remove door card chrome strip

[qz16]

The car that we are working on is a1973 240z.  Door cards are in good shape but I need to clean and covert them from tan to black.  There is a chrome strip 3-4 inches below the top of the door card.  I am told that this accent is plastic.  I do not want to replace the vinyl on the door card but would like to remove and replace the chrome strip.  How does one go about removing this strip and not marring or destroying the vinyl.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[grannyknot]

I'm pretty sure that strip is melt welded to the vinyl so no removing it without harming both the strip and the vinyl. You could carefully mask it off with automotive masking tape or spray over top.  What product are you using to change the colour?  A lot of members here have had good results with SEM flexible vinyl paint, good quality stuff.

[Namerow]

GK is correct.  That strip is fused to the main vinyl sheet and can't be removed.  If you decide to use vinyl paint to change the colour, you'll need to mask off the strip carefully.

I've had good results with vinyl paint.  However, you'll need to be meticulous about surface prep.  Like most paints, it doesn't tolerate surface contamination and will 'fish eye' badly if it encounters residual detailing products like ArmorAll.  Aside from its vinyl color-coat product, SEM also produces a couple of surface-cleaning products specific to vinyl paint applications.  Be sure you use them. 

Surfaces with creases (like the Z's 'diamond'/'quilted' trim panels) are particularly difficult to get completely clean.  For some of the panels that I painted, I had to repeat the cleaning process 4 or 5 times before I got clear of the fish-eye problem.

Door cards can take a fair amount of abuse, so your paint application will need to be really well done to be effective over the long term.  Any peeling or lifting will be particularly noticeable, what with the underlying tan colour being so high-contrast with the new black cover coat.

To go from tan to black, you're going to need to apply several (as in 4 - 6) thin color coats of paint @ ~ $20 per  To do two door cards, you're going to need several cans of paint (my guess would be at least 4).  Along with the surface prep products, you'll probably end up spending ~ $100 on materials alone.  Then add a day's worth of your time. Given that your chosen color is black, I wonder if you might be better served by just buying new door cards.  They're available from several of the well-known suppliers.

[qz16]

First of all thanks for the responses. Secondly I have some experience with the SEM product line and everything (plastic and vinyl) has been completed ( repairs to plastic and vinyl as well as the color change.  The SEM product line is amazing and everything turned out beautiful.

The only alternative, albeit destructive, that I can come up with is hope that the vinyl under the strip has not adhered to the card, cut through the vinyl around the plastic strip and gently scrape out the strip still attached to the underlying vinyl.  Then you would have to find a chrome strip that is a bit wider than the original to cover up the damage.  I believe they sell replacements for this strip but do not know if they are wider than the original. 

Another alternative is to mask it, but the chrome strip is no longer really chrome looking, it looks almost midnight blue, so rather than mask the strip, mask the card around the strip and use SEM plastic prep on the strip, and then remove the mask and paint the entire card with black SEM color coat.

When i decide which route to take I will update this post.  Once again thanks for the help.

[Patcon]

Some people have used chrome tape to refinish the chrome strip on the door card.

I believe, trying to remove the chrome strip off the door card will ruin the vinyl

[S30Driver]

2 hours ago, Patcon said:

Some people have used chrome tape to refinish the chrome strip on the door card.

This solution works quite well.   As usual, all in the prep.

For the door card vinyl prep, use Sem soap.  Highly recommended.

[qz16]

I agree removal of the strip is a very bad idea.  I am going to prep the card, use the SEM spray system and then finally mask the card and spray the strip with spaz stix spray on chrome.  I believe the SEM finish will handle the tape for masking better than the spray chrome.  I will insure that everything is fully cured before using any masking tape.  I dont think that a tape line will be apparent when the job is complete.

Thanks again for the help

regards,

q

[Namerow]

FWIW, I followed the recommendation of another CZCC member and used HVAC aluminum tape to replace the peeling factory plasti-chrome.  I did this two years ago and the job is holding up nicely.  The blue plastic 'rib' substrate has to be thoroughly cleaned and degreased to ensure a good result.  The tape surface does not respond to polishing, but it has (and retains) a near-chrome sheen.  I think you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference from the original unless they were placed side by side.  I was very pleased with the results.

The challenge with this job is that the blue plastic rib has a highly convex surface contour.  Before using the aluminum tape, I tried a 'chrome' tape with a peel-off backing strip that I found in my local auto parts store.  It's about 20% shinier than the aluminum tape and would probably be indistinguishable from the OE chrome.  Unfortunately, the tape is made from plastic and it's a bit stiff.  This is especially noticable across the short dimension of the tape and it wasn't happy being asked to form and lay down over the contour of the blue rib.  The adhesive just wasn't up to the task of holding the long edges down and they would almost immediately start to lift.  The aluminum tape is metal rather than plastic, so it formed very easily over the rib and there was no 'memory' effect trying to make it go back to flat.

[Brown Bomber Z]

Has anyone actually tried to remove the chrome strip from the door card? I have 2 new ones from Z Depot that have an adhesive backing. I wonder if using a heat lamp to loosen the adhesive on the attached strip will work? Thanks, Fred

 

[siteunseen]

A hair dryer or heat gun on lowest setting would work and much easier than a heat lamp in my opinion. I have not done this though and respectfully will be keeping up as mine will eventually need new ones too.

[Brown Bomber Z]

I will try the hair dryer. I keep one in the tool box to unfreeze the truck door locks in winter. Keep you posted. Thanks for the suggestion. 

[S30Driver]

The Z Car Depot replacement goes over the existing trim strip on the panel.   Are you just trying to remove the remnants of the thin chrome layer to achieve a better bond for the new strip?