Why do they put these on cars? Can detailing shops take it off and make it look good?

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MikeWinLDS

New member
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I'm not sure what you call that thing I've got circled in red, but why do car manufacturers put those on their cars? It's usually not the same color, well it's the same color paint, but when you look up close it seems that it's a shade darker or lighter than the paint on the bigger parts of the panel. It just looks ugly as hell.



If you buy a new car from the manufacturer, like wanting to get one with custom options, can you tell them to not put that ugly thing on it? If not, are body shops or detailing places able to take them off and keep the paint of the car looking mint? I wonder if it's just plain metal behind that thing, or if there's paint underneath. Hell, there might even be a big halo of where the thing used to be if you could take it off. What a pain in the butt that thing is.
 
They are called rub strips and most cars have them. It's part of the body and design of the vehicle. You need a body shop to remove them because they have to fill in the holes and repaint the panel. It's usually fairly expensive.
 
My 98 Corvette had those body side moldings on it when I bought it used in 2004, and the second day I had the car I brought it to some friends of mine that owned a detail shop. It took 5 hours in total, but when we were done there was absolutely no trace of them! The actual removal was easy, a little bit of heat, some dental floss and they came right off. But because they had been on there for so long, they left behind a thick residue of glue. So that had to be removed by rolling the thick sticky mess with your thumb. Once that was done they just had to do some minor cleanup with a few chemicals they had in the shop, and I was good to go. I was darn lucky that the previous owner kept the car out of the hot sun most of the time, so the paint was not faded one single bit and there was no color difference under the moldings. Other people I know were not so lucky, the paint was slightly darker under their moldings.
 
todd@bsaw said:
They are called rub strips and most cars have them. It's part of the body and design of the vehicle. You need a body shop to remove them because they have to fill in the holes and repaint the panel. It's usually fairly expensive.
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Not true, they are called BSM (body side molding) and you don't need a body shop to remove them, you can do it with a hair dryer and some fish wire then adhesive remover.



They are supposed to protect from door dings, but never really do.



Did it on a Vette, here' some pics of how to remove it, took me about 1 1/2 hours.

Vette people remove them all the time....



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Most are adhesive, I've never seen any screwed in, but maybe some are, just never seen it personally.



Josh
 
I have an Integra and I'm pretty sure they are screwed in it b/c everyone says the body shop either has to weld the holes shut or bondo it over and repaint. That's pretty sweet on the 'vette though that you can do it yourself.
 
Wow, nice job Josh. So did you just put some of that glue remover onto the clay and clay it off, or how exactly did you remove it? And I've never heard of fish wire before or where you would get any. You don't mean like fishing lines on fishing poles do you? And how exactly are those moldings supposed to prevent dings and scratches? I don't see how it's going to protect someone from hitting your car with their car door or a shopping cart or anything else.
 
blinkbcr said:
I have an Integra and I'm pretty sure they are screwed in it b/c everyone says the body shop either has to weld the holes shut or bondo it over and repaint. That's pretty sweet on the 'vette though that you can do it yourself.
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Right, I've been around a lot of import guys and most of them have holes that need to be filled. Didn't know some were just glued on...
 
MikeWinLDS said:
Wow, nice job Josh. So did you just put some of that glue remover onto the clay and clay it off, or how exactly did you remove it? And I've never heard of fish wire before or where you would get any. You don't mean like fishing lines on fishing poles do you? And how exactly are those moldings supposed to prevent dings and scratches? I don't see how it's going to protect someone from hitting your car with their car door or a shopping cart or anything else.
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Yes, fishing line, I stand corrected.

I used the clay to get most of it off and what didn't come off I used the adhesive remover and a MF to get the rest off.

Thanks.
 
Car manufacturers use them for a very good reason: to protect your doors from scratches and dings. They work, obviously not 100% but they do. It's a lot less expensive to replace a door moulding than it is to repaint a door.
 
JoshVette said:
Not true, they are called BSM (body side molding) and you don't need a body shop to remove them, you can do it with a hair dryer and some fish wire then adhesive remover.
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Unfortunately, most imports BSMs are riveted on or have channels that they fit into and look worse without the BSMs. :(
 
Holden_C04 said:
Car manufacturers use them for a very good reason: to protect your doors from scratches and dings. They work, obviously not 100% but they do. It's a lot less expensive to replace a door moulding than it is to repaint a door.
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Agreed, and I wish it was mandatory that every idiot had the edge guard on his/her door also. That way when he/she decides my cars arent as impotant as theirs, and swings their door onto my door, I wouldnt get a careless ding.

Park a Miata next to an Expedition, and the BSM's just dont quite line up...
 
Scottwax said:
Unfortunately, most imports BSMs are riveted on or have channels that they fit into and look worse without the BSMs. :(
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Wow that sucks. So if people were to take those off there would be a huge grand canyon where the BSM used to be. Can you tell if your car has the BSM it glued on, riveted on, or pocketed within a channel without taking it off first?



Would BSM that fit in those channels even be correctable? I don't think you could fill it up with anything could you? You'd probably have to just get a custom-made door, and that probably costs more than it's worth it to take off those BSM. Man, they're just so ugly though. I probably wouldn't buy a car that had them on. I bet it makes detailing your car a nightmare too.
 
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