I'm removing the trim on my 88 LE and was curious what mothod others have used. Also, are there any holes under the trim? I did a search but couldn't find anything.

 

There are no holes under the trim. It's just taped on. When I did mine, I used an old guitar string held with 2 vice grip pliers and cut them off (kind of like a homeade cheese cutter type tool). If you go that route, be very careful, cause its easy to scratch the paint. At the time, I didn't care cause I was repainting my truck.

 

I doing a re-paint so scratching isnt much of an issue... VERY happy I don't have a million holes to fill. Any tips to getting the left over glue off?

Also, I removed the wheel well trim and the lower door valance. Would you recommend filling the bolt/screw holes before painting? I'm also gettin rid of the front valance (under the bumper) as well. The actual body work / painting isn't going to happen yet.

 

Well, on my truck, I was stripping the old paint off to the bare metal, so I covered the remaining glue in chemical paint stripper.... took it right off. BUT, if you're not going to strip the old paint off (if it's not flaking, there's no reason to), you can use heat and general purpose adhesive remover and a plastic scraper. 3M makes a really good adhesive remover. When I worked at the body shop, we went through several gallons of that stuff a week getting tape off of the cars.

As for filling in the holes, are you just talking about the holes in the inner fender lips? If so, thats up to you, but don't fill them in with body filler, weld them like you should. NEVER use body filler to fill in a hole. Even if you don't fill them, when you paint over them they won't rust.

 

thanks for the advice, the reason I wanted to fill the holes on the wells was to prevent rust, but I'll just paint over them like you said. I don't know much about body work, but why wouldn't you use a body filler to fill holes? Is it because when the surrounding filler is sanded back down?

I took off a few pieces using a putty knife. Works. And yeah I'll use some adhesive remover either that or lighter fluid will probably get it off.

 

Because body filler can let moisture in from the back side of the hole and it will swell and crack the body filler. Then you have a mess.

 

Well, all trim is off today and the rear-most portion of the trim on the bed did have holes! I have to use body filler, but what I'll do is coat the other side with a primer and/or a rust preventitive paint to seal it. Do you think that would work? There's no going back now.

 

Wow! Thats not cool! The '88s must have been different than my '95. Sorry about that.

Primer won't work, its not a sealer. Water can soak through it too.

 

Its not as good as welding, but Id think youd be better off to JB weld a thin piece of metal to the inside a couple inches bigger than the hole. Then use the putty to fill the remainder of the hole on the front. That way there is no way for it to rot from the back.

 

Damn... That's a pretty good idea. I think that would be the easiest way

**Also on the subject of holes, I have to remove my busted up plastic bedliner aswell before I paint the truck. sadly it is RIVETED in. Many More holes that would need filling. Any suggestions?









As a side note I'm planning on using rustoleum bedliner but it's not really supposed to go on that area (top) of the bed like a plastic bedliner does. But If I absoutely had to do it I gues go over that top portion with the bed liner.