ribilly

It appears that at one point in time Bubbah must have painted the chrome trim on the rear window of my car. What is the correct way to get the chrome trim around the rear window off without screwing up the trim and or the clips or fasteners that hold it on? Is there a special tool or trick to putting it back on once I get the paint off and want to reinstall it too?
Thanks in advance
Bill in RI

big_G

There is a special clip removal tool that you can buy at better auto parts stores. It is flat metal with a hook at the end. You slide it under the molding and catch it on the clip. Slight pressure under the clip will release it. Careful, they are brittle by now! BTW, later model C-3's had black semi-gloss finish.....

ribilly

Ahhh,, Thanks, I knew there had to be an easy way of doing this.

terry82

i bought the black trim paint and painted it on the car.i took alot of time tapeing it .have been told that if you break the clips for the trim that you have to take out the rear glass to replace them .be carefull taking the trim off or find a body shop they do it all the time, some might be willing to help for free [well it sounded good hahahah]

Gary79

actually a body shop did remove my trim here in town for free so i could paint it. the trim just snaps back on over the clips when you're done painting.

SLVRSHRK

SEM Trim black gives a nice semi gloss finish. Darn close to factory.

The trim is stainless steel, so you have the option of stripping and buffing if you don't want to repaint.

The trim on the rear window was painted differently during different parts of the model year I believe. While all front windshield frames in 78 were painted black, the rear trim was left completely stainless in the beginning of the model year and then half-painted (inner half only) towards the end. My car was built in July so I have the two-tone. but you might want to look at your VIN and see if your car was early in the year or not. They went up to about 44000 that year so the last five digits will give you an indication of production date. I don't know when the breakpoint waas.

That is only if you want to be correct. You can always go with your preference.

djgrelli

When I bought my 78 it was blacked out with those silly louvers. Looked like the batmobile. I took everything off and painted half of the trim black and left the paint off the other half. Looks pretty good. The clips are still available at your local chevy dealer. They are made of plastic now and snap right in place. No need to remove the glass.

C3TIM

when i bought my 79 the rear trim was painted black but thru the years the silver started to come through so i decided to repaint it while it was still on the car. it took me forever to mask it off, i think 2hrs., then after that i buffed the trim up alittle bit with 00steel wool, i then got krylon semi flat quick dry spray paint to paint the trim. it took all but 15mins to paint and it came out great. looks very professional.

big_G

Hint: It takes 1 min. max to take the trim off. Paint it off the car. I use Krylon semi-gloss. Dries in 1 hour. Takes 20 seconds to install, alot of quicker than taping off....G/L

ribilly

I picked up on ot those molding removal tools and your right, it only took about 10 minutes to get the molding off. I probably could do it 3 times faster now but I was afraid of breaking something this first time at trying. I tried to get the white paint off but it is fighting me every inch of the way. That black Krylon semi gloss is starting to sound better and better.

DMONSVETTE

Try using paint stripper and fine steelwool.

1pfieffer1

Home Depot carries appliance paint, black and white (maybe other colors). It's hard as nails and easy to paint with. Use it for everything, works great.