Exterior trim removal?

[Chris.W]

Right folks, I am about to have the saloon re-sprayed by a lad as a homer. However he has asked me to strip it first, Since i'm stuck on an oil rig in the north sea just now, i'm after some advice please so that I can be fore-armed for when I get home and the teardown commences.

Firstly....how are the plastic mouldings on the doors attached? Are they clipped or bonded and what is the best way to get them off without damage?

Second...how do the gutter rails come off? Is it just a case of pulling them out or do they need to be jiggled in any particular fashion?

Third.....rear bumper. I assume it is held on by 2 arms running fwd under the boot? Are the bolts accesed from inside the boot or under the car?

Every thing else is relativly straight forward, (front bumper off, headlights out, grille out, bonnet off, spoiler off, boot off, wing mirrors off, side repeaters out, window trims/seals off, badges/number plates off).
I'm just a little stuck by the previously mentioned bits. Any advice would be helpfull. Would have done a forum search but the intergeeknetweb out here is pants and would throw a fit if I tryed (Its taken 20min just to navigate to and load this page).


Cheers,

Blue.

[Nick Mann]

I've not removed many of those trim bits myself, but the rear bumper is bolted down each side from inside the boot, plus a couple at the top and bottom.

[MarkSanne]

Q: Firstly....how are the plastic mouldings on the doors attached? Are they clipped or bonded and what is the best way to get them off without damage?
A: This one I don't know, sorry.

Q: Second...how do the gutter rails come off? Is it just a case of pulling them out or do they need to be jiggled in any particular fashion?
A: Start at the back (rear window) at the bottom en gently push it both sideways (to the middle of the car) and upwards. The clips that hold the rail are prone to brake because of age, so prepare for that. They are not expensive new from the dealer though, or maybe someone on here has them from a breaker-project.

Q: Third.....rear bumper. I assume it is held on by 2 arms running fwd under the boot? Are the bolts accesed from inside the boot or under the car?
A: As Nick said. Mostly from inside (also waaaaay down low!) the boot it's all simple nuts and a couple of them underneath the car. Nothing exciting. If you can remove the front bumper, you centainly won't be challenged by the rear bumper!

[Kryton]

Weather strips on doors should slide up slightly & pull out at the same time but they are normally stuck on with double sided tape aswell so managing to get these off without snapping any clips is near impossible. If you do break the clips, Mitsubishi stock them for circa £3 each or if you have no intention of taking them off again, some 3m double sided tape will do the trick.

Strips come off as Mark say but be warned, if you do break any clips, there are approx 20 of them from memory (10x per side) and all 10x are different (colour coded). If they snap, these are also only about £3-£5 each (hope you don't need too many, I just paid £157 for some a few weeks ago :() but 2x of them are special order so if any do break, might be worth ordering them straight away so they are here ready to fit as soon as the car is done

Bumper, again as Mark has said

[menno3x8g]

The side-strips are mounted with double sided tape AFAIK. Just place a flat screwdriver under one end and whip em off.


To remove the roofstrips:
1- Start on the back and work to the front. Grab the strip with your fingers on the inner side, and press gently outwards and up simultaneously (photo 1).
2- Be carefull with the handling of the strip: it can cut your fingers.

To reassemble the roofstrips:
1- First put the clips back on the roofrails (photo 3)
2- Note: the clips on the A-pillar should be placed the other way around, and the colours can’t be mixed (photo 4: on the right side and from the front to the back: red-yellow-black; on the left side: blue-yellow-black). You can see the imprints on the kit of the frontscreen for the exact place
3- To put the strip back: start with the A-pillar, and align the strip with the undercorner of the frontscreen. There’s not much force needed to click the strip on the clips
4- Once the A-pillar is finished: you can slide the grey clips in place and mount the strip.

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photo 1 - grab the strip with your fingers and press outwards and up

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photo 2 - is this my car with all that mud?

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photo 3: that’s the way the (lower) grey clip fits on the rail

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photo 4: on the A-pillar the coloured clips fit the other way around and in a specific turn