How to properly remove moldings , emblems , etc from your vehicle
I havent seen this posted here yet so i thought i would share what i consider to be the safest , most effective way to remove anything from your vehicles exterior that has double sided tape to hold it in place. I get alot of customers who want there factory moldings removed or want there ride "debadged" . This has become a pretty lucrative part of my business, averaging between 100.00 and 300.00 per job.
For the first step you will need a heat gun and a plastic scraper or bondo card. In this case since i have pics of some moldings i removed ill use moldings as an example but the same method applies to anything on the exterior of a vehicle that has been applied with adhesive of any kind.
Heat up a corner of the molding and carefully and gently pry it up with the scraper , move the heat gun a section at a time and heat up the molding and carefully pry it up using the scraper. You dont need to get the piece your removing super hot , what your doing is simply softening the double sided tape behind the piece then using the scraper to separate it from the panel . Heres a few pics:
After you get the piece removed completely you will see some tape residue still left on the vehicle . Heres a great tool that should be in every detailers arsenal !!!
Its a rubber wheel that attaches to an air tool, for those that dont know it uses heat and friction to remove the tape residue without removing the clear coat from the vehicles exterior. This tool makes removing this residue quick and painless i removed these molding in the pics and the residue in under 30 minutes .
At this point the moldings have been removed and 99% of the tape adhesive has been cleaned off of the vehicle. The next step is to take some adhesive remover and a terry cloth or microfiber and double check the vehicle to make sure all the residue is off the vehicle.
Now your ready to polish, I dont need to explain this to much. Simply polish the panels of the vehicles exterior to maximum shine. Heres the results :
As you can see its like those moldings were never there. This took a total time of 1.5 hours to do including waxing the entire vehicle and it paid 150.00. Hope this helps someone!!!
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