Yesterday's hassle....

**kensmash** · 04-07-2009, 01:14 PM

So yesterday was the nicest day we've had in Yakima so far this year, clear skies and warming up to 78 degrees. I got off work a little early yesterday and my wife mentions debadging/demolding my car. Initially I didn't really want to, didn't really think it wasn't warm enough, but with WD-40, goo gone, fish wire, and heat gun, I went to town.

It didn't take me long to realize the 3m tape used my 300c is different than what was used on my v6 300....is that normal??? My old 300 had a single strip on 3m tape, black in color. My 300c molding were held on by two strips of gray colored tape, and they held on TIGHT to my car. And for some reason, the top strip loosened up a tad better than the bottom strip, but both were very well stuck to the car. WD-40 and goo gone seemed to do very little to work on the tape.

About 2 hours into the job, we finally get all the tape off, BUT, two problems: 1) There is some slight difference in color, which I know is fairly normal and over time will fade into each other....it's not noticeable unless you're looking for it, but I notice it because I am looking for flaws in my work lol. 2) Some of the clear coat seemed tobe worked away with the battle we were having with the tape. I washed/waxed/polished the areas, and that took care of the problem, but hopefully that's not something I'm going to have to do EVERY time I wash my car.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results. It was 10 times more difficult of a process than the last time I did it, but I'm happy with it.

Today....playing around with Predator

I'll post some pics later.

**07RTLOVER** · 04-07-2009, 01:23 PM

Well I am just lucky I guess, mine was a maybe an hour job start to finish including, Rams head and Charger on trunk. Stuff peeled off clean.

**MonkeyBoy** · 04-07-2009, 02:00 PM

My moulding came off with eaze, the badges fought forever though.... maybe chrysler couldn't decide between suppliers and kept frick8in' switching.... hmmmm

**bigdog425** · 04-07-2009, 03:44 PM

i know that i had the two strips of tape as well! get a couple coats of wax on there and it will fade with time. now i dont even notice the lines that where there the first few weeks!

**tmac06srt8** · 04-07-2009, 05:18 PM

You should be straight. Once you rip the moulding off, I find it easier to just use your thumb and roll the big chunks off. Then go over it with the wd40 or googone to get the scraggles off. We did TD33's in like 15 minutes.

**mtroute** · 04-08-2009, 08:13 PM

I took a different tact. I did it in the cold hoping that the tape would be harder and less flexible and therefore come off without stretching (think getting gum off a carpet when its warm). It seemed to work pretty well. I used a zip tie loop to get underneath it and that worked much better than the fishing line that kept breaking. I did have some residue but all in all it was pretty clean. Sorry yours was such a pain.

**bskylerj** · 04-09-2009, 02:42 AM

You better bring it up here so I can see it Kenny...lol

**ToddStone** · 04-09-2009, 02:46 AM

So, your wife said to you to go out and debadge and demold your car? Interesting.

**kensmash** · 04-09-2009, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by bskylerj

You better bring it up here so I can see it Kenny...lol

First weekend in May...whatever weekend that is, I'll be there. Only reason I didn't come in April was because she had a 3-day drill and I didn't want to take a day off from work.

Originally Posted by ToddStone

So, your wife said to you to go out and debadge and demold your car? Interesting.

Yeah, she's a badass.

**MADDOG`** · 04-09-2009, 05:21 PM

LOL @ Kenny...yup, the one time I met her I got the impression she has control of you, to the extent that's possible!

Hey, did you get your fan settings taken care of?

**tmac06srt8** · 04-09-2009, 06:09 PM

She was definitely cool and seemed to have a good personality from the 5 minutes I got to talk to her at kell's. Your ride is coming along nicely BTW. When are you going to get that SRT fascia painted?

**kensmash** · 04-09-2009, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by MADDOG`

LOL @ Kenny...yup, the one time I met her I got the impression she has control of you, to the extent that's possible!

Hey, did you get your fan settings taken care of?

Yup dropped them to 191 for the lows and 195 for the highs...they kick on fairly regularly. I also increased the shift firmness and adjusted the tire height stuff without a hitch. Thanks for the help

And what control she thinks she has, is only an act because in our house, I run the roost....

She doesn't have a LX forums account, does she?

Originally Posted by tmac06srt8

She was definitely cool and seemed to have a good personality from the 5 minutes I got to talk to her at kell's. Your ride is coming along nicely BTW. When are you going to get that SRT fascia painted?

As soon as I find someone not trying to make a killing on me!! Body shops have been giving me some weird ass quotes, way different than what they were quoting last fall. I went to a place recommended by my guy that owns a car/truck accessories shop...it was kind of a shady looking place, so my first thought was "hell yeah, these guys probably will give me some kind of homie hookup...", nope, he was wanting $450. And this same guy painted a Lincoln Navigator for my buddy that owns that shop for $1100 for the entire SUV....I was like, WTF???

So, I'm wanting to do it no later than June....and I still have a couple people I need to talk to that might give me some better deals...but I know I'm not paying no $450...f' that noise. I'll sell the bumper before I pay that out of pocket. I even offered to let them keep the 300c bumper, maybe to use on an insurance job or whatever.