How to restore the drip moulding (and in praise of plastidip)

[wrybread]

Seems like the coating on the drip mouldings (those strips above the doors, sometimes called roof trim) goes bad on all S70's. And Carlo, my new-to-me 1998 GLT, had a typical case of it:

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But after about 2 hours of easy work both sides look like this:

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I don't know if those pictures fully convey how much better he's looking now. And the repair is at least reasonably long lasting, here's the same repair on my old car (Diego) after 2 years. It's not rotting at all, it looks and feels exactly like it did 2 years ago, and Diego wasn't garaged:

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I used Plastidip, which is at any hardware store. Let me know if anyone can think of something better to use. Even black spray paint would be fine I think.

Anyway I thought I'd describe how I did it in case it's useful to anyone, since I get so much from this forum.

The biggie is that the drip mouldings pop right off with a little pressure:

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I didn't know that when fixing Diego's moldings so I masked it all out, which was tedious and made the repair a lot sloppier. Removing the moulding makes it all easy peezy.

I stripped the paint off with the moulding still on the car since it's easier when it's held in place. A razor blade gets most of it, a scraper is handy too.

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Then I sanded it with a little block sander to scuff the surface. I didn't go crazy removing every bit of residue, just as much as came off easily.

To remove the moulding from the car I started in the rear, and that first snap is tough to get out. With a little finesse it pops out though, and the rest are easy. It's really nicely made. @Erikv11 says in a comment below "There is a cap piece on the end back there take it off first, then start popping the molding out of the brackets."

Then I cleaned it with 90% alcohol and sprayed on the Plastidip. I gave it lots of coats, probably 5, waiting only like 15 minutes between coats. Only paint the top obviously. The stuff is easy to work with, doesn't drip much and dries quickly.

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Looks so much better! And beats the hell out paying over $100 per side for new ones. Carlo is starting to look downright sharp!

Now I just need to figure out how to fix the delaminating paint on the trunk and roof. I carry a lot of things on top of my trunk and loose on my roof, especially firewood (short distances obviously), so I'm half thinking about applying pickup truck bed liner on the roof and trunk... I've always wanted to install tie downs to have the option of strapping stuff down for long distances. Bring back the trunk rack.

[BlackBart]

Well that’s very clever. I’ve heard of plastidip on wheels, so it must hold up fairly well.

Do you know if the wagon molding comes off the same way? You just pried up at the very back end? Are there clips that break?

Nice blue as well!

[wrybread]

Nice blue as well!

That would be "nautic blue"! I love it too. I've always wanted one like this.

I don't know about the wagon mouldings but I assume they're the same. I wish I took a closer picture of the clip system but I was impressed by how sturdy they are. I didn't break any of them, not even close, and they snapped back into place super easily.

[erikv11]

Wagon molding is held on the same way. There is a cap piece on the end back there take it off first, then start popping the molding out of the brackets. In my experience some of the brackets it can be tough to get out the molding out of but if you work carefully you'll get it out cleanly.

[abscate]

I would think a heavy vinyl protector would be the way to go for wood, but covering 417 Nautic Blue paint in my State is a punishable crime.



I’ve got two wagons in this beautiful colour

[Cookeh]

Wagon molding is held on the same way. There is a cap piece on the end back there take it off first, then start popping the molding out of the brackets. In my experience some of the brackets it can be tough to get out the molding out of but if you work carefully you'll get it out cleanly.

You can circumnavigate the brackets by simply pulling the mouldings toward the front of the car. This pops the plastic clips out of their pins in the gutter, meaning the moulding plus s-brackets plus plastic clips all come out as one. Its also much easier to reinstall this way too, and you have a lesser risk of breaking those ridiculously overpriced S-clips.

I too would be going down the vinyl route. Though to be entirely honest I'd probably go the whole hog (am I using that right?) and knock up a frame to put on the roof racks.

[abscate]

We evolved it to ‘ go whole hog’. According to etymology, this is a rarer occasion of an American English migrating back to Britain early 19th century.

I’m still unsuccessfully trying to bring ‘ round the Wrekin’ over here.




Wry bread....I think I would make a roof rack for firewood, out of lumber

[wrybread]

covering 417 Nautic Blue paint in my State is a punishable crime.

Fair point.

I think I would make a roof rack for firewood, out of lumber

Good idea, I've always wanted to make a lumber roof rack, but my car carries a lot of surfboards and boats and junk, so it would have to carry both. To do that I think I'd have to panel it with lumber, which probably doesn't have an advantage over bed liner. But maybe I'm just imagining it wrong.

[abscate]

I think you missed the ‘V’ when you bought the ‘S’



I’ll confess, the hot tub/bird house is very Californian. Bird bath, perhaps

[kallekula]

I plasti dipped my mouldings about two years ago. Two layers. It has held up great in the California sun!