1G PAINTING what can be removed easily?

o0GuitarKid0o · Jul 29, 2015

Alright getting the laser painted , can someone who's had experience removeing stuff like window trim, door plastic on the out side , all the window trim acually , wipers , mirrors ect.. tell me what to look out for to avoid damage to 24 yr old stuff ?

i want to get the body down to the bare bones ,stuff that can stay on and stuff that needs to go kind of thing , were doing all the body work from the hail damage and small amounts of rust any tips appreciated thanks

It's a 1991 plymouth laser rs

dsmBear · Jul 29, 2015

If you have a spoiler that comes off pretty easy just remove back panel and youll see how the spiller connects. The door trim on the side pops off except the one that's connects si de skirt and fenders.

o0GuitarKid0o · Jul 29, 2015

dsmBear said:
If you have a spoiler that comes off pretty easy just remove back panel and youll see how the spiller connects. The door trim on the side pops off except the one that's connects si de skirt and fenders.

No spoiler or side skirts LOL

lasers were the basic look for the dsms and no sun roof , if it helps its the highest model laser you could get in 1991 it even had the cd changer LOL

it's stock ish though

91-GS · Jul 29, 2015

On a 1G pretty much anything can be easily removed for painting. IIRC things like window trim are held in place using plastic clips and that black trim strip is on double sided tape. Headlights have just a couple screws in each and so do tail lights, although you'd have to remove some interior panels to get to them. Backup lights are also held in place by two screws each. The antenna is held in place using a large nut with four slots in it (if it is a fancy automatic antenna). Use a large flat screwdriver to turn it. Door handles might be a bit trickier since you will have to take interior door panels off to be able to disconnect everything. Wipers are one nut (under a plastic cover) each. Door and hatch seals are held by plastic 'pins' as well as some springy metal inside them that simply snaps onto a metal edge. While it all sounds like a lot of work in reality it can be done in just a couple of hours and would give a much better result in the end when compared to masking it off, in might even be quicker than having to mask everything.

As far as damaging something, just be careful removing window trims since plastic clips that hold them get brittle over time. Also be careful with other plastic parts for that same reason. Even interior panels can be damaged if the car is stored outside with no cover. And of course watch the door glass after removing trim around it since there will be nothing to keep it from hitting metal. What will help with that is some pipe insulation or pieces of a pool noodle shoved in between door and glass after the window is rolled up.

o0GuitarKid0o · Jul 29, 2015

91-GS said:
On a 1G pretty much anything can be easily removed for painting. IIRC things like window trim are held in place using plastic clips and that black trim strip is on double sided tape. Headlights have just a couple screws in each and so do tail lights, although you'd have to remove some interior panels to get to them. Backup lights are also held in place by two screws each. The antenna is held in place using a large nut with four slots in it (if it is a fancy automatic antenna). Use a large flat screwdriver to turn it. Door handles might be a bit trickier since you will have to take interior door panels off to be able to disconnect everything. Wipers are one nut (under a plastic cover) each. Door and hatch seals are held by plastic 'pins' as well as some springy metal inside them that simply snaps onto a metal edge. While it all sounds like a lot of work in reality it can be done in just a couple of hours and would give a much better result in the end when compared to masking it off, in might even be quicker than having to mask everything.

As far as damaging something, just be careful removing window trims since plastic clips that hold them get brittle over time. Also be careful with other plastic parts for that same reason. Even interior panels can be damaged if the car is stored outside with no cover. And of course watch the door glass after removing trim around it since there will be nothing to keep it from hitting metal. What will help with that is some pipe insulation or pieces of a pool noodle shoved in between door and glass after the window is rolled up.

Awesome man thank you! Ive removed all my lights before, but I no when I did my headliner I broke a bunch of plastic clips but thankfully I grab some off someone local like 20 so I can brake a few interior clips

There's a part out not far from me so if I brake the clips on the window trim I'll grab some other ones if there replaceable , I'll be careful though ive got 4 days to do this before she's sent off and then I'm stuck driveing a jimmy LOL

fully loaded though,

I'm concerned about the door trim that's held in with screws beside the roof by the front windshield ,

if i remove it will my window be vulnerable to cracks?
Great tip on the noodle tho hah I'll be removeing pretty much everything that I can!

By the way do they go back on nicely?

91-GS · Jul 30, 2015

The windshield is glued in place, the trim around it is decorative. Although it does keep the sunlight off that adhesive, prolonging it's life. Still, removing the trim will not cause any damage to the glass itself. The door glass won't be damaged unless someone just slams the door. It can get scratched pretty easy though, that 's why you have to be careful.
And usually things go back together nicely, just make sure you keep up with the fasteners. Some easy ways to do so would be either put fasteners back in where they came out of, or get small ziplock bags (jewelry-sized, 2"x3" would work nicely) and tape them to a part after placing all fasteners inside, or simply place fasteners on sticky side of masking tape and stick another strip of tape over them (that works great for small screws or bolts).
A thing that sometimes becomes an issue is paint buildup in/on threads of fasteners. Ways around that are to either cover up said threads to keep paint off, or to use a thread cleaning tap/die to clean up threads afterward (not regular taps or dies though as they may try to cut new threads instead of just cleaning), or not worry about it and force the fastener back together letting it clean it's own threads. Would help to back off that fastener from time to time as you are tightening it to make sure not too much stuff gets jammed in the threads.

o0GuitarKid0o · Jul 30, 2015

91-GS said:
The windshield is glued in place, the trim around it is decorative. Although it does keep the sunlight off that adhesive, prolonging it's life. Still, removing the trim will not cause any damage to the glass itself. The door glass won't be damaged unless someone just slams the door. It can get scratched pretty easy though, that 's why you have to be careful.
And usually things go back together nicely, just make sure you keep up with the fasteners. Some easy ways to do so would be either put fasteners back in where they came out of, or get small ziplock bags (jewelry-sized, 2"x3" would work nicely) and tape them to a part after placing all fasteners inside, or simply place fasteners on sticky side of masking tape and stick another strip of tape over them (that works great for small screws or bolts).
A thing that sometimes becomes an issue is paint buildup in/on threads of fasteners. Ways around that are to either cover up said threads to keep paint off, or to use a thread cleaning tap/die to clean up threads afterward (not regular taps or dies though as they may try to cut new threads instead of just cleaning), or not worry about it and force the fastener back together letting it clean it's own threads. Would help to back off that fastener from time to time as you are tightening it to make sure not too much stuff gets jammed in the threads.

Awesome thanks alot man! Really appreciate the help!

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