de-vinyling my estate

[no2lurch]

i am seriously thinking about de-vinyling my silver sri estate.

i have been reading around the subject on there usning the search option and it has flagged up a question...

can all the vinyl trim on the pillars be removed on my estate?

[Bailes1992]

Yesss Did mine the other day if you go look at my project diary in the members cars section. Taking them off use a stanley blade flat against the paint. To remove the sticky residue soak it in some white spirit or petrol for a little bit

[DiscoPol]

Taking them off use a stanley blade flat against the paint.

that scares the sh1t outta me, would a plastic scraper or stiff kitchen spatula not be better??

only speaking from experience, no matter how careful i have tried to be in the past using such things as stanley blades as scrapers, there always seems to be a point where it goes wrong, and from there its a no win situation if youre using a steel blade, the paint is always gonna come off worse.

just a thought, i have no experience of taking off my vinyl, but i might just do it for something to do, and its lovely and warm at the mo so thats gotta help surely

[steve_earwig]

I don't remember using anything but the sun and finger power when I changed the ones on my D8. Of course I had to use solvent to get the glue off, the paintwork was perfect underneath.

[Welly]

Is this just an estate thing?

I honestly can't remember if my salooooon had these here vinyls? and I honestly can't be arsed to troll through my photobucket account to check.

[no2lurch]

i think i might use my heat gun to warm them up a bit first

[steve_earwig]

Looks like you've deleted them all

[Welly]

Looks like you've deleted them all

Have you been snooping through my photo's again? I've told you about that before!

[steve_earwig]

Oops, sorry

Actually I just tried (my natural contrariness again ) but I don't think this is you

[highlander]

Is this just an estate thing?

I honestly can't remember if my salooooon had these here vinyls? and I honestly can't be arsed to troll through my photobucket account to check.

Doesn't look like D9 saloons have them - mine doesn't, and none of them I've seen have either.

Yet no2lurch's estate is a D9, and it does have vinyl. So I reckon it's an estate thing, common to both D8 and D9 models.

Does the D8 saloon have the vinyl?

[sirwiggum]

Some D8s have vinyl. Heres one with a wiper too!



I've seen D8s without vinyl. Not sure if they were devinyled or standard.

D9 saloons have no vinyl.

All estates have vinyl. As I said on another thread, this gives visual continuity across the window line with the C pillar (is this correct on an estate?) always being black.

[steve_earwig]

I suppose it saved a few more centimes.. Or was it cents by then, I can't remember that far back.

[highlander]

I want a rear wiper... when it's pissing down with rain (as happens here in Scotland, occasionally), it can be a bugger to see how far behind you things are. Hell, my old Clio had a rear wiper, WITH WASHER, and it worked, and it made a difference.

Why are rear wipers so rare on big saloons (not just the 406)?

To keep on-topic, I prefer the body-coloured door pillars. Vinyl just looks cheap and very, very dated, IMHO.

[sirwiggum]

The Xantia had a "bidet" - rear wash/wipe

From what I can find on the net, aerodynamics of a saloon keep the rear window clear?

And Saloon rear windows are usually smaller? Doesn't explain hatch-to-saloon conversions like the 306 Sedan, Fabia Sedan, Opel Astra saloon (IE) etc. and most hatches now have fairly upright bootlids anyway.

I guess it boils down to aesthetics probably?

[Welly]

If you apply Rain-X to the rear window you won't have any bother from water - it just runs off over a certain speed.....