The prior owner of my car had all the trim painted black. Unfortunately, but rear doors are flaking. Any ideas on the proper way to fix this as a DIY? Am I sanding the entire piece down to bare material and then rattle canning them? This is one mod I wish he had skipped. I am aware that painting chrome is difficult, but can it reliably be fixed? I priced out all new trim… it isn’t cheap.

 

Advantage trim tape. You can easily replace it when it gets weathered or starts peeling. Not sure how I'd deal with painted chrome, but it does appear the surface got at least scuffed before getting painted.

 

Yeah bud you’re either spot repairing rattle can or redoing all with a matching professional vinyl wrap… (or DIY)

I just redid my exhaust diffusers with the rattle can method.. for a quick refresh..
If I had to do my chrome moldings it would be wrap hands down.













Joe Z

 

He did the exhaust tips and the grill too. You can’t reliably paint chrome, which I didn’t know when I bought it. The grill has chipped just a smidge. Eventually I’ll be buying an aftermarket black grill, or an oem one. I’m half tempted to try to find a totaled 2nd Gen and pull all the trim.

Do you have PPE headers? Any exhaust smell in your car with the JoeZ exhaust?

 

Definitely I would move to wrapping the trims.. even the ones painted already..

No PPE headers “yet”… No smell coming into the cabin..

Have you replaced the sunroof ventilator’s yet, to new ones.??
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ust-smell.html


Joe Z

 

Not yet, but that’s because I had added true exhaust tips and the issue immediately went away. Im considering returning to the oem tips though, so will be purchasing these soon. I like the look of my car now, but it really doesn’t look like an ISF anymore without dual tips.

 

My trim pieces have been wrapped for 5 years and still look like they just got done. As far as the exhaust tips I didn’t like the look of the fake tips so I went with single walled quad tips.

 

Did you get yours done professionally, or wrap them yourself? I watched a couple videos.
looks doable, but a little time consuming.

 

Professionally done in SoCal.

 

This is why I cringe whenever someone is like, just need to dechrome and black out the trim!!!

Can the paint be removed then reapply with a strip of 3m vinyl?

 

I agree. I wish he had never done it. The paint is over both the chrome and the rubber part above the chrome, so the entire moulding. That said, the entire thing can still be covered with vinyl, and that’s way cheaper than buying all new door trim. This is why I normally buy oem cars lol.

 

@ISFpowered Is that an s4play diffuser?

 

I thought about blacking out the trim when I got my F. My wife convinced me to leave the chrome and that the contrast looked good. I'm glad I left it alone.

 

I wish your wife had talked my car’s previous owner out of it too lol.