shaving/delete side molding

[ortholithiation]

I am almost done prepping for paint and have taken all this crap off. I really hate the side molding (bump strips) on the e30 I have the chrome blacked out but want it off.

How do most people here shave the side molding. I figure there is two ways.

1) Fill the holes and leave the indentation in (wouldn't mind it).

2) Fill in the whole gap.

How do you guys fill the holes? Fibreglass or Weld little scrap of sheet metal then bondo in (would leave a high spot if not indented)? The holes are not too big, about the diam of a pencil. How does this look? any pictures? experience? Details/tips about how to do it.

The indentation isn't very deep it would be nice to fill it, could I fill it with some long hair fiber then bondo over? I've heard this can work but cracks pretty fast. I don't know, it’s not a show car, just want the bump strips gone, but I don't want a wavy cracked mess.

I know welding in metal is the best, I am going to shave the antenna for which I will weld, but I'm not that great. Welding a long strip of sheet metal in there and filling without warping and making a huge mess seems daunting and with the real possibility of doing some serious damage. The other thing is that one front fender is a little out of line because a PO must have jacked in the wrong spot and warped it a bit.

I've done a search but haven't found anything conclusive.

[kwill22]

thats interesting. ive been thinkin about doing the same to my car. the strips to me just dont look good on the car.

[88driftIS]

I was thinking about using a thinner molding off of a different car and cutting it to length and using double sided tape. this way it will be flush. That way it would look oem and still be reliable. Before that I was just going to add metal to the back of the body and use a little bit of bondo to the holes. Just leaving the gap. Seen it done other kinda of cars. looks good.

[dolby]

I am doing this to my car and bought 14' of 2" 20 gauge steel. Here are some pics. I have body filler on the car now but have not taken any pics in the last few days.







Dolby

[robrez]

Nice work. Does anyone have pics of a finished molding delete project?

[george graves]

Subscribed.

[BigSam]

If you buy M3 doors they will not have the molding, leaving the fenders to be done. Cuts the work load a fair amount, something to think about.

[ck_taft325is]

M3 doors are hard to find as the M3 is fairly sought after. Not impossible and definately a thought to be entertained, not totally "do-able" for the average e30 owner.

Then again, neither is deleting/shaving/filling your rub strips I guess, heh.

[xwill112x]

i wanna see how this turns out. i hate my side moldings!

[ortholithiation]

That looks good!! I am worried if I can get it nice and straight without warping it.

Smoothing a whole door pannel could be difficult but you seem to have done a really nice job, I hope it looks this good after paint.... awaiting pics

I was thinking about leaving the drop when you get to the lower pannel, but filling in the indentation. Welding in butt plugs for the holes (corrosion/water purposes) then glassing/filler the small indentation, and feathering that in.

You would still see the lines or drop from the moulding, but it wouldn't look like moulding used to be there. Seems a bit easier (my skill level) rather then trying to create a completely smooth door.

[325ix]

That looks really good. I might work on doing this in the summer

[dranttna]

i thought about doing it the same way DOLBY is but i think that will somewhat ruin the body lines. i ended up using fiberlass resin and sheet, then boing over that with a long hair bondo-glass. i also made a wood block that mached the body line then just stapled the sandpaper to it so everything would come out even, i wanted it to match the top edge as close as possible and i think its comming out very well.

sorry i dont have any pix durng progress, these are after some primer and alittle touch up sanding

[dolby]

That does look better. If I was to do it again, I would have went in that direction. Even though, in satin black, I think it will still look pretty good.


Dolby