today i carefully installed my moleskin and put back the wiper molding to my front doors. here's some info i can share to all (rear info to come shortly).

you can use a semi-shortcut for getting at the wiper molding location. you have to remove a few screws, pop a few panel clips, and not remove the door panel from the door.

behind the door handle is a small door, look at it carefully, there's a small retention hinge on the lower left side (example of drivers door). with small pick (tooth pick, whatever) pry that latch to remove that screw cover panel.

next remove the 2 screws that you see in there.

then remove the screw/bumper from the door edge (there's only one, you cant miss it).

now, near the place where that bumper was, there is one door clip just above and below that location. get your fingers under the door panel lip near each location and short yank the door panel till you feel/hear them pop.

there's another on the bottom near middle of door, and another located just near where you see the side view mirror attach to body.

once you pop those clips the door panel will still stay on the door, but now you have some slack to kinda lift door panel while at the same time CAREFULLY lifting the top door panel trim up and over the top panel lip. lift and move that top trim piece just enough to get at the molding.

now you can moleskin.

install everything in reverse order. gently palm hammer over the door panel clip locations to return them back to position.


i also noticed something about the moleskin on the wipers. i cut my upper wipe moleskin to 1/4" width, this allows the lower wipe to fold in & under the top wipe just as it did without moleskin (there were some posts about the wipes being too thick with moleskin on). two 1/2" pices work, but i noticed that the bottome wipe's top edge when folded in would nestle into the bottom edge of the upper wipe's moleskin, so to avoid any possibility of the lower wipe getting caught by moleskin above i just used 1/4" for upper wipe.

my descriptions should not need pics, but if enough requests come in i'll snap a few and photoshop it to illustrate the locations.

well, hope this was helpful.

 

Take some pictures...

 

due to popular demand, here's one pic the illustrates some key locations (clip locations are approx).

the idea is, you loosen the door panel so you can easily get the top part to lift up and over the molding lip.

WINDOW MUST BE DOWN

 

thanks...more points for you

edit: except it won't let me cus i already added you for the free moleskin...haha

 

Thanks for the picture and the report of your experience.

I can and did give you rep points. Lots.

 

more pictures... These are great... or just come over and install mine for me...

 

here are 2 pics that show how/why i made upper wipe moleskin narrower. the actual width is a tad under 3/8". 1/4" to 3/8" will work.

 

thanks for the pics!!

 

CVAJS,

Thanks for the detailed instructions and great pictures with text additions! Great job.
With your post, I am confident I do this mod now. Rep points for you!

 

Just a quick warning -

cvajs has done an excellent job documenting his process which is halfway between the full removal of the door panel and the faster short-cut method. However, I must still caution people regarding the "stretching" of the trim on the panel. cvajs noted in another thread that he also experienced a mild form of this "stretching".

There was a whole other thread on the wrinkling of the trim. This is what I'm talking about:

Most noticeable when the light hit the door at just the right angle.

If I'm reading cvajs' procedure correctly, the only difference between his method and the full removal of the door panel is the remaining 2 screws on the door. If I were to do it over again, I'd just remove the extra 2 screws and do the job right.

 

I TOO ADVOCATE A FULL PANEL REMOVAL

from my directions, the bumber is the 3rd screw, the 4th and last screw is under the door pull, just above the door pocket holder, and below the window up/down switch. i'll update my pic (so see 2ns post) .

also VERY IMPORTANT, 2 things can go wrong when you try to pop the door panel clips.

1. they can stay lodged in the door and the panel pops off of the clip. easy fix if you have the door panel all the way off, just use needele nose pliers and gently grap the neck of the clip and pry it out of the door and place it back onto the door panel.

2). the edge of the door panel is some places is thin and cannot take stress well. try to wedge your fingers way inside the panel to distribute the force over a thicker part of the panel.

 

These are excellent pictures with excellent labeling. It clears up issues from several different threads.

I'm going to make it a "Sticky" for a while and then it will become part of knowledge bank in the garage section.

XP

 

AWESOME PIX. Points for you.

 

ok folks, let me clarify the removal of the door panel.

1) I STRONGLY RECOMMEND COMPLETE REMOVAL OF THE DOOR PANEL (use shortcut only if you are a Pro at it). once panel popped and lifted you can with one hand hold the door panel and with other hand pull out the wiper channel. then simply hook the lip of the door panel back onto the top part of the door, it will hang there until you put moleskin on.

2) do one door at a time completely.

3) the rear doors are done exactly the same way as the fronts.

4) when re-installing the rear door panel it is tricky to get the lock pull to get back into the panel hole. use a long thin screwdriver to get behind the panel and guide the lock pull back into position while you lower the door panel (hold screwdriver horizontal).

5) if it's a DIY for you, i suggest starting with rear doors, this gives you a place to get familiar with the procedure, and go slow.

6) the screw under the door pull goes in at a upward angle, slightly less than 45 degree. i 1st tried to go straight it with screwdriver but quickly learned that it's on a angle.

cheers.

 

1. oh btw, remove the wipe moldings before going to your tinter. this will allow s/he to cut the film low on the glass without worrying about the wipe being in the way.

2. then, let your tint dry, then simply roll down the windows and re-install the wipes.

3. and a correction. my 2nd post (with inside of door pic) says "window must be down", the window should remain up if you already have tint on and just now doing moleskin. you can still easily remove the wipe with window up.

4. if you need to pry out a panel clip, use needle node pliers and use a long thick round-shafted screwdriver to use as a pry-wedge so you can easily leverage the clip out. it's like a strip of wood laying over a rolling pin. if you dont use pry wedge it becomes almost impossible to leverage out the panel clip.

simple.

oh another btw, moleskin gets rid of the sqeaky window syndrome when it rolls up/down

cheers

 

Good pictures! Nice one.

 

I have been back to my tinter 3 times trying to make it right. I keep getting glue streaks on the inside of the windows. This last time he used wider mole skin to wrap around the wiper thinking that the edge of the skins are streaking the glue on the window. One of his attempts the skin came loose and came up with the window. He claims he has worked on dozens of TL'S and no one has had problems. I have a call into the owner of the company demanding a full refund ($140.00) I have posted this same problem and I appologize for the duplication ...but I am desperate for some kind of answers...Is it the moleskin he is using? is it my car? Is my car jinkxed???? aaaaaaaaaaaaaarggggg

 

the sticky part of moleskin simply WILL NOT STREAK anything (well, at least the stuff i use). if the sticky part grabs onto something it will simply stick.

are you doing moleskin before or after the tint?? are you sure it's glue streaks and not maybe some grease or something that may be down inside the door ?? i noticed that the cable for the door latch comes real close to touching the window.

i dont think there is any ill side affects of wrapping each wiper (but it may squish the wipers too much), but i looked at it closely and saw no reason to do such.

is it on all 4 windows ?? more details and pics please.

 

thanks man - this help a lot. I'm going to try this tomorrow and report back.

 

Sorry I have no pictures. Attempt #1 car was tinted then film was scratched..had felt installed with old scratched film on window. Had new film installed, in 2 days noticed streaks on film, 2days later felt cam off and was wedged between glass and inside of door.
Attempt #2 tinter reinstalled all felt on all doors. Noticed streaks again, cleaned windows of streaks 3 to 4 times within a month and a half. Attempt #3 tinter reinstalled all felt again, noticed narrow streaks and a streak about 1/2 in wide on the passenger rear window. toward the front of the door. I have a hell of a time cleaning the streaks off. I would think if it was grease it would come off easily. Maybe I should get the felt from the guy from the tl group and have the installers try his felt.

 

Those look like thumb indents from pushing too hard when putting the rest of your fingers inside the door sill and pulling up. I started to have 2 small prints like that on my drivers door panel, so I quickly stopped and massaged them back out then tried again. When pulling up on the door panel, you don't need to push too hard with your thumbs or else... (above).

 

... it is really hard to 'stretch' this material considering the direction we are pulling the door panels, but still take heed that it is really easy to damage the foam underneath that gives cosmetic structure of which the material is glued to.

 

since the material is stuck to the foam like cement, when you begin to bend the upper molding down to get over the lip the stress created on the piece travel right up that bottom edge and wrinkle the material. it's like like a stretch, i think it's the material pulling away slightly from the under-foam base.

 

no matter what the door panel needs to be removed or at least partially removed to remove the wiper molding, correct?

 

removing just the 2 screws behind door latch handle will allow you to lift the panel high enough to remove the wipe, but this is strongly not recommended as you risk wrinkling the material.

 

lots of good info in this thread!