Anyone remove the chrome strips that are on the doors? (the thin ones at the bottom)
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
Anyone remove the chrome strips that are on the doors? (the thin ones at the bottom)
? It looks like they're just on with double sided tape. just removing them would be easier for me than blacking them out with vinyl...
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w204 C300
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
Nice looking ride, Matt! I think it looks better without the strips. I think those are coming off tonight. When you did the vinyl to black out your chrome around the windows, did you pull off the side mirrors? If so how difficult was that?
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
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C300 Sport 6MT
Removed them last week and blacked out the window trim yesterday.
On my car, floss kept breaking every two inches, so I switched to using a spackle knife with painter's tape on the end. Talk about easy. Each strip literally came off in a couple mins by slowly pushing the blade with one hand while pulling the trim with the other. You need to have polish and quick detailer handy to get rid of the outlines from the embedded dirt over time an washes.
Since my car is black, it's quite a noticeable change. Will post pics later as well as respond to the other thread about the window trim.
On my car, floss kept breaking every two inches, so I switched to using a spackle knife with painter's tape on the end. Talk about easy. Each strip literally came off in a couple mins by slowly pushing the blade with one hand while pulling the trim with the other. You need to have polish and quick detailer handy to get rid of the outlines from the embedded dirt over time an washes.
Since my car is black, it's quite a noticeable change. Will post pics later as well as respond to the other thread about the window trim.
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
Nice! How'd you go about blacking out the window trim? I want to do that today or tomorrow too. Fortunately mine only has about 100 miles on it so it should come off pretty easy with minimal dirt
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C300 Sport 6MT
Before:
After:
DocTodd - your car being 100 miles young is a good thing, but with rail dust, etc, I'll bet you'll still need to do a little bit of polishing. Either way, no big deal for a mod that changes the entire look of a dark car.
Window trim was done with Trim Brite from Amazon. Can't beat $5/roll. Two rolls are required, and you'll have lots left over. I covered the trunk strip as well as re-did the rear passenger door since I wasn't happy with the results (was the first strip I did, so was the experiment door). Will post close-up pics to the other thread so as to not double post.
After:
DocTodd - your car being 100 miles young is a good thing, but with rail dust, etc, I'll bet you'll still need to do a little bit of polishing. Either way, no big deal for a mod that changes the entire look of a dark car.
Window trim was done with Trim Brite from Amazon. Can't beat $5/roll. Two rolls are required, and you'll have lots left over. I covered the trunk strip as well as re-did the rear passenger door since I wasn't happy with the results (was the first strip I did, so was the experiment door). Will post close-up pics to the other thread so as to not double post.
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Joined: Apr 2011
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
Before:
After:
DocTodd - your car being 100 miles young is a good thing, but with rail dust, etc, I'll bet you'll still need to do a little bit of polishing. Either way, no big deal for a mod that changes the entire look of a dark car.
Window trim was done with Trim Brite from Amazon. Can't beat $5/roll. Two rolls are required, and you'll have lots left over. I covered the trunk strip as well as re-did the rear passenger door since I wasn't happy with the results (was the first strip I did, so was the experiment door). Will post close-up pics to the other thread so as to not double post.
After:
DocTodd - your car being 100 miles young is a good thing, but with rail dust, etc, I'll bet you'll still need to do a little bit of polishing. Either way, no big deal for a mod that changes the entire look of a dark car.
Window trim was done with Trim Brite from Amazon. Can't beat $5/roll. Two rolls are required, and you'll have lots left over. I covered the trunk strip as well as re-did the rear passenger door since I wasn't happy with the results (was the first strip I did, so was the experiment door). Will post close-up pics to the other thread so as to not double post.
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
Actually if you heat the thing up really good it's better to try to peel it away without using fishing line, fishing line tears the chrome away from the tape and then you get the fun treat of rubbing at it for 20 forevers trying to get the leftover tape off. I was able to get 95% of the tape to come with the emblem from my C300 badge by heating it up real good and pulling back with my fingernail.
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
I blacked out the little chrome strips last night, was easy enough, took about an hour total for both sides. looks nice, I like the line that mercedes put there, I'm sure it has some aesthetic design function but I'm not savvy enough to say exactly what it is.
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I really want to black out the window trim when I remove the door trim, but I have a couple questions:
1. Is the tape wide enough to cover the whole top trim in one piece when the door is open?
2. Does it peel off when washing the car?
1. Is the tape wide enough to cover the whole top trim in one piece when the door is open?
2. Does it peel off when washing the car?
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C
I think the chrome strip was originally designed for the luxury model. There's another chrome strip on the rear bumper so the strips "flow" and go around the car. MB probably just left them on for the sport models due to the manufacturing and supply chain procedure.
Most people probably don't care for that strip anyway. Just us enthusiasts
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Richard: yes, the trim tape is wide enough to cover the width of the trim. No chrome will be visible when the doors are open. Again, I would not remove the trim from the car. You're asking for trouble if you do.
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I learned the hard way... thought I could be a pro and use just enough pressure to cut through the vinyl w/o getting the clearcoat. Wrong. Rear passenger door got a nice line in it right below the trim line. Wasn't too bad, but enough to have to break out the polish and really work it out. I re-did that door anyhoo.
Trick is to spend time getting the vinyl to line up perfectly to the top of the trim strip, then seal the rest by working down. Let the excess actually stick to the door paint. Now use your *finger nail* to crease the vinyl along the gap between the trim and the door panel. That provides you with the guide for the xacto. When cutting, angle the knife UP into the crease vs straight down into the door panel. That way, you can use as much pressure as you want because the knife is going up into the cavity of the trim so you're not damaging anything. After the excess is off, go back and fold the flap down and into the gap between the strip and the door to seal it all up.
I was beating myself on the head after doing the other three doors perfectly w/ this method.
Trick is to spend time getting the vinyl to line up perfectly to the top of the trim strip, then seal the rest by working down. Let the excess actually stick to the door paint. Now use your *finger nail* to crease the vinyl along the gap between the trim and the door panel. That provides you with the guide for the xacto. When cutting, angle the knife UP into the crease vs straight down into the door panel. That way, you can use as much pressure as you want because the knife is going up into the cavity of the trim so you're not damaging anything. After the excess is off, go back and fold the flap down and into the gap between the strip and the door to seal it all up.
I was beating myself on the head after doing the other three doors perfectly w/ this method.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 374
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From: Flahrida
2011 C300 Sport
I learned the hard way... thought I could be a pro and use just enough pressure to cut through the vinyl w/o getting the clearcoat. Wrong. Rear passenger door got a nice line in it right below the trim line. Wasn't too bad, but enough to have to break out the polish and really work it out. I re-did that door anyhoo.
Trick is to spend time getting the vinyl to line up perfectly to the top of the trim strip, then seal the rest by working down. Let the excess actually stick to the door paint. Now use your *finger nail* to crease the vinyl along the gap between the trim and the door panel. That provides you with the guide for the xacto. When cutting, angle the knife UP into the crease vs straight down into the door panel. That way, you can use as much pressure as you want because the knife is going up into the cavity of the trim so you're not damaging anything. After the excess is off, go back and fold the flap down and into the gap between the strip and the door to seal it all up.
I was beating myself on the head after doing the other three doors perfectly w/ this method.
Trick is to spend time getting the vinyl to line up perfectly to the top of the trim strip, then seal the rest by working down. Let the excess actually stick to the door paint. Now use your *finger nail* to crease the vinyl along the gap between the trim and the door panel. That provides you with the guide for the xacto. When cutting, angle the knife UP into the crease vs straight down into the door panel. That way, you can use as much pressure as you want because the knife is going up into the cavity of the trim so you're not damaging anything. After the excess is off, go back and fold the flap down and into the gap between the strip and the door to seal it all up.
I was beating myself on the head after doing the other three doors perfectly w/ this method.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=180645538308
The Chizzler I think it was called. works like a champ.
