Nice job, but you would have been better off removing the wipers and cowls (easy to do). As for the weather strips, I considered painting them as mine are starting to fade but due to being rubber coated it will still eventually come off. I opted to buy new ones for $230 (full set).
The weather strips you bought, would they be the Karuma ones? What do you think of the finish on them?
I have just installed the Kuruma window trim and you would not pick it from OEM. As far as the roof trim goes, I have installed the windscreen bits, 2 short bits behind the T tops, and a new T hook. Still have the targas to do. The new roof trim is more like a dark grey matt finish (like rubber) as opposed to a satin black. Fitting new makes a BIG difference to the overall look, and should last another 15 - 20 years if looked after.
Thanks for that SIM300. I did the same as Pregz and bought the Kuruma kit from CZP. ( I was told that the OEM stuff was unavailable at the time ) About those matte grey top mouldings - were there 2 different types of coatings used on the top mouldings for different years? I've seen a number of Zeds which have satin black top mouldings.
I think as the rubber coating dries out over the years it gets thinner, darkens and becomes more like plastic than rubber.
Good on you Liam, well done. And ignore the naysayers who tell you they could do it better I heard you were spending a fair bit of coin on the mechanicals of your Zed atm so a cheap temporary bit of cosmetic work is a good call. You can always buy new trim bits later on. And tbh I would prefer the look of that paint on my upper mouldings, I don't like the matte grey rubber of the new ones.
why didn't you sand the wipers/cowels back? or remove them? you can obviously see flaking and when you paint over it, it shows layers.. looks cheap and nasty. the amount of time you spent masking everything up you could've removed the stuff and done it properly.
Cheers Mick, it's the internet and I'm far from good at this stuff, so there was always going to be stuff I could do better. Yeah spent a fair bit recently getting a fair few things up to scratch, running brilliantly again now, I did let the maintanence slip for awhile.
Did you bother sanding back your windscreen wipers at all? I've just removed mine and taken the blades off to spray the arms and am trying to decide whether or not to sand them down. What's the coverage/thickness like on the parts that had scratched through to the metal, compared to the parts that still had paint? Cheers mate, Tom
I didn't, but should have The coverage is fine, the colour looks correct without sanding, but I can see a small ridge where the boundary between the metal and painted section is when up close, so I'd say sand it back
I just did this today. Looks shmick as but we'll see how it holds up in the weather. Thanks for the idea!
I just did all three wipers a week ago. I used a rotary wire brush to get them back to bare metal then sprayed them satin black and fitted the new wiper blades from the group buy. Also did the front cowls.:zlove:
I've done this several times. Main issue I've had is that the paint eventually comes off (particularly the wipers.. cowls tend to be alright). Definitely easier pulling wipers off than taping up the car though. Bought some nice new Karuma moulds etc for the car though, so they should be good once I get around to putting them on.
I'm spraying my wipers tomorrow, did you have to get replacement clips for the cowls? Tech article said to get one somewhere Did you prep the cowls with any sanding or anything either? That's my job for tomorry I reckon!
Yep had to do a lot of sanding and then sprayed with primer/filler grey paint. I still didn't get all the roughness off the cowls but they look better than white! The biggest problem I had was that the passenger side cowl was broken off above the battery. I sikaflexed some thin metal underneath the cowl and joined it that way. I just reused the old clips; spray painted them too.
