You know back in the day I would have pulled mine off, but I have a 86 Dodge Omni GLHT that has those side moldings on it and it has no door dings in the sides. Those side moldings are a blessing from Mazda. So I would think twice about pulling the side moldings off of your cars. You will be pissed after so asshole opens his door like his car is on fire, and pound a door sing in your new car.

I'm glad the heat gun worked for you guys. That sticker crap is hard to remove without scratching the paint. GO GO HEAT GUN.

Yes the side molding were put on for a reason, but once your car is dropped they don't do much good anyway. The side moldings are down too low so you get door dings anyway.

I see your point and stand corrected.

Not to mention if that asshole drives a truck or a jeep...

Agree.

In the 2nd week of having my car, my parents took it out, and someone dinged the door. The molding is a little too low, and also it's not in verticle line with the door, higher up, which is where there is a crease, which got dinged. (does that make sense? hopefully my nice diagram below does!)

Looking at the car from BEHIND (side view)
..|
..| <--- (window)
..|
...\ <--- (bulges out a bit, where ding happened) :mad:
.../
../
../
../
..) <-- Molding
../
._/

Yes its a little over kill.

I agree!
 

I have 99 Pro lowered with H&R s and I've got a couple dam dings from parking lots. The dam side moldings don't protect the side worth a she-it! And I'm in and around D.C. and Baltimore all the time. No dings or paint chips in the dam side moldings. Loose’em if you think it looks cool. FYI there is some stuff you can get just about everywhere called GOO-OFF or GOOF-OFF that work great for getting glue off of stuff and as a prep if you want to paint plastic or vinyl. It comes in a little yellow tin can.
Dave

I have a ding in the exact same spot. That's why I didn't care about the protection that the mouldings provided...since they didn't provide a hell of a lot.

I've tried that Goof-Off stuff...it's alright. Works really well in loosening any kind of adhesive...but sometimes it spreads it around, and causes a bigger mess.

Yeah, well at the time my parents bought the car, I didn't even drive manual, so I wasn't even driving the car, it was really my parents car. After my mom changed jobs, and started busing to work, and once I learnt manual, then the Pro became mine.

Plus it wasn't my parents who dinged it, someone else opened their door into the car.

Not too mention that if peoples rear doors hit your car, [for example rear doors like ours, with a large curve towards the middle of the door], no moulding is going to help it. It's going to leave a nice big crease just below your window.

to tell you the truth, I like how the side moldings look when the car is nice and clean. I have a 2000 midnight navy metallic color and it looks good with the black side moldings. I also think that the car looks a little cheap when the moldings are taken off. just my opinion though.

For those of you who have already taken off your side moldings, Exactly how long did it take for you guys to get everything off!? any simple tips on how to take off the sticky tape on the car without using a heat gun? like a certain adhesive that just rubs it off cleanly?
I've just started to take off the moldings the other day, and it took me friggen 2 hours to just take off the passenger door and get all the sticky stuff off! my nails hurt and i'm fed up! lol I don't have a heat gun.. so i'm just usin a blowdryer.. maybe thats why so much sticky stuff is still on the car when i rip the moldings off...

There's really no easy way to get the adhesive off, now that you've removed the mouldings. I made the same mistake when I did mine, and it took about 3 hours to do both sides.

The best way to go about it, if you don't have a heat gun, is to use a hair dryer to heat the adhesive as you pull the moulding off...it'll take off 80-90% of the adhesive with the moulding.

To get the rest off, I used an adhesive remover called "Goof-Off" It comes in a yellow canister, kind of like a lighter fluid canister. It works really well to loosen up the adhesive, but it's still a pain to remove because it gets all slippery and makes a huge mess when you try to wipe it all off.

I think you should try heating the adhesive with your hair dryer and try to pull it off as cleanly as you can...and then use something like Goof-Off to remove any lines left over.

Deceptipro:

thats a triP, i went to Revy and bought that Goof-off thing a couple days ago! but havent used it yet...
i'll try it , hopefully i'tll save me some time!

biknman:

I've got a 99 and i'd LOVE to see your car with the moldings removed. if you can, post them or email them to me.......

after reading this thread i'm seriously considering pulling mine off too.......

Mr Green