Car Moldings
About Car Mouldings
Installing car mouldings are a cheap and expensive way to protect the car and also improve its appearance. They also prevent accidental scratches to the exterior panels and prevent dents to a great extent.
People use car mouldings on cars for mainly two reasons; either to protect the car from nicks and dings or to add more style to their rides. And sometimes even both. Car mouldings are among the few things that you don’t have to compromise between style and functionality when choosing them. They are simple yet very useful. People usually go for mouldings that have contrasting colours to their car body. Like fitting black mouldings on lighter coloured panels to add a bold touch. For paints of darker colours, chrome moulding is a perfect combination.
A beginner’s guide to car mouldings
All the cars that belong to a particular model look exactly the same. And there are tens of thousands of these on the road. But you can add a customised touch to your vehicle and stand out from the crowd using car mouldings and other exterior and interior accessories. What makes car mouldings so popular and ubiquitous? Affordability is the answer. With little effort, you will find plenty of car trims and mouldings for sale. They are also easy to install. You don’t necessarily have to take your car to a service shop. You can look for the one that you like online and buy them with one click. Installing isn’t difficult, either. There are a lot of articles and videos online on how to install and replace car mouldings.
Car door moulding
These are the mouldings that go on the car doors. Car door moulding can be of two types; exterior side panel moulding or door edge moulding. The door edge mouldings serve both as a decorative and functional item. They are usually fitted at the vertical middle portion of the panel and run along the whole length of the door. These protect the door from banging against walls and also from scraping off the paint in busy parking lots. Door edge panels, on the other hand, runs along the circumference of the door panel. With these on, you don’t have to worry when you swing the door open next to a curbstone.
Exterior door moulding
These can come in both chrome and rubber. Chrome ones, contrary to how they look, are never made of metal to avoid causing damage to the door when hit against something hard. Chrome door mouldings use soft plastic that can absorb impact energy without transferring it to the door panel. The downside of chrome mouldings as they tend to lose colour and turn white after some time. Rubber mouldings are more straightforward. Because they are made of black rubber all throughout, they retain the colour even upon scratching and are very durable.
Door edge moulding
These are also called door edge guards. They are almost always used to protect the paint and not as a statement piece. The most common ones are the black rubber edge moulding that covers the edge throughout the circumference of the door. Some people who don’t like the look of a black border surrounding the door prefer to go with the clear protective film instead. When installed, the clear film blends in with the paint of the car and won’t be visible at all, unless you bother to examine the microscopic details. But clear film protectors don’t offer much protection against dents and tend to collect dust easily. But they are cheap and easily replaceable.
Wheel well mouldings
These go along the edges of the wheel wells. In most cars, the panel near the wheel well protrudes further than the rest of the car body. This indeed adds a nice visual feature to the car. However, this also puts this bulging portion of the body at a higher risk of scratches and dents. Wheel well mouldings provide shielding against scratches and minor bumps. Just like the door mouldings, wheel well mouldings also come in chrome and rubber. Wheel well mouldings are more common in larger vehicles like trucks and SUVs than regular cars. Still, people install them in cars for looks and protection.
Bumper trims
Bumpers protect the car body from damage in low-speed collisions. They are cheaper to repair and replace as well. Even though they are cheaper to replace compared to the metal panels of the car, it is still going to cost you a lot. Using bumper trims is a simple yet effective fix to this problem. You can find bumper mouldings of steel, stainless steel and rubber in the market. Among them, chrome trims are more popular than rubber ones. If you want to splurge a little more, there are stylish carbon fibre trims that are more durable and better looking.
Tips on how to buy The Perfect Mouldings for Your Car
Now that you know about the basics of car mouldings, it’s time for some tips on how to choose the right moulding for your car. There are some obvious things to look for whenever you buy any accessory for a car; like checking the compatibility, selecting the appropriate design and colour that complements the look of your car, etc. Here are a few other factors you should consider when you are shopping for car mouldings.
- Durability – This is a very important feature to look for in car moulding. Mouldings are exposed to harsh weather all the time. They should also hold up against minor mechanical shocks as well. Mouldings made of regular plastics won’t last very long on the car exterior. SO specifically look for automotive-grade plastic.
- Ease of installation – Different types of mouldings have different installation methods. Most common are clips and glues, and very rarely screws. Stick-on mouldings are the easiest of them to install. Even if the moulding itself does not come with the glue, you can get a 3M car adhesive tape pretty easily. They have pretty good weather resistance as well.
- Your budget and the cost of the moulding – You have to strike a balance between the quality of the moulding and the price. It’s not true that you have to go for the most expensive of them to get the best quality. There are plenty of brands out there that sell good quality mouldings for an affordable price.
- Extra bells and whistles – You can look for some handy additional features if you want. Some mouldings come with primer coating so that you can paint it whatever colour you want. You can also look for bumper mouldings that have parking slots for parking sensors and licence plates.
Mouldings can transform the look of your car. Chrome window trims will give your vehicle an elegant finish while bumper mouldings are for a sporty look. The combination will be perfect only when all the accessories complement each other. Finally, because you are working on the car panels whenever you install or replace moulding, be careful not to damage the paint. And if you are searching for more auto-tuning products, check out the affordable car supplies here on Shops.ae. Our shopping search engine is home to more than 500+ shops and brands, including Trim-Gard, Sporting, Restyler Choice, Luxwood Trim, Dawn-Ent and more.
Question & Answer
How to clean car mouldings?
Car mouldings, especially rubber mouldings, lose their colour because of constant exposure to heat and UV light. Luckily, there are ways to protect them by cleaning and restoring them regularly. To clean car moulding, you can use mild soaps and non-abrasive brushes. If you don’t have a brush, you can also use a soft sponge. Afterwards, wash it off with water and dry it with soft clothes. Finally, you can apply some rubber sealant. They will protect the mouldings from discolouration due to UV rays. Besides that, they also add a bit of a shine to it.
What is a car moulding tape?
Fixing the mouldings on the edges of the panels is easy. You can use clips to hold them in place. But in the case of mouldings that go on areas like door panels, there is no way to fix them other than using glue. Car moulding tapes are two-sided tapes that provide permanent attachment of the moulding to the panel. They are water and weather-resistant and have powerful adhesive quality. But the problem with using tapes to hold mouldings is, that it makes them difficult to replace. And sometimes even damages the paint when you try to remove the tape.
How to remove car moulding tape?
To be honest, it’s a bit tricky. You can sometimes scuff the paint even if you are careful. But you can reduce the chances of it if you follow the right method. Firstly, soak the tape by laying wet clothes around the moulding. This will help reduce the adhesive power of the tape a little bit. After that, scrape the tape with a rubber squeegee. You will be able to find cheap car moulding removers if you look online. Slowly rub the tape without damaging the paint. There will be a bit of residue of the tape on the panel after this. You can wash it off with a soft sponge and soap.
How to restore car moulding?
Regularly cleaning and maintaining car mouldings is the best policy than restoring it. If you wash them often and apply protective coatings, they will last a long time without fading. Once they are faded, it is difficult to bring them back to their original shape, but you can still try a few methods. One of them is by painting over it. But this is not as easy as it involves taking the moulding off the car. The second option is to use the restoring sprays. They won’t give you perfect results, but it is easy and cheap. And they will definitely make the appearance much better.