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HOW TO GUIDE: Removing Side Trim + Badges (With pictures)

34K views 32 replies 21 participants last post by  tchiarella 
#1 ·
Alright ladies and gentlemen, I have not seen any guides to performing this very important and necessary modification on this website, and although it is a very easy one, it can intimidate the beginning modifier, and as we all know, we do have to start somewhere.

Little story on why I decided to do this: Today I woke up late for work, like 10 minutes late. Realizing that it's better to not show up at all than to come in late and have your ass chewed out for being lazy, I took the day off (I haven't taken a day off, apart from a holiday, in like a year, so shut up - I deserve it :D). Today I decided to order more parts for my car, however the springs are going to have to wait until I receive my next two paychecks (I got a car payment ya know). I order the shark fin antenna, angel eyes, and the Mazdaspeed CAI, and am on my way to finding more stuff that I would like to torture my car with. I start looking into body kits and various other exterior modifications when I realize that I haven't even removed the side molding which Mazda claims will help prevent your door from being bent. So, I decided to take them all off today. With the exception of ONE, and I will tell you why at the end of this. So without further ado, here is the guide to removing side trim.

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Here is a shot of the badge and side trim beforehand, notice I am in a small garage with little space on the sides.

What you will need:


1. Spool of fishing wire. Try to get the heavy duty stuff, I used 8-lb. and it snapped often.
2. Pair of scissors to cut the fishing wire. Or teeth, those are good too.
3. Little bottle of Goo-Gone. Makes the job a LOT easier.
4. Some sort of cleaner and a rag.

Objective: To remove black plastic snot accidentally left on by the Mazda dealership and to cure sore eyes by making the car as easy to look at as possible.

Success rate: 90%

1. Probably not necessary, but I cleaned off the sides of the car first. I did not want dirty goo gone everywhere. (No Picture)

2. Spray the Goo-Gone all over the tops of both strips, front and rear, left and right, and also on the badges (including the 3 if you wish to remove that too). You CANNOT remove the Mazda logo yet, keep this in mind. (No Picture)

3. Holding the fishing wire vertically (and make sure to wrap the ends around your fingers), move them up and down in a sawing motion, and it will cut through the 2-sided tape, hopefully leaving as much as you can on the side trim and less on the car.

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Ugly side trim will be the death of us all!

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Here is a picture with more of it removed.

4. Once the strip is removed, proceed to use you fingers to start peeling off the extra double sided tape that was left on your car (which, in my case, was nearly all of it. This took the most time, and now that I have done it, I have a few tips for you: Make sure you use plenty of Goo-Gone, make sure that the tape is soaked. Try not to have it completely dripping, as your fingers will slide around, but make sure it is saturated and it should come right off. When you have removed all the tape, maybe 15 minutes should have passed, and wipe the area off with your cleaner and rag.

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It's looking nice already!

5. Do the same for the rear strip. This will take less time, well, because there is less.

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Removing the rear trim.

6. When you are done with a side it will look like this:

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Very clean installation! Or De-installation? Whatever!

7. These are what remains of the double-sided tape. This is only one side's worth. Make sure to throw all the silver rat turds away. Or save it for your personal collection, I don't know.

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It's not that much, when it comes down to it.

8. Now the choice is up to you...You can keep your badges or remove them. Since they come off easier than the trim and look very awkward without it, I decided to go ahead and remove them.

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Here is what it looks like with the badges still on.
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Here is the badge removed.

9. After removing both badges, proceed to the 3 emblem on the back. Use the same procedure here. This is what it looks like.

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It's just a Mazda, folks.

10. You're done! Oh wait, I forgot, the word Mazda still remains. Let me show you why you do not want to remove this badge at this point.

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This is the badge...

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...And this is what they do to your little Mazda to brand it! Very cruel punishment, I think.

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This is the rear end, all finished!

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Extra Stuff...By the way, if you need side trim for any reason, hit me up, I have a full set that is just taking space in my garage now! :D

Not too hard, eh? I rate this install a 1.5 out of 10, and that's simply because you have to put minimal effort. Even if you didn't know how to do this, you could figure it out in a minute. Just posting it because there are still some people new to the modding game. Hope this helps, as it should be the first thing you do!

Cheers,

OrangeJuleas
 
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#27 ·
Does anyone have any tips for getting the adhesive off? When removing one of the 2.3 emblems there was quite a bit of goo ledt behind. I tried goo gone but it only removed the tacky stuff. The stuff left behind is dried and hard. Going to head to advanced and see if they had any suggestions but though i would check here first.
 
#28 ·
For the dried stuff, I washed twice and used scratch remover to get rid of it. Have been told a clay bar would have worked well, but I didn't have one at that moment.


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