Any advice on W123 lower body trim pieces?
 

All,

How do you handle the lower body trim pieces when you repaint the car? It seems like they should be removed, paint applied and then the pieces re-installed. But every one of these pieces that I've removed is not re-installable; the metal pieces tear from the rubber; things just seem to self-destruct.

So what do people do? Can you buy new pieces? If they self-destruct when I pull them from my car then I assume that they do the same thing at a P-N-P.

Is there a way to remove these without destroying them?

The pieces on the front doors have a 8mm head nut on them - so don't forget about that.

I've not had any trouble removing my trim - but then I guess it was taken on and off several times before I got the car!

From my experience with removing these types of parts, the plastic fasteners tend to fall apart. I've never been to successfully remove and reuse them.

Anyways, I would replace them with new to make sure that they are tight. You do not want to lose your panels!

The other issue I've had is when bodywork was done, and the guage of the metal or repair was to thick for the fasteners to work. They tend to hold by expanding past the sheetmetal, and if the material is too thick then they easily pop out.

hope that this helps.

They're more like rubber than plastic so they're pretty sturdy. Just pry carefully and you should be fine.