HOW-TO: Shave Side-Moldings/MS3 Emblem

Equinox

Daddy Warbucks
Contributor
:
09 370Z Nismo
Hey guys I previously made a how to, to remove the side moldings way back when for the protege5, and figured I'd do it again for the Mazdaspeed3/Mazda3.

Here we go!

What you will need:

1 x 3M Adhesive Remover
1 x Bondo Putty Knife
1 x Paper Towel Roll
4 x Kitchen Garbage bags
1 x Awesome Meguiars Car Wax (Love the smell)
1 x Roll of Painters Tape
1 x Bottle of Windex

shave01.jpg


Note in this picture I forgot a couple things I have on the list, however, it does give you a good idea of what the 3M adhesive remover looks like, as well as the putty knife. I bought the 3M stuff in the paint section of a local automotive parts store, next to the rice parts aisle, lol.


First thing you want to do is take your 3M adhesive remover and make a small punture in it, so you can sprinkle the stuff, instead of pour it all over your car.

shave02.jpg


Now, you will need to run a length of painters tape along the bottom edge of your door guard. When you put it on, however, you want to leave the bottom edge of it not stuck against the car. Then take one of your garbage bags and rip it down along the seam on both sides, so you have a straight edge, and slide the edge up into the bottom edge of the tape, hanging it down like a curtain over your rocker panel/side skirts. The reason for this is so you don't let the adhesive remover drip down into the seam of your side skirts, possibly loosening them, as they are also held on by adhesive along the edges. Then, put about four inches of tape along the top edge of the door guard, at the tapered portion, so you have something to rest the putty knife on, when pulling up the guard.

shave03.jpg


Next, sprinkle your 3m adhesive remover along the top of the guard, letting it run down into the door guard, seaping into the double sided tape. I let the 3m stuff work for about 3 minutes before I started working on it again. Take your putty knife, and clean off any plastic burrs, that might cause small scratches in your clear. Then, take the tip of the knife and slip it up under the tapered edge of the door guard, and pull up the first inch, just enough to give you a handle to grab. Then, without the putty knife, grab the edge you pulled up, and pull it the rest of the way, pealing it off the car.

shave04.jpg


Majority of the doublesided tape should come off. My car was only a month old just about, when I did this, but it worked just as well on my protege5 when I had it for 6 months, before trying this. This is what wil be left behind.

shave05.jpg


Using your fingernail, scrape away the large excess adhesive, then, 8" sections at a time, take a square folded peice of paper towel, and sprinkle along 8" of remaining adhesive, wiping excess remover on your towel, then in small circles, 'wax off' the adhesive. If you work in 8" sections or smaller, with the remover, it should come away having done this routine once or twice.

shave06.jpg


Your tape may leave some adhesive behind, so I just used windex to do the final clean up.

shave07.jpg


All you have left to do is wax the panel, so the drying behavior matches the rest of the car, and there will be no trace it was ever there. You can apply this same tactic to the rear Mazdaspeed3 emblem. Unfortunately the Mazda3 emblem has holes behind it, so don't try this, with the Mazda3 emblem.

shave08.jpg

shave09.jpg
 
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Can someone verify that the mazda3 has the same side moldings as the mazdaspeed3?
 
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Equinox said:
Can someone verify that the mazda3 has the same side moldings as the mazdaspeed3?


in the last picture it looks like a blue 3 in the right missing the door moldings, so i would guess yes.
 
BlackJack said:
Do you know if you can take out the Flying M emblem in the middle?

Has two holes behind it, so I wouldn't suggest it. You'd have to weld in the holes then repaint the panel.

Also yes that's MP3Girly's MP3, not a blue mazda3. MP3s don't come with sidemoldings.
 
Equinox said:
Has two holes behind it, so I wouldn't suggest it. You'd have to weld in the holes then repaint the panel.

Also yes that's MP3Girly's MP3, not a blue mazda3. MP3s don't come with sidemoldings.
yeah i thought that dropped mp3 looked familiar. so your speed3 is here in h-town then eh? man better bring her out next time your in town.
 
MP3Architect said:
yeah i thought that dropped mp3 looked familiar. so your speed3 is here in h-town then eh? man better bring her out next time your in town.

I live on an Army base in Alabama, sorry :<
I deploy to Iraq in June as well, so I won't be back for a lil' while.
 
can you take a shot of the ms3 angled from the side with the entire car in the shot? i wanna see how it looks from a slight distance.
 
Nice How-to. I'm no longer scared to try it myself. :)
 
i removed my side moldings and speed badge.. but i didnt use any glue remover and it worked extremely well. all i did was get a piece of paper, slip it as far under what i was removing as possible and then took a pocket knife, got under it with the paper protecting the paint, pulled up till i could get my finger under it, and pulled. came right off without any tape left on the car. i think when you use the glue remover you actually separate some of it from the molding and thats why there was leftovers on the door. when i was done all i had were very think lines of dirt where the moldings use to be.. took some car wash concentrate on a rag and rubbed the sides down.. perfect.
 
Even better. I'll try that first and get down and dirty with the solvents only if needed. The fewer solvents I expose my black paint to, the better.
 
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Equinox said:
copy cat. Damn all of you for having black speeds as well.

(p5black) (p5black) (p5black) (band2) (p5black)
 
okay soo this is really off subject but i have a ?......can you spray paint the plastic covers over the engine, and the battery and it be okay?....i dont want it too peel under heat...if anyone has tried it, or knows that it would be okay...please reply thanks?
 
I removed the side moldings the other day in about 48 seconds.

i grabbed a zip tie, made a loop, slipped it under the edge and pulled. then I grabbed it with my hand and ripped it off.... no glue, nothing.

Easy.
 
Spray water on it tho and it will dry different than the rest of the car, make sure to wax the area
 
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