Hey guys. New to the forums and fairly new to dodges and I guess driving in general. I just inherited my dads old truck as my first vehicle and I'm stoked. I wanna change a few things about it and I need some help.

It's a 2002 Ram 1500 QC and the trim on the sides just looks terrible. I'm fairly sure this happened when my mom tried to clean it with chrome cleaner and left it on for too long... but that's not the point.



In person it looks 10x worse, like its covered in rust and faded and such. I want to paint it black.

Now, when it comes to paint, my friend just painted the bowtie on the front of his chevy with this "Krylon Fusion" paint. It says its for plastic and doesn't require any prep. The paint came out on his truck the exact color I'd like my trim pieces to be so this brings me to my first question.
Will this paint would be suitable for the trim?

Second question(s); How should I go about painting this? Even though the paint doesn't require prep should I scuff up the peices a little bit? And should I go through the process of removing the trim or should I just tape it off really well and paint the trim while it's still on the truck?

Any help is appreciated guys! Thanks.

 

First of all welcome to the forum. Nice truck to inherit for sure. IMO you should just remove them all together. Take them off w/ some fishing line. Finish the job off w/ an eraser wheel to get the rest of the gunk off and call it a done deal.

 

Definitely take them off. Like ^^^ said get some fish line and remove it. As for prep, you should prep it. You can refuse to prep it and it will look good for a week or two then you'll regret it. Get some sandpaper and work it down, maybe even get some adhesion promotor. That paint you said might be fine but you could also get Line-X, it is much more durable..

 

Alright thanks guys. When I take 'em off I'll see how I like the look of the truck without them, but here's what I'm scared of. On the passenger side, towards the front of the trim piece, there a little area where it looks like the clear coat on the door has been pulled up and chipped off a bit. I imagine some water gathered under the trim peice and got under the clear coat. This is what I don't want to happen: I take off the peices and rip up the clear coat thats on the door, under the trim because its been terrorized after eight years of water build-up. I suppose I'm just being paranoid, but does anyone think this is a possibility?


Also, I could use some help with something else. I've got factory running boards/nerf bars or whatever you wanna call 'em and I want to take them off. The problem is that the bolts are rusted to hell and back. They also bolt into what looks like a spacer or something between the frame and the body. I've got pictures:
The rear mount for the running boards. This is on the passenger side, looking towards the back of the truck. http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...3/DSC_0001.jpg
The front mount for the running boards. This is on the passenger side, looking towards the front of the truck. http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...3/DSC_0008.jpg

As you can see, there's a bracket that goes from the bars to the frame/body mount. I don't want to unscrew the bolt that connects the frame to the body and not be able to get it back in. Could anyone tell me if its safe to just go ahead and unscrew that? And if it isn't how do you reckon I should go about taking these things off?

 

Proper prep and primer is ALWAYS your friend when painting. Regardless of what the can says. Rough it up with some sand paper and give it a good wipe down with brake cleaner to remove any grease/contaminants that will affect adhesion. Prime it and then paint it.

 

Well as far as the bolts being rusty, give them a nice bath in some PB Blaster and let them soak for a while. And the other bolts, those bolts are your body mount bolts. Its ok to take them out wont hurt a thing. Take them out, take your bracket off and put them back in, nothin too it.

 

Alright thanks a lot guys. Much appreciated. If I end up putting the painted trim pieces back on I'll post photos.

 

IMO, keep them on. They keep other idiots from opening their door(s) into yours and leaving you with dings in your doors. But i would certainly tape them off, hit them with 180 and then 320 grit and spray them. You can color match with VIN matched paint from the dealer or paint a different color.

However, if you do pull them off try to use the fishing line as said earlier and take them off in one good solid piece so you can list them here in the classifieds and sell them for a few bucks