Civic EG

Look familiar? Years of outside weather & sun is not kind to our window trim. The surface is actually rubber, over a piece of metal. Over time the rubber dries out and gets surface cracks, which then begin to chip off.


EDIT: Close up pics of the clips on Page 5 thanks crazy-88!


Take them off and sand then down to smooth any peeling edges that are sticking up. something in the 80-150 grit range is good so you're not sanding all day. But remember the lower grit you use, you must watch out for any scratches in the end.



Here I have sanded down the worst areas and cleaned them off with a wax/grease remover. Then lay down the bondo/filler. The idea is to fill in the areas where the rubber coating has chipped off to make that part flush with the parts that still have the coating. Also fill in any areas that have the rubber coating with cracks in the surface.



Let it dry. Next sand down with your low grit sandpaper like before just to form the contour by removing any extra thick areas.

Once you're happy with the overall contour of the face of the trim piece, go back with some lighter grits (220, 320, 400) and remove any deep scratches left by the low grip paper.



if your trim was like mine, there were some areas that did not even need to be sanded or bondo'd (the part by the mirror was better protected from the elements and was fine)

So for the initial primer, I used a couple light coats of Self Etching Primer.
(right side of pic)
Then I did a few coats of filler primer (left side of pic) to help fill in some additional remaining scratches from my sanding. (yeah even teal_dx rushes and leaves scratches lol)

Then give them one final sanding with a paper in the 400, then 600 grit range.


Clean them & One more final coat of primer...

then hit them with a few light coats of Trim Paint

(I didn't get a pic of this step)

Let dry and install:


(dusty car)



The Trim paint looks just like OEM. I had a few chips on my mirrors and white was showing, so I sanded them down and painted them too.





This paint is great stuff! If I still had my windshield wipers, I would have painted those too. Something as small as a few fresh trim pieces can really make your car look 15 years younger

I should add, that between every time you sand, you should give the trim a quick wipe down. Use a rag with wax & grease remover. Don't use any thing oil based (paint won't stick) and don't use water (absorbs into the primer/bondo)

Wax & grease remover evaporates in just a few minutes and then you're ready to move on to your next step

nice lil write up there im gonna do that when my car is ready for paint

That paint is the shit bomb! I used the same stuff on my front lip and sideskirts.

good write up

i did exactly the same

i asked at Honda dealer and they sale it for 60$ each

i pay just 20$ for the primer and paint

I just got new ones from Honda for 42.00 each, didn't even think of trying to refinish they were peeling so bad.

thanks i need this

good write up! mine needs to be done!
see.........


i'll be doing this soooon!

big question is how to remove them ? and has any tried removing the roof ones?

LowTEC-Derbo wrote:big question is how to remove them ? and has any tried removing the roof ones?

hmmm... x2

pull off your interior door panel, and then you can see the plastic clips that hold the window trim on.

for the roof trim, you need to remove the windshield trim that covers the end of the roof trim. then slide the entire piece of roof trim forward (the same way you slide the side skirts forward to remove them) and it will pop off.

teal_dx wrote:pull off your interior door panel, and then you can see the plastic clips that hold the window trim on.

for the roof trim, you need to remove the windshield trim that covers the end of the roof trim. then slide the entire piece of roof trim forward (the same way you slide the side skirts forward to remove them) and it will pop off.

ooo seems easy enough...

hey how do you take them off