Body side molding, is mine junk???????

I'm in the process of a total rehab on my 87 bird. I have removed all the side molding and have a question about the stuff thats held on with the double sided tape. The pieces on the doors and quarter panels looks normal. By normal I mean it has the metal strip where the foam tape goes. However the pieces on the fenders don't have the metal strip. Is this normal? Both sides are the same, which leads me to think this is how they come from the factory. Anybody ever see this before?

Mine all had metal strips.

I read that the metal strips are possibly why the darn things curl up if left to their own designs (i.e. not weighted down). I agree to this after having a set of mouldings sitting in my attic for a while.

I've been thinking about removing the metal strips from my moldings. Today's adhesive tapes are tons better than what they use to be, and you shouldn't need the metal.

With all that said, I'd say you are fine. I haven't seen that before, but they are fine.

Thanks for the reply. I guess someone else already had these off before. I bet they pulled the metal off to avoid having to removing the foam tape. I have about 4 hours into removing the tape on the rest of the molding so I know how long it can take. Anyway I think I will get other ones that have the metel strip still intact.

The problem I have found with pulling the metal off these molding are they will shrink. I have had several sets that wound up to an inch and half shorter than original and not cut.

John

Originally posted by HCOR:
The problem I have found with pulling the metal off these molding are they will shrink. I have had several sets that wound up to an inch and half shorter than original and not cut.

John

INTERESTING! Good to know... thanks.

When we did our '88, we removed all the metal backing from the molding. It is a long process, requiring patience and works much better using heat. A hair dryer will work, but we used a commercial heat gun. The molding was then refinished to match the color of the car and a new red stripe installed. We have not seen any signs of shrinkage on any of the molding. Also, when the molding was initialy removed from the car, we used a special tool for our impact chisel.

(See tools section).

http://natomessageboard.com/cgi-bin/ulti...3;t=000034

Good to hear that too Dan.

As far as removal, I used an old draw knife.. lots of effort, but good results. Next time I might have an air chisel.