kthlex

I ordered the side moldings, front underbody spoiler, rear diffuser, and the rear bumper applique. Great deal from Curry Acura w/ 3 day shipping. I'm going to have a busy weekend! I had sent my local dealer sales guy an email for the side moldings and he never responded - bad for them, good for Curry.

I'm not worried about the bumper installs but I am worried about getting the side moldings on correctly and even. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to get a good install of these door side moldings?

sasair

Just follow the acura directions. I think they have you lay a template out on your car before you stick the molding on, so you'll see where they are gonna be.

c_hunter

The moldings come with cardboard templates, that rest on top of the lower cladding. Then the moldings rest on top of the template. It's fairly easy to work with.

A couple notes of caution:

I did not notice it until it was too late, but the front door and back door were either not perfectly lined up, or the front/back templates were slightly different. The end result is that on the passenger side (first side I installed on), one of the moldings is higher than the other by about 1/16-1/8", visible where the two doors meet. When I got to the driver's side, I double checked everything and ended up tweaking one of the templates so that they both lined up. So don't take it for granted that the templates/doors are perfect -- make sure they are lined up before sticking the moldings on. I guess I am lucky that 1/16-1/8" is noti very noticeable on dark paint. It's just barely small enough not to trigger my automotive obcessive compulsive disorder

The alcohol wipes they include with the moldings (one wipe for each door) were kind of dry. I noticed that when wiping off the first door, and it actually left scratches. For each of the following doors, I poured some additional iso alcohol onto the wipes and dried the area with a micro fiber towel afterwards.

The front to back positioning marks on the templates are somewhat hard to interpret, and the marks are only on one side, so when you flip the templates for the othe side of the vehicle, you have to pen in the marks. But don't bother with the marks. Each molding should be installed so that its square end is about 1mm (going from memory) from the gap between front and back doors. I believe this dimension is called out in the instructions. It's easier to eyeball the spacing than to try and line up with the marks on the templates.

Finally, one of the front door moldings had a "high" spot on the backside that would have kept the adhesive from sticking to the end of the door. I trimmed the high spot with a utlility knife prior to putting the molding on. So before peeling the tape, check the back of the moldings to make sure the adhesive strips rise above the plastic of the molding, and shave down any high spots. The adhesive strips will stick out about half a mm beyond the edge of the molding -- just enough so that you can push the moldings on but it hides the adhesive from the outside.

Don't let my detail-freak notes scare you. It really is an easy install. There are just a couple things to check on to make sure the moldings go on perfectly. Easy installs like this are usually where I get too comfortable and overlook simple details -- like the front and back templates not lining up. So check everything over well and do a "dry fit" before peeling the tape!

kthlex

Thanks a bunch! Just the kind of heads up I was hoping for. I've got a busy weekend ahead... parts are due in a day early!

I'm going to take before / after pics from the same angle's so that we can have a good reference for anyone interested in the profile changes these accessories make.