trying something with exterior trim

[Einarrson]

I've been wondering if this is possible and I had a bit of spare trim laying around so though I'd give it a try.

Will it a) Crack and fall off with the vibration or b) Crack when water gets under it and freezes in winter?

[Johnraka]

Looks cool mate, but where exactly on the body is it going?

(Difficult to see how big it is in relation to anything else)

Re: your question: I would imagine that as long as it is sealed (By a good paint job) it should be ok and withstand most things the weather can throw at it...

[Einarrson]

It's the bit of trim off the wing. I am thinking how to seal the back of it where the metal and the plastic meet so no water can get in.

[Pedro]

What you need is 3M double sided tape (friggin' expensive, I'm afraid - about £75 per roll!!!) and semi-hardening mastic (about a tenner a tube).
Now - if you make sure everything is completely clean - using panel wipe - you might just get away with mastic - temporarily hold it back with masking tape until mastic cures overnight-ish.

Silicon won't last long either.

The Lotus Carlton bodykits have that horrible old-fashioned rubber gasket stuff that shrinks, splits, lets water in and looks a bloody mess, so as I don't like that, I used mastic on mine.
Five years later, it stil looks good................. unlike the rubber bits on most Lotus Carltons.

Sikaflex is probably the best know brand, other's being Evo Stick and Commercial Supplies. don't but cheap crap, cos it doesn't stick very well, dries a bit too hard and yer bit'll fall off! Which could be painful..............

[Einarrson]

What you need is 3M double sided tape (friggin' expensive, I'm afraid - about £75 per roll!!!) and semi-hardening mastic (about a tenner a tube).
Now - if you make sure everything is completely clean - using panel wipe - you might just get away with mastic - temporarily hold it back with masking tape until mastic cures overnight-ish.

Silicon won't last long either.

The Lotus Carlton bodykits have that horrible old-fashioned rubber gasket stuff that shrinks, splits, lets water in and looks a bloody mess, so as I don't like that, I used mastic on mine.
Five years later, it stil looks good................. unlike the rubber bits on most Lotus Carltons.

Sikaflex is probably the best know brand, other's being Evo Stick and Commercial Supplies. don't but cheap crap, cos it doesn't stick very well, dries a bit too hard and yer bit'll fall off! Which could be painful..............

Oh right Pete...Ignore my last pm, I hadn't read this post.

So you seal up the back with mastic then hold it in place with the tape while it sets or is the tape for sticking the trim on instead of clips seeing as the clips will pull the metal away from the plastic?

£75 is a bit pricey. On my replacement door which has no lugs for the clips I used some sticky pads that are for sticking hand gel to hospital walls. It is incredibly sticky. In fact it will be a pain to get off if I have to.

[Einarrson]

After a bit of paint.

[Pedro]

Clart the lot so the mastic squidges out of all sides, then wipe clean. Hold the lot together with masking tape until the mastic cures, then remove the tape - simples!
The mastic serves two purposes - seals and sticks.

To be honest, the 3M tape is a very long roll, and those pads you have are probably just as sticky.

[Einarrson]

Ah I see.

Sounds good, like a good method. Any danger of them falling off with just the mastic? I think the problem is going to be that with the CD trim the ends of the metal are always coming away from the plastic for some reason so getting the two to meat might be difficult.

Unfortunately I don't have any more of those pads and have been looking on the web for good sticky stuff. There really ought to be a rating for strength of the adhesive, isn't there one?

[Pedro]

Any danger of them falling off with just the mastic? 

Can't answer that for sure - you can only try.
Make sure the contact surfaces are keyed and cleaned with panel wipe - meths, turps or white spirit might do - then go for it.
We once did the whole side of a race trailer like this - it had badly de-laminated - and it never came back!
Upside of using tape - you now it'll be stuck.
Downside - you gotta get it on right first time!

[Einarrson]

What about sticking them on and then painting over them? Maybe wouldn't want to do this with the rear arches though as it's such a rust trap i.e. so you can get the trim off again.

[carlton_mad]

rear arches bolt through!!

[Einarrson]

Cheers CM, I was wondering how they came off.

[Pedro]

rear arches bolt through!!

Both mine fell off years ago!!!!!

[Einarrson]

What about sticking them on and then painting over them? Maybe wouldn't want to do this with the rear arches though as it's such a rust trap i.e. so you can get the trim off again.

http://www.vodc.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5839&page=2

You can see what I mean in this thread. At least it looks like the trims have been painted over in-situ.

What do you think to this method?

[melinx]

I'm sure that I've read in TIS that they use hot melt adhesive strips to seal the trims against water getting behind them.

Trim strips have always been a definite rot starter on cars, hence the use of the hot melt adhesive

It probably needs some pretty specialised bodyshop gear to apply it though

[DaveB]

Did you take this any further. I'm just about to embark on the same thing - painting the trim. But I'm worried the masked edge of the chrome inner strip will eventually crack and peel. So I thought about filling it like you have, shaping and spraying.

[Einarrson]

Yes Dave...

I painted all these bits on the car. I did find masking the chrome was very difficult as when you take the masking tape off the edge if the paint is pretty vulnerable. I thought water would creep in and crack it so I filled the chrome and painted over the lot. You can see the final results on the thread about the respray. What you really want to look out for is getting them properly flat. I found that after painting them and sticking them to the car they weren't flat at all. This is because they flex a lot when you're rubbing them down. Not sure how to get around this but maybe keep them on a hard flat surface when flatting. I will have to flat them again, in situ and repaint them.