removing woodgrain trim

[littleriverwagoneer]

Does anyone have experience removing woodgrain trim? I'm about to replace the vinyl on the tailgate, and re-wrap the wood grain trim vinyl. What is the best sequence for removing the wood trim? I want to save the plugs if possible. Should they be removed first?and how? It's my understanding that the vinyl trim is both riveted (thus the plugs) and secured by adhesive. Have heat gun ready??just need a little advice before diving in.
Love this forum, by the way. So helpful.

Mark

[bwwhaler]

The search function on the site works pretty good, just do a search for whatever you are looking for, such as woodgrain removal :

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=55811&highlight=woodgrain+removal

[littleriverwagoneer]

Thanks BW

?.But I was actually asking about something more specific: Removing the riveted wood trim, not the vinyl. Yes, I have searched on here?..for hours, and have found some vaguely related threads.
I want to know about things like drilling out the rivets without damaging the wood plugs??how to get the wood plugs out etc.
No probs removing the vinyl itself??.good ole heat, maybe some denatured alcohol to get the residue off???.. I'm just trying to save the trim parts that I already have.

[Tatsadasayago]

The plugs were meant to be destroyed upon removal since the shop always had bags of them.
There are few ways to remove the plugs without totally murdering them.
Take a dental pick or small sharp awl (Testlight point works in a pinch) and force it inward at the outer edge of the plug, then pry outward and work it out. Using recovered woodgrain material to make plug covers to hide the damaged edge.
The second method is to drill a small self tapping sheetmetal screw into the center of the plug, then extract with vise grips clamped to the head of the screw. Once the plugs are out, fill hole with sand colored caulking for re-use.
Some IFSJA members have used extra moulding sections and punched the appropriate sized plugs out. Some have used wood dowl soaked in Thompson water seal or polyurethane. teamgrandwagoeer is back to making these but the price is 16.95 for 5. If you need them all, you're looking at 40 of them! Ouch!

http://www.teamgrandwagoneer.com/woodgrain-plugs-oem-gw-1984-1991/

The rivet heads will have to be drilled out as you expect. The trick is to use high speed and light pressure so the bit doesn't start the rivet spinning. If you are VERY flexible, you can remove the interior panels and attack the rivets with a small angle grinder and cut-off wheel from the inside in most areas should a river choose to spin. Sometimes you can stop the rivet from spinning by applying outward pressure on the trim.
Some moldings had a foam backing, some had double-sided 3m adhesive tape and others had nothing but the plastic trim itself.
Your heat gun will do the rest.

I believe you can still find the plastic plugs from some Jeep/Chrysler dealer parts counters so you might check that out and possibly snap up a bag or two.

Good luck!

[littleriverwagoneer]

Excellent Jim! Thanks a million for the detailed response! Hope to start on this next weekend.

[hookedup50]

Are you planning on reusing the wood trim? Maybe I have not enough patience, but everytime I removed it they have been deformed. I haven't tried heat gun from back side and windshield removal wire tool. Just a thought on how not to bend it. I'm interested on what you come up with.

[bwwhaler]

I read somewhere recently about somebody using fishing line to get behind it and "cut" it off. I guess I didn't understand exactly what you were asking for...

[sportsidedan]

believe me... it's not an easy job. try heating in up without burning the plastic and using a thin wire and slowly moving forward. i just did 2 and it took me 3 weekends. they are reusable but got damaged at some points.

[Tatsadasayago]

I forgot to mention Dental Floss works great for that as well. For the tough jobs, the typical 'D' or 'G' string from an acoustic guitar works good as it is woulnd and acts like a fine saw. I used the E and A strings for cutting windshield glass out many times with good results.

[babywag]

When I removed woodgrain trim from my '88 didn't have true rivets.

They were hollow fasteners with a rivet style head, but open in center and came out pretty easily. Used left hand drill bit that fit snug in center hole.
They pretty much just spun right out.

For the little woodgrain plugs a toothpick worked well for me, and didn't damage them.

For the woodgrain strips I used a sharpened plastic putty knife and a hair dryer.

Your mileage may vary. However I sold the trim and they were able to re-use it and it looked good when reinstalled.
Key is to not force it, don't pull on it/twist it/bend it/let it hang loose while removing it.
Keep it loosely taped in place until the entire piece is ready to be removed.
Need to break the adhesive between body and trim completely.

[goldhammer]

Replied to your PM. When you use a putty knife to cut the tape loose (Mine at the body shop is a sharp 1 1/4 incher, metal) run a couple of layers of masking tape on the outside of the molding to prevent scratches on the paint.

3M makes an adhesive remover in a red/white quart can. Fast drying stuff so you might have do soak a rag and tape it under a baggie a section at a time to let it work on the remains of the double side tape.

[jda]

I just did this and I would not do it again. Unless you are doing a concourse restoration, or your existing vinyl is trashed, just trim/cut and put the new stickers in between the existing trim and stick them on over the old vinyl.