Side Molding Under-Paint

[Cockerspam]

I took off my side moldings today and once i washed it, the paint underneath was much brighter. And, theres a line of paint that over laps on top all the way around where the molding was. Is there any way other than painting to fix this? I'm only in high school and dont have an income right now.

[sonjaab]

C-man.....Sounds like your truck has been re-painted at some point.

NO way around the color difference. Either re-paint or replace the

moulding..................geo

[Cockerspam]

I dont think theres ANY way it could have been repainted. It was owned by an old guy that just drove it to the flea-market. Im positive he didnt repaint it. And I cant stand the look of the moldings. Theyre so ugly. Anything else I could do???

[Markeaux]

Repaints can happen even by the dealer before the new buyer ever picks up the vehicle ... bad stuff can happen to a vehicle in transit, etc ... I think some BMW owner had that happen to him a few years ago and the dealer did not disclose it so he sued them and got some kind of nice settlement, the problem being that an aftermarket paint job is typically never as good as the oem paint job.

 

Anyway, a good body/paint shop can probably fix it, but that means repainting that area and blending the surrounding. My 98 Z28 was hit in the front and I was really surprised at how well the repaint looked, I could not tell at all what area had new paint and that which was old even with a critical eye (and it was that metallic mystic teal that seems would be very hard to blend, etc).

[Cockerspam]

So how much do you think it will cost for both sides? And I guess thats what happened. It does look better underneath tho and I really dont wanna repaint the whole thing.

[99-2door]

, the problem being that an aftermarket paint job is typically never as good as the oem paint job.

A good body man can make a factory paint job look like crap. Factory paint typically has an orange peeled look out the wahzoo.

[az'03Silverado]

I'm not recommending this as a do-it-yourself project. But, if the problem is that the surrounding paint is faded, there is a process that involves using progressively finer sand papers and wet sanding the faded finish. Then, ending up using progressively finer polishing compounds over the whole paint job. This will remove the oxidation and bring out the color in the exposed paint so it will better match the paint that was hidden. A good paint shop or detailing shop will know the process and it will probably be cheaper than a new paint job and will look relatively good.

[Markeaux]

, the problem being that an aftermarket paint job is typically never as good as the oem paint job. 

A good body man can make a factory paint job look like crap. Factory paint typically has an orange peeled look out the wahzoo.

There is absolutely no doubt that an aftermarket paint job can look fantastically better than most any oem paint job, but it's the longevity that *typically* suffers. The many factory paint processes *typically* lead to a paint job that lasts much longer than aftermarket with less liklihood of longer term cracking/spidering. At least that's been my experience with the following vehicles that I've owned over the past 30 years:

 

67 Firebird - totally repainted

67 GTO

74 Z28 - partial custom paint

73 Corvette

78 Trans Am

79 El Camino

79 Blazer

69 Camaro SS Pace Car convertible - totally repainted/restored

71 Electra 225

69 Chevelle SS

81 Blazer - fender repainted by GM or dealer (I found out long after buying it new)

83 Z28 - partially repainted

76 DeVille

91 Blazer

91 LeSabre

98 Z28 - partially repainted

93 Explorer

00 Grand Prix SE

01 Tahoe LT

[Markeaux]

Cockerspam, to your original questions: correctly fixing via repainting could cost a few hundreds of $ ... so possibly also consider finding side moldings that look better than the ones you took off. I don't know exactly what, but take this as an example: 3 years ago when I was looking at the new Yukon SLT's I sorta liked the giant white+chrome strip side moldings; but, since there was no GMC dealer near where I live I ended up getting a Tahoe LT with the plainer (and uglier IMO) side molding (plus the factory errored and so the molding was black+chrome instead of white+chrome since I ordered a white LT). Anyway, I had been thinking all along that I would simply replace the molding with the GMC style or yes just rip the molding off entirely - but I need/like the protection it gives so need to keep something on there, so I'm just keeping it as it is for a while longer. So in short, some moldings can look better than others and it seems a newer, nicer molding might be be a cheaper option to consider other than a repaint or trying to fix it yourself.

[GnatGoSplat]

, the problem being that an aftermarket paint job is typically never as good as the oem paint job. 

A good body man can make a factory paint job look like crap. Factory paint typically has an orange peeled look out the wahzoo.

Aftermarket paint often looks better, but is NEVER as durable or long lasting.

My guess is it's because aftermarket paint doesn't get baked on like factory paint. Most places do use heat lamps to cure the paint, but at the factory they bake it on at some real high temperature (way higher than the 165-degrees that heat lamps can do).

 

 

Anyway, for the original problem... you could always try wetsanding the area where it overlaps till it feels smooth, and then go over it with a buffer. It will probably still be visible, but much less visible. That will also only work as long as the newer paint job doesn't have primer all the way to the edge. It's possible they might not have used primer at all if they just scuff-sanded the original paint and just painted over it.