black plasticote on trim

[fortress51]

Does anyone know how to replace the black plasticote that covers the trim. As you all know, this black plasticote peals off or flakes off after years in the sun. Any help to restore this would be appreciated.

[dlb]

i assume you're talking about the black paint on the exterior window frames of the doors. if that's right, there are a few threads on this but there is no definitive repair. i think the most detailed approach would be to use a razor or some other scraper to carefully remove all of the old stuff and repaint it. i'm pretty sure that's what ARCHINSTL did. tom, do you have any pics of that?

after the one time i dealt with the stuff, i will never bother again. the stuff that has decided to flake off is no prob but the rest is incredibly tough. way too much work for my aesthetically-challenged tastes.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club! Lots of helpful peeps here!

My plasticote had flaked in many places. I tried several solvents - acetone and I think MEK - the solvents by themselves were not much help.
I wound up scraping with a razor blade, as dlb mentioned. It did not take as long as one would think. However, care had to be exercised so as not to dig into the plastic.
See https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... =rustoleum
I then painted the trim - including the windshield trim - with RustOleum satin black. I used a small foam roller, available at any home store. I did this in 2006 and have not had to renew it since; pretty good for 7 years! I did not use a primer - just cleaned with acetone after scraping.
I did not take any photos, however.
Tom M.

[Petros]

Welcome to the forum.

I did something similar: used a wood type chisel to scrap off the loose remaining black covering, than took 100 grit sand paper to smooth the edges of what was left and rough up the stainless trim under it, gave it another sanding with 320 grit, than masked and painted with black rustolum paint.

It really improved the appearance of the car. Now some more of the orginal coating has flaked off and I have to touch it up again.

[SirNik83]

Just a thought, has anyone ever tried spray on PlastiDip? My friend did some badges on his car a while back and it didn't look bad.
My car is in need of getting the areas talked about here re painted. maybe I'll try PlastiDip.

[ARCHINSTL]

That's an interesting thought - but it would lead to one heck of a lot of masking (basically the whole car).
Tom M.

[Mark]

I just painted the side trim above the windows on mine.
Here's the "before":

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The trim comes off. There's no glue or bolts. It sort-of "unclips".

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The groove had quite a bit of dirt in it that I had to clean up:

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I then scraped off most of the old remaining black paint with a sharp blade. There was still some left, but I wasn't picky enough to bother with it. I then wiped the trim down with tolune to punish my DNA and to remove any oily residue. I didn't bother to prime it, but I probably should have. I just used a spray paint that said it was good for plastic. There were some patches where the paint didn't want to adhere, almost like the surface was oily. It was probably wax from my car wash soap. I just added another coat until everything was covered up. I let it dry and clipped it back in. It probably won't last that long and will likely rub/peel/chip off if you look at it too hard, but I see it as kind of an experiment.
The "after":

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I didn't remove the trim from around the windshield since It didn't pop off as easily and I didn't want to bugger with the windshield seal.

[Petros]

the trim around the windshield does not affect the seal on the glass. there should be plastic clips that can be released by pushing a putty knife (or similar tool) straight inward at the correct places where the clips are located. You slide the putty knife along until you located the clip, than push it stright back (handle low against the glass surface, push up under the trim parallal to the surface of the glass), lifting the metal trim up as you push the putty knife in and it releases the trim. Once you get the first one free you can see better how it works.

You can also pry out the corner pieces and slide the trim out sideways. this is actually faster to remove it this way, but be careful you do not bend the trim. if the clips are all good it is easy to snap the trim back in place.

You can do a much nicer job of painting them when they are off, otherwise you have to make off both the car body and the glass side of the trim. I have done it both ways, and it is better to just remove the trim.

[dlb]

your trim paint job actually looks really good in the pics. the old stuff is such a pain to get off.

[Mark]

There was actually quite a bit of the old paint left, but I put enough coats over it so it's not noticeable unless you look close. I wasn't gentle scraping the old stuff off. I found that even if you scrape a layer off the plastic it's still chrome-coloured underneath. I don't know how deep this goes or if it's shiny all the way through. When the rain stops I might try Petros' method of getting the windshield trim off. I'm not sure why I'm bothering with painting the trim since I didn't really have a problem with how it looked before.
-And I'm pretty sure that it will get wrecked the first time I put the roof rack on (it attaches to the gutters).