I know this has been done, but if anyone on here has, how much does that cost estimated? Thanks. Pictures would be good too.

 

You can do it for free. The side moldings are held on with double sided tape.

 

Free.

But, now.. before you do this! keep in mind.. you will have ALOT more door dings after removing your door trim.

Yes it looks as if they aren't very functional (the side mouldings), but trust me they protect your doors alot more then you think

It does look good though.

It's your call.

 

oooo i never thought about that door dings. thanks a lot. imma think about it for a while if i decide to do it or not.

 

o yea another thing though, would the wings west kit require you to remove the side moldings?

 

I just peeled mine off and used my moms hair dryer to get that sticky double sided tape off the doors. Its a pain in the *** but the car will look alot smoother once there off.

 

Well, that could be solved by parking at the very end of the lot at shopping malls and such. This method saved my car for about two years until I got lazy and didn't do it anymore. Now I have 3 dings on my Pro. I hate inconsiderate people.

 

Here's a picture of our 2002 Es with the side moldings shaved, it looks so much better with out them....

Picture of 2002 ES with side moldings shaved

 

Negatize, you are very lucky..

I try to be careful (not parking far away (since I recognize that I have an economy car, but careful selective close parking) and due to evil shopping plazas and malls I've worked in I have at least 8 dings, and like 6 weird horizontal and vertical "creases" from people who didn't quite make a ding but still wanted to make an impression from their tall SUVish doors.

The Protege's sheet metal on the doors is thin as hell

When was the last time you saw like.. uh.. for example, a VW Golf from 2000 with major dings? You don't! They have thick metal..

At least our car is better, kinda

 

i have a white 95 dx and was thinking about either shaving or painting the black side moldings to match the car. my question is this: if i take off the side moldings and decide it wasnt such a good idea, how hard is it to put them back on?

 

Well honestly I really doubt they would be that hard to put back on but we haven't done it so I don't know. Since they are only stuck on their with double stick tape I would think that if you got some good double stick tape they would go right back on, it would just be a matter of getting them on straight. I honestly don't think you would be disappointed though, my personal opinion is that the car looks much better without them especially if they don't match the car. Plus to paint them you would ideally need tot ake them off to paint them anyway.

 

in that case, do you think they look better off or painted to match? and what should i do about the door handles? i'd think they'd look even worse without the black molding to balance them out

 

That's entirely up to you. It's your car. If you want a little bit of protection from door dings, leave them on and paint them. If you don't care, just take them off.

 

I'm with bostedmp5 and King_GIRLLIE GIRL:

It's a bit of a pain but worth it in my opinion. Just becareful with it:

 

I would definatly remove them over painting them. My boys Pro is an ES so the moldings were painted to match the car, it just looks cleaner without them. Plus it doesn't cost anything to take them off and who knows what you would pay to get them painted right.