Hey guys, I have been wondering if it is possible to remove the dark trim strip from my door panels so that I can paint them to match other trim in the car. The finish is peeling off of them already so I figured why not paint them to match my other interior trim pieces. Any info would be great. Thanks

 

found this thread for you https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...ght=door+panel they are part of the door panel from what I read.

 

Not that I've painted mine, but I had my door replaced in 2006. They in fact are not removable. If I paint like I pee, I'm in for a surprise, so I left mine with the factory finish.

 

must be that post love making, wake up in the morning, shoot at anything that moves...oh sorry a lil too much there

yea, that strip don't come off. i was trying to figure out an easy way of painting it when i took off my door panels to cut down the locks. the only way of doing it is kinda like MIKE did on "BOB", just tape off really really well. take your time in doing it. im prolly gonna do it as soon as i get my income tax money. im gonna upgrade the factory speakers and maybe get some of them smoothie locks. so off come the door panels again.

 

Well that makes things a little more interesting, I guess we'll just have to go slow and do it right the first time. I'll post pics when its all done. Thanks for the info dudes.

 

You can take it off. First you take off the whole door panel. Look at the back of the plastic door panel, you will see multiple plastic rivets, or plugs as we call em. They are hot glued. You can drill each one out to pop off the arm rest and trim piece. When you go to put the piece back on you would just hot glue the stem back in the hole. I have done this on hundreds of cars and have been doing numerous things to my doors where I have had this off and on about 20 times.

 

Dude that is awesome news, I can dig that. By the way I dig the HHR logo in the doors, did you do that by yourself?

 

Cool, thanks. I did do that. I am building my car for use as my companies demo car to showcase our flat flexible light panels. The doors as picture no longer exist as I am now building a complete fiberglass door panel now.

 

you know that i thought of that. the only thing that kept me from doing that was thinking if the hot glue would "shake" off with all the vibrations from the road and the speakers and such.

 

Hot glue stays strong. The factory uses it too. And trust me, I have alot of vibration and body flex in my HHR. My roof flexed so much from the stereo that close to 150 dB I broke the brace holding the sunroof. But the door panels still held.