I purchased a pre-painted right front body side molding. I thought they simply stuck on with the stickey tape on the back side of the molding.
However the new molding has 3 prong-like devices that go into holes in the body. Question? How do I pull out the prongs from the old molding?
The new ones look like they "snap" into place in the hole. How do I get the old ones out?

 

I'm looking at the '02 Electronic Service Manual right now on the side guard molding...

From the picture, there are five clips along the length of each of the front door moldings. There are four clips for the rear door moldings. And, of course, there is double-sided adhesive tape on the inside of the moldings.

There are no written instructions about how to remove these moldings in the ESM, so I would guess that a service guy would look at this and simply...and carefully...pull. Get soft towels for the job and something to insert into the spacing to seperate the molding from the door. (Or maybe a strong cable to run from the top through the bottom of the molding. That way, you can just grasp the cable and pull without anything against the door. Maybe some type of clamp can do the same job.) Then clean up the excess adhesive. Just be careful as doors tends to ding easily.

That's my two-cents. Good luck.

Peace.

 

Yea, that is my concern. Dings and dents from just "pulling".
Ouch. The prongs sure do look like they clip in place once they
are pushed in. I don't know. Don't want to make it worse.

 

Edit: PM Dixit and ask if he still has that diagram he showed me a while back.

I tried searching and found my old thread , but the photo is no longer showing up.

 

Thats the picture. Its only going to be up there for a few more weeks. As you can see just a few clips and double stick tape. Nothing more. Just be careful not to dent the door when trying to pry the joker apart.

Dixit

 

Thanks Dixit, I was looking for this also.

 

What im not understanding is why people want to remove their current ones? Are they that banged up?

Dixit

 

Mine doesn't just have chips, but actual wedge-shaped dents on them. It's still probably cheaper to fix them - but after i got a few more i decided to just keep it there. No sense in paying to fix it if it just keeps getting banged up.

 

Somebody brushed into mine and scraped the paint off, I used some touchup paint but it never looked the same. I bought a new one from DaveB but did not know how to take off the old one.

 

Mind me asking how much the molding strips are through Dave B or at least a round about price since I have no idea? I assume they are already painted. Thanks for the info.

 

I thought it would be easy to fill and sand the dings in the stupid thing.
That would make sense, right. Except I have pearl white paint. I bought the base coat and the mid coat pearl. I have praticed painting it, but cannot get the match just right. So I bought a factory replacement molding, which is pre-painted. Trying to match a pearl paint is frustrating to say the least. But now I an hesitant to try and pull off the old molding without really screwing something up. I suppose I could go to the dealer body shop and let them swap 'em out. Probably charge me $100.00 for 5 minutes of work.