Aluminum Door Trim Dented - How to Replace?
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From: Phoenix AZ
Aluminum Door Trim Dented - How to Replace?
Got a nice 1/2 inch dent in the aluminum trim on the driver door. I have searched but cannot find the how-to on removing this piece or anywhere other than the dealer to buy a replacement... anyone?
You will probably need to buy a new peice. I wanted to pull off all the chrome parts to have them painted to match the rest of the car, but the bodyshop said the clips holding them on usually break when removing them and the whole peices must be completely replaced.
the aluminum trim around the doors are VERY VERY expensive... It can be removed and replaced if you are VERY careful... have a Qualified reputable body shop do it and you should be fine.
To the OP about dent - if it's real bad you'll probably need to replace it - the aluminum is so thin that any attempt to work it back into shape will most likely make it worse...
I went through all this a couple of years ago to do this to the car... this was plan D by the way, the first 3 ideas wouldn't work - which were black chroming, the guy that does my emblems wouldn’t do the trim (even though I have found a resource that might work since then, too late for me now), second choice was powder coating a black chrome color (molded plastic behind the aluminum nixed that idea - didn’t know until trim was off the car), 3rd choice was anodized (since the pieces were off I had to do something, but the belt molding has molded rubber and most anodizing shops wouldn’t do it, a couple said "maybe" but wanted test pieces to try first - I didn’t have access to "test pieces" and the car was sitting at the body shop for several days by this time)... final decision was paint.
Here's how it turned out (pic below) - not what I wanted, but I still like it better than the polished aluminum (for my car)... The car has a grey theme, which is why I went through so much trouble (believe me it’s a PITA!!!)... there is nothing shinny on my car (no offense to anyone else, I've seen cars that look great with polished aluminum all over and chrome - I just went a different approach).
To the OP about dent - if it's real bad you'll probably need to replace it - the aluminum is so thin that any attempt to work it back into shape will most likely make it worse...
I went through all this a couple of years ago to do this to the car... this was plan D by the way, the first 3 ideas wouldn't work - which were black chroming, the guy that does my emblems wouldn’t do the trim (even though I have found a resource that might work since then, too late for me now), second choice was powder coating a black chrome color (molded plastic behind the aluminum nixed that idea - didn’t know until trim was off the car), 3rd choice was anodized (since the pieces were off I had to do something, but the belt molding has molded rubber and most anodizing shops wouldn’t do it, a couple said "maybe" but wanted test pieces to try first - I didn’t have access to "test pieces" and the car was sitting at the body shop for several days by this time)... final decision was paint.
Here's how it turned out (pic below) - not what I wanted, but I still like it better than the polished aluminum (for my car)... The car has a grey theme, which is why I went through so much trouble (believe me it’s a PITA!!!)... there is nothing shinny on my car (no offense to anyone else, I've seen cars that look great with polished aluminum all over and chrome - I just went a different approach).
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