1968 Landau Coupe Body Molding Removal Tips

Excaliburss

Excaliburss

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Dec 4, 2016
Thunderbird Year
1968
T-Bird ferdig for lakkering 19.03.19 002.JPG Hi everybody ! I decided to give my car a respray because of many miniature dents and some scratches. I got about everything off the car now but struggling with these thin border moldings between the vinyl roof and the body. Can anybody tell me how to get them loose ? Can it be possible that these are with screws from the inside ? Means all interior out and surch for them screws/nuts.....? Or am I lucky and they hang on just with clips ? Anybody knows for sure ? Appreciate any answer....good or bad !
Thanks a lot
 

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I struggled with mine as well. The manual is priceless in this situation. It will tell you what types of clips and where. I know some trim is held on by a clip with a small wire that grabs the back side of the trim. You need to get or make a tool to slide under the trim and snag the wire. The above window trim by the roof was held on by adhesive in my case. Next time I'm in the garage I will snap a picture of whatever I find.
 
That would be great Jon774 ! Pics are telling more than words. I have a manual downloaded of a 67....but it does not make me smarter. Would be enormous of you if you could take some shots. Hate to damage something. Have a good weekend ! Fred from Spain
 
This is the only pic I could find. At this point in my build I was deleting the vinyl roof along with the lower trim. If you can zoom into the pic you'll see holes where the trim was. I unfortunately think I unscrewed a nut from the gutted interior to remove that trim whether I had to or not. I looked in the 67 owners manual as well as the 68 supplemental. and found they were vague with this particular molding detail. Like I said I think the above window (drip edge) molding was attached with adhesive.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. If I can find more pics/ info I'll send it your way.
Good Luck!
 

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Thanks for your time involved ! I think I just have to jump into it and dismantle seats and trim to get a look at the back side / inside....good to hear that you also didn't get to much out of the manual. I was already doubting me intelligence.
The people who made the manual probably thought that nobody ever takes these moldings of the car.... :)
 
When you post to the forum please use a detailed subject title. Most everyone is "looking for advice". I've revised your title. Thanks for posting.
 
jon774 said:
This is the only pic I could find. At this point in my build I was deleting the vinyl roof along with the lower trim. If you can zoom into the pic you'll see holes where the trim was. I unfortunately think I unscrewed a nut from the gutted interior to remove that trim whether I had to or not. I looked in the 67 owners manual as well as the 68 supplemental. and found they were vague with this particular molding detail. Like I said I think the above window (drip edge) molding was attached with adhesive.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. If I can find more pics/ info I'll send it your way.
Good Luck!
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Good to get rid of that vinyl roof! They are rust magnets! On the topic of the trim... when I pulled off most of mine on my 69 bird (probable the same as a 68) was a lot was held on with a clip behind it. Though most of the time the clips would break due to age. Also sometimes it’s slotted in. Like there is a bunch of pegs tack welded to the car and he trim slides onto that. My bottom trim actually had holes in the rocker and plastic pegs were pushed into that. Though they broke when I tried removing them. Fifty year old plastic is just pretty fragile after all this time.
 
Hi there OAO ! I don't want to get rid of my vinyl....Its all good. No rust on this car nowhere. But to get a good paint job done, I have to remove all trim and I am so afraid to hurt them moldings if I do it the wrong way. If there are screws on the inside and I use violence on the trim from the outside, I definitely get a bad result. Do you remember any nuts you had to take from the inside of the car ? Did you remove panels and seats at that time to get to them ?
Cheerio ( hope weather is better at your side ! )
 
No screws on the inside. However I don’t have a vinyl top. Car was a hard top from the get go. Vinyl tops are fine if you keep them indoors I guess... but they are known rust magnets. Always where. But if it’s good for you then no need to rip it off l. As for the molding. Most of the time it may be pressed into a slot or there is a chance there is nuts or screws on the back. Though pulling down the headliner of this age is prone to disaster. They usually just come apart. You could try pulling out the back seats and panels to see if there are screws behind it.
 
I am working on it at this moment. I found 4 screws now in the trunk side. 2 of them are really hard to get to and my hands are bleeding ( as usual ) I just never learned to work with gloves. Anyway, got the longest middle piece now off. Now I try to investigate how the corner pieces are "glued" to the car. Dangerous work if its all guessing
 
This is HORROR.... !!! The corner trim is all with nuts from the inside, means everything needs to be taken out of the interior including the small rear windows which is a pain of a job. All that just to get to the nuts holding this trim.
 
Excaliburss said:
This is HORROR.... !!! The corner trim is all with nuts from the inside, means everything needs to be taken out of the interior including the small rear windows which is a pain of a job. All that just to get to the nuts holding this trim.
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Such as with designers. They just figure where it needs to go to make it work. Not how to remove it later incase of maintenance. Thank god mine is a hard top. No need for all that extra hassle. That and I just hate vinyl tops in general. Good luck in your adventures.
 
Thanks man. This is just unbelievable - I wonder how much time it will take to complete my car after repaint....The picture shows just a third of all parts
 

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Don’t forget to catalogue everything so you remember where it goes back to. To many times I have neglected this and man all the spare parts I got after the end of a job! I often wonder sometimes how she still stays together.
 
You are completely right. I take pictures of everything or write with tape stripes what it is and where it has to go to
 
I post some pictures for you guys who want to see how moldings are screwed on to the car. Everything has to come off incl. the rear windows .030.JPG 034.JPG T-Bird til lakking 001.JPG T-Bird til lakking 003.JPG T-Bird til lakking 005.JPG Really a pain in the a.....
 
Excaliburss said:
View attachment 3471 Hi everybody ! I decided to give my car a respray because of many miniature dents and some scratches. I got about everything off the car now but struggling with these thin border moldings between the vinyl roof and the body. Can anybody tell me how to get them loose ? Can it be possible that these are with screws from the inside ? Means all interior out and surch for them screws/nuts.....? Or am I lucky and they hang on just with clips ? Anybody knows for sure ? Appreciate any answer....good or bad !
Thanks a lot
Click to expand...
Hi Fellow TBird Owner! I was wondering how you went about removing the aluminum/stainless lower trim pieces from the rocker panels? I'm working on my black paint restoration and I need to get those off so I can clean and buff them out.
 
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