North American Turbocoupe Organization



Replacing the red stripe...
Kuch Offline
Senior Member
#1
I have always used some 1/2" vinyl stripe to cover the red with a blue color on my old 87 and now my 88, but it keeps coming off after a while, no matter how much I clean and prep the red stripe. I read on here about universal wheel well trim from "CarPretty" that can be used to replace the red with any color they have. I bought some of their dark blue to install, but I have heard the side trim pieces are difficult to remove the red stripe section. Has anyone tried this before? I have heard it is damn near impossible based on an old post on here. Thoughts. Thanks
1988 Turbo Coupe, Black/Black, 5 Speed, Moonroof,  T3/T4, ported E6, 255LPH, Kirban, Stinger Exhaust, MGW shifter, K&N, Gillis valve, BP1.5, PIMPx, Koni's
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 390 6V, Big Solid cam, Headers,3.89's, 4 Speed, Vast and fast
1960 Ford Starliner, 292 Y Block, 312 4bbl intake, headers, 3 Speed, slow and low
Reply

anasazi4st Offline
Senior Member
#2
“…but I have heard the side trim pieces are difficult to remove the red stripe section. Has anyone tried this before? I have heard it is damn near impossible based on an old post on here. Thoughts. Thanks.”

Kuch, do you mean the strips on the doors? I thought that red stripe was just a piece of plastic or rubber. I bought some of that at a place here called Space Age Paint. They have all kinds of goodies: dozens of various trim push pins, fasteners, clips, screws, etc. It wasn’t cheap: 20 years ago it was $50 for like 6 feet, then. I used it I believe to fix the one on the passenger door, that was starting to pull loose.
Maybe that’s why it wasn’t a big deal to me, because mine was already loose.

Can you find that old post and link to it?
Another proud dues-paying member.

1987 Turbo Coupe w/T5OD, 8.8 axle, grey smoke; most options. Got it in 1991 with 41K miles: 3 turbos, 2 heater cores, 3 T5OD full rebuilds, 6 clutches, 1 head gasket, 2 Teves II ABS units, etc. later....
Reply

spittinfire Offline
Member
#3
I've done it, the whole way around the car. The bumpers and trim pieces on the fender and quarter panels are easy, it's a piece of trim held on with two sided tape. I used this, it's a perfect match in my opinion and about $3/foot.

https://www.brandsport.com/super-red-whe...20-42.html

Now, the trim between the wheel openings, basically the door, just in front of the door and just behind the door, are rubber. The red strip is part of this trim, it's all molded and colored as it's made so think of it as all one big piece because it is. What I ended up doing was taking a razor blade and cutting the red strip out of the molding. Once I cut most of it out I took a die grinder and smoothed the area out. The tricky part was at the ends because you had to make a hole to slide the new trim into and under the black area. I then went back and used body filler to smooth out any rough spots or dimples. I used the same black to repaint the rubber and plastic trim that I used on the bumpers. All of these parts then got a coat of clear. Once dry, I taped off the finished area of the door molding and then lightly scuffed the area that the new red stripe would be going. Cleaned everything with a paint prep solvent to remove any residue and leave an clean surface. I then cut the red trim to length and took my time laying it in place.
The red trim is slightly narrower than the trough that it lays in so you have to be careful to get it straight or when you step back and look at it, it will be all wavy. I bought 40' of red trim to do the car and had some left over. I wanted enough extra that if I messed a piece up I wouldn't have to go back and order more.
I can get some pictures of what it looked like when I was finished if anyone wants to see it.
Reply

Kuch Offline
Senior Member
#4
Thanks Fire, yeah, I messed with it over the weekend and the front and back pieces were super easy and had them done in about 1.5 hours. I figured out about the side moldings by cutting on the small fender piece. You're correct, it is all one piece of rubber, my plan is to cut it out down to the metal so that I have a smooth surface, then add a filler section first to get it to the correct depth, then add my final blue trim I bought. Why do these things always turn out more involved than they should be. Thanks for the link, I used a company on ebay called "Car Pretty", they have tons of colors to choose from. I used their 7/16 width, half round wheel well trim. It comes with the 3M tape already on it, ready to install.
1988 Turbo Coupe, Black/Black, 5 Speed, Moonroof,  T3/T4, ported E6, 255LPH, Kirban, Stinger Exhaust, MGW shifter, K&N, Gillis valve, BP1.5, PIMPx, Koni's
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 390 6V, Big Solid cam, Headers,3.89's, 4 Speed, Vast and fast
1960 Ford Starliner, 292 Y Block, 312 4bbl intake, headers, 3 Speed, slow and low
spittinfire likes this post
Reply

spittinfire Offline
Member
#5
I didn't take mine down to metal backing, just enough to smooth out the surface and get the depth of the trim to sit right.  It was a good bit of work and while I say I wouldn't do it again there really is no alternative to restore those things.  You could possibly buff the rubber but I don't think you'll ever get it to match the rest of the trim without painting all of it. 
I'm sure if I ever paint another one of these cars it will get the same trim treatment.  I have decided if I ever do it again that I would build a guard of sorts to protect the rubber around where I'm working. 

I found a few pics of the finished product. 

[img][Image: Tbird-Trim.jpg][/img]

[img][Image: Tbird-Rear.jpg][/img]
Mikey97D likes this post
Reply

Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#6
Looks AWESOME!!!  Great work!!
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
Reply





Users browsing this thread:
1 Guest(s)



Theme © iAndrew 2018 - Software MyBB