Beachcraft. Late at night no one is there, its a blast to roll the windows down and romp through! Ran a WS6 trans am through it once in my e46 m3, that was aurally satisfying :)

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > magman007
02/20/2015 at 13:05

I did that in the Buick!

http://bullshift.kinja.com/i-really-like-…

magman007 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/20/2015 at 13:07

Thats the one!!! Great tunnel :)