Will black side moldings look ugly on a red Forester

I've just bought a red Forester and would like to protect its doors from getting hit by strangers.

I'm thinking about putting black self-adhesive rubber moldings (about 1-inch wide) on the doors, like the Style Guard by Cowles Products Inc.

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but I'm wondering how they're going to look since this car already has several horizontal lines on the sides.

If anybody has done this please let me know if you're happy with the results.

Also if it turns out that I don't like the results and want to remove the moldings, will I have to worry about the paint coming off ?

Thanks, snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com

Reply to
chester
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I've never tried the add-ons. My first and only door ding in my red '02 Forester is located just below the rear door handle. Not where you'd expect.

Look around at vehicles that have door moldings. They are still dinged up. Don't know how happy you will be with the effectiveness or the looks. I'm more concerned about my bumpers that are unprotected. There's too much concern for looks instead of protection IMHO.

BoB

Reply to
BoB

The problem with side moldings is that they protect only where they are put - but car, trucks, and SUV's are a variety of shapes and sizes - so there is no single "best" location to put them. I had them on my last car (a corolla) and got more hits above them than on them. It can't hurt to try, though. (and don't worry about them pulling off the paint - use a hair dryer to warm them up before you start pulling them off, take your time, and you won't have any problems with the paint)

If you want to see what it would look like, find a picture of a red forester, and draw a black line where they would go.

Reply to
David & Caroline

Are you sure the hair dryer won't hurt the paint ? Since the adhesive is behind a very thick rubber I'll probably have to heat the car's doors and let the metal transmit the heat to the adhesive.

I have already done this but still can't tell. But I can put the moldings on one side of the car using an easily removable adhesive first to see how they look.

Reply to
chester

A hair dryer won't damage the paint (it won't get it any hotter than it gets sitting out in the sun) - a heat gun, on the other hand, gets much hotter and can definitely damage the paint. It's easier to get off than you would think - once it gets started, you are just heating the adhesive.

Once you get it, I would tape it down with clear packing tape and see how it looks - if you like it, stick it down - if you don't, just don't apply it.

Reply to
David & Caroline

I had red toyota tercel 4wd estate it had a 3 inch wide moulding strip at bumper level which looked pretty good and gave some real protection against muppets opening doors in car parks.I would find a picture and use a graphics program to judge how it will look saves messing about with tape Derek

Reply to
Del

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