Yauser

Reading Eggroll's post made me want to post this thread.

I'm actually out of town right now but I decided to install the moleskin anyways because I had some down-time. The significance of this is I didn't really have a lot of tools. The phillips screwdriver wasn't long enough to reach the door handle screw and I had to fashion a custom tool. This 45 minute job ended up taking me 4 hours, with nightfall not helping. Trust me, the longer something takes the more frustrating (especially when it is unneccesary) and the more you rage and the more you rage the more you damage your car. In the end I won but now I have cut up fingers that are extremely sore.

Enough blabbing....the biggest pitfall to installing the moleskin is to UNFASTEN THE DOOR PANELS COMPLETELY HORIZONTALLY! I did not have a lot of experience with this and I was figuring things out as I went. If you don't snap off the doors horizontally, some of the plastic clips that hold the panel in place can come off and end up stuck in the door frame. NOW YOU'RE FUCKED! These things are rammed in tighter than Ron Jeremy in a virgin. You can't reaffix the door panel without removing these fasteners, reattaching them to the door panel, and then snapping the door panel back into the door frame. I tried at least 10 different methods ranging from fingers to dental floss to screw drivers. The one that eventually worked was a combination of a snapped off shoe horn to pry the fastener up enough to work my fingers underneath. I'm sure there is a custom tool for doing this but I clearly didn't have one.

Other minor problems include door handle release disconnection (need to snap green holder back in place internally) and wrinkled leather. The side support cushions really crack when you sit directly on them while working on the door.....try to avoid this.

I also noticed that the window liner was really bent out of shape from when the tint installer tucked the edge of the tint into the door. This is probably true for many people who had their tint installed without taking apart the door. I don't see how this is avoidable otherwise and probably contributes to scratching the tint.

Well, I suppose the more sweat and tears you put into your car the more you love it so I guess I figured it all out in the end without any permanent damage. Good luck and sorry for the novel.

jhunter9999

What's a Moleskin?

mastertl

tint

and thanks yauser. i was going to do the tink myself too. maybe now i will rethink it

yano_jl

jhunter9999,

Moleskin is actually a felt material that you install inside the door panel, on the rubber strip(s) so that when rolling a tinted window up or down, the tint film on the inside of the glass is touched only by the felt material. This prevents scratching that could occur otherwise.
Read all about it HERE


Yauser,

I am not an especially mechanical guy, but the installation of the moleskins on my TL was, by far, one of the easiest and quickest "mods" i have ever done.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REMOVE THE DOOR PANEL!

I bought pre-cut, pre-glued moleskin strips from a user on this forum named: flnsx. He sells a kit that can be found HERE .

The kit came with clear and illustrated (pics) instructions to do the installation without the removal of the door panel. It was awesome.
With the windows rolled down, the vinyl padding on the inside of the window slit literally pulls up and back, exposing the rubber to be moleskinned. I took the rubber right out, applied the moleskin, and returned the rubber to the rail on which it sits.

Just push the vinyl pad back in place. There are no clips or bolts; it is called a "friction fit" in the instructions. No tools. 15 minutes. Windows roll up and down smoooooooth.

aGenKa

moleskin is the felt that protects the tints against scratching from your tl. w/o it, it is likely that your tints will scratch

edit
haha yano you beat me by a minute

Yauser

SON OF A BIZOTCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well, I suppose I gave myself an education on the mechanics of a car door. The instructions I received stated I need to remove the door panel.

BTW, did you notice how the moleskin only covers the upper half of the liner?

flnsx

Thanks for the support Yano!

I'm glad we all worked together and found a way to install the Mole skin without removing the door panels. I am now including this methods as well as the original removal of door panel method in my instructions!

Take care!

Lore

I remember it took me something like 4 hours to put my rear seat back in (I had so much trouble finding the damn holes that the bolts went into) and ended up with sore fingers, a sore back, and sore arms from the cramped up position I was in for 4 hours.

Congrats on figuring out the door, though

hidenfromtherest

I just had my windows tinted a couple of weeks ago. So i let him know about the tint scratching. He then called around and figured out why it was doing that. What he found out was that when the tinters folds over the weather stripping to put the tint in it breaks so when they fold it back the weather stripping is broken and has jagged edges that scratch the tint. So what my tint guy did was just cut the film right along the weather stripping making it so he did not have to bend and crack the weather stripping. So far no scratches and i've rolled them up and down 100s of times. And the best part no worries about the mole skin eventually peeling off etc.

zeezz

Actually another reason the tint is getting scrathced is because little bits of "stuff" such as sand from the beach gets stuck in the weatherstripping and then scratches the tint (like my windows)> i originally thought i had no problem but this didn't happen till i went somewhere with stuff that actually could get into my weatherstripping. Anyway, going to instsall moleskin soon as i got some for free from our resident cvajs.

rets

Out of curiosity, if sand could get stuck in the weatherstripping, doesn't sand get stuck into moleskin?

flnsx

It does but the mole skin's fibers absorb the grit so it won't scratch the tint. The tight seal on the windows prevents any big particles from getting in the door panel.

It is kind of like a nice wool wash mitt. All the dirt and grim get absorbed so they won't damage your clear coat.

techguy

When you get your car tinted and the shop removes your door panel, make sure to check the door operation from the inside. The inside door handle connects via a cable which can either come off when they are re-installing the panel. Make sure the you can open the door from the inside before you leave. I had to drive back to my shop to have it fixed. It took him 10 minutes to fix it.

Brokedoc

I did the felt this weekend via the shortcut method and I must admit that it's easy to do for the front windows but you end up with with wrinkled trim where the door panel was stretched and pulled.

For the back windows, I did one and it is much tighter and harder to get out. I ended up breaking a plastic clip accidently when I pulled back the panel to slip out the rubber squeegees. I was thinking of removing the entire panel to do the other rear window but now I have to think twice if the plastic clips are really that hard to deal with.

Yauser

I would take off the entire door panel and replace the broken clip. These ensure the door fits tight and your cars fit and finish will be sub-standard if some of the clips are unattached. Read my earlier post so that it you know what to watch for

Brokedoc

Do dealers sell the plastic clips? I was kicking myself when I broke the clip. I don't hear any extra rattles yet but I'm expecting it.

There was a post in another thread with a scanned page from the service manual about door panel removal. On the left page of the scan the manual specifically says to avoid creasing or folding the panel when removing. I think that if I use these instructions, I should be able to get the last door panel off to apply the felt without any more broken clips.

rylwlf

I have had my tint done twice now, it seems like more of an issue with the inside of the door as opposed to the weatherstripping. The dealer keeps telliing me that it is because the window is fixed so tight against the interior of the door that when it rolls down the "sound absorbing filling" will scratch the window. This past weekend I noticed more scratching on my second job, I am at a bit of an end with this whole thing. Is the moleskin mod easy to do or is there more of an issue with the car doors not really allowing tint to happen?

flnsx

The Mole skin mode comes with two sets of directions. One that require no tools and the other that involves removing the door panels.

One is a 15 minute job and the other is about an hour and a half.

Both are easy.

It's the door seal blade that is scratching your tint. When dirt gets in-between it and the window it scratches.

The mole skin prevents that. I have had it on my car for over 6 months and I don't have one scratch.

Order below. Its cheep and easy.

cvajs

it's a industry name for "felt", used alot on display cases for glass to slide on.

it's used on the TL applied to the rubber wipes that rub the glass on the inside, help protect against tint scratching. if you get tint and your wipes are not felted you'll need moleskin, i sell it for "free" just search forum for "free moleskin".

DFBRL8R

The Hedgehog referenced in a post about Moleskins Pretty funny

Brokedoc

I finally got around to taking a pic of my wrinkled trim. I don't remember it being like this before I did the stretching. Also, I parked so the angle of the sun hits "just right" - it usually doesn't look this obvious. Look at the "bubbling" just above the aluminum strip.
[IMG][/IMG]

flnsx

Yes,

That can happen if you don't remove the door panels. That is why I include both directions in the kit.

I think if you are real careful you can avoid the creasing.

yano_jl

That doesn't look too good doc. Did you have a rough time removing the trim? It looks like you may have wrestled it a bit.

You're not, by any chance, a surgeon, are you doc?

When I used the shortcut method, I only peeled the trim back a little bit. Once I could get a hold of the rubber inside, I slid the rubber out so that I did not have to peel the trim back very far. The rubber sits on metal rails, so that it could, and does, slide. I think this maybe where you ran into trouble. I am no expert, but I can tell you that following the illustrated instructions that flnsx provided resulted in a flawless, scratch free installation.

The truth is I atually used 2 tools in the shortcut process.
1) Scissors to cut the moleskin strip(s)
2) A pair of needle nose pliers just to grab hold of the rubber once I had the trim peeled back. I did this gently. Once I grabbed the rubber, it was hands only from then on.

Brokedoc

NOW YOU TELL ME?!?!

No, I'm not a surgeon. If I were, I'd slit my own throat.

Any way to fix this?

yano_jl

Sorry doc. I'm not trying to withhold info from you... I surely didn't foresee your plight. I would have thrown you a lifeline much earlier had I known.

jjsC5

This is one of the funniest threads I've seen in a while.

Okay - not that funny. Why? Because I didn't know about this foreskin stuff when I got my window tinted, and now I'm starting to see scratches. I guess I'll have to get some of that moldy stuff to put on mine.

Brokedoc

Ummm....wrong skin. Wouldn't work in this situation. Too much friction with the windows going up and down.

yano_jl

Great idea... use foreskin.

Then you can just stroke the door panel and the windows will go up on their own.

Or, hold up a picture of Roseanne barr and watch the windows go back down.

DFBRL8R

Brokedoc

Back on topic,

I finished my 4th window today by taking the entire door panel off and I must admit that it's a very easy process. If I had known that taking the door panel off was this easy, I would never have tried the "short cut" which resulted in the bubbling of my trim.

Keep in mind that you need to remove the 4 screws first, pull the bottom and side edges of the panel straight away from the door to separate all of the plastic clips, then lift the entire door panel up to "unhinge" the top edge from the lip.

Piece of cake. No bubbled trim from stretching/bending the liner. No broken clips.