take off molding or leave it on?

[Spencer McMurtry]

i am doing a wrap on this pickup and am curious as to if i can take the molding off and put the graphics where the molding was. or if there will be some sort of obstacles beneath the molding if i try it take it off? also how do you take off the molding? please advise, should i just design around the molding?

Thank you!

 

[signage]

If you and the client want the molding off have it removed by a body shop!

 

[vinylbarry]

Most molding is 1 of 2 ways attached by the plastic push style snaps or by heavy duty double sided tape.

If you and the client wants it off, heavy duty fishing line used in a saw type motion does good if its the double sided tape if its the push in snap style there is body tools that help with them.
Theres also this stuff that holds molding,
METAL BONDING PANEL ADHESIVE:

3M - Two-part epoxy used to bond steel, aluminum, SMC, and FRP (traditional fiberglass). The primary use is to replace auto body quarter panels, roofs, box sides, van sides, utility vehicle sides and door skins. OEM Approved.

DURAMIX: Tenacious bonding auto body doorskin adhesive that can also be used to bond steel parts when a 45 minute work time is desired. Bonds doorskins is 2 hours. Other panels and parts are bonded in 6 hours (use heat to reduce declamp time to 1 1/2 hours.

Heres a site that shows some of the snaps and fasterners used on panels,
http://www.wclco.com/Plastic_Components/Plastic_Fasteners.php


Hope that helps.

 

[tanneji]

We leave em on. Thats body shop work. You dont want to have any kind of leakage or something pop up and then client be able to blame you. (Even if totally unrelated it comes down to "They pulled parts off of my truck and now its leaking")

 

[Bradster941]

Just did this today on a Chevy truck.

They are held on with double sided tape.

Fishing line works, but takes a long time. It also can cut into the plastic molding.

I used a expandable razor. Pulled out on the molding as I cut the tape.

You will still have a layer of tape to remove.

I used a heat gun, got it (REAL) hot, and used a Little Chisel to remove the tape.

Followed up with a little Rapid Remover with long soak time and a cloth and water wipe down and it was a Done Deal.

 

[grafixemporium]

We leave it up to the customer and let them know how it will impact the design if we leave them on. The finished product will look much cleaner without it, so we usually try to talk them into removing them. On this particular truck those moldings are held on with adhesive. Fishing line is the way to go... but on older trucks it's a nightmare to get all the adhesive off no matter how you go about it. Try some citris based adhesive remover and a pressure washer to get the residue off... or you can wear your thumbs raw trying to get it off by hand.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Sometimes if the molding has locator pins or mounting snaps that go into holes in the body we cover the holes with a piece of reflective vinyl to give the wrap some body in the area around the hole. I'm always hesitant to remove molding if there are mounting snaps or pins with holes in the sheet metal, even with something like reflective vinyl over the holes that is still a weak spot in the wrap that can easily be punctured (albeit probably not as big a potential failure as wrapping over some of the extreme contours of some molding). Make customers aware of this in writing up front and you should be fine. Wraps always look better with the molding removed though.

 

[Spencer McMurtry]

thanks for all the posts! i made up a couple proofs for the client and they where happy with leaving it on, so this is the route i am going go!

 

[zapblam]

We most often wrap right over. The customer knows that this is a bonus, and if it sticks it stays...if it fails it comes off.

If we have to remove the molding, the its fishing line and lacqer thinner. I also found that braided line works better than mono. Thinner and stronger.

 

[kustomguy]

I think it is best to get rid of the molding. It is an eye sore and a place for future vinyl failures to occur. I have removed hundreds of feet of body side molding and it is easy on these chevy trucks. Just warm it up either in the sun (if it is summer) or with a heat gun. Start it on an end and pull it off. No need for fishing lines or wire. That works great on emblems and such, but is not necessary on molding. As far as dealing with the left over tape gum if any is left behind, invest in a tool often referred to as a Crud Thug or eraser wheel. You will have that mess off of there in minutes. Most signs shops should have one in there tool chest anyway. Once you have one, you will wonder how you ever worked without it. You got to lose the molding though, in my opinion. Don't make a bigger deal out it than it is. Most vehicles today don't have locator pins or snap pins behind the molding, just 3M's famous double sided tape.

 

[kustomguy]

Here are links to Snap On Crud Thug. You can find cheaper rip off versions, but we have the Crud Thug. It is awesome.
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...group_ID=19897&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...group_ID=13078&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

 

[jasonx]

A lot of our mouldings in Australia are held on with sikaflex. Its a nightmare to remove. Easiest way is to sand back the whole panel and repaint it.

 

[kustomguy]

Wow, I have never heard of it. Not that way in the US of A.

 

[jasonx]

Wow, I have never heard of it. Not that way in the US of A.

Yeh it's nasty stuff. http://www.sika.com.au/cmi/transport_products.htm

Guess its an Australian thing.

 

[Vital Designs]

We leave it up to the customer and let them know how it will impact the design if we leave them on. The finished product will look much cleaner without it, so we usually try to talk them into removing them. On this particular truck those moldings are held on with adhesive. Fishing line is the way to go... but on older trucks it's a nightmare to get all the adhesive off no matter how you go about it. Try some citris based adhesive remover and a pressure washer to get the residue off... or you can wear your thumbs raw trying to get it off by hand.

We use a vinyl removal wheel obtained at a body shop supply house like English Color. Stick it in a drill and take it easy. It gets rid of almost all the residue and we just come back over with rapid remover.