Side body moulding fitted

[continentalgt]

A common trait with the cc is car park dings on the ridge of the doors and rear wings, I looked at 5 or 6 cars before buying one and all of them had this to some degree. The one I bought was by far the best but it still annoyed me whenever I polished the car that from certain angles you could see slight dings, dents and the odd touched in paint chips along the ridges, those with dark colored cars will notice this much more. Now the bodywork on my car is better than most and most of the time you couldn't see them as they are minor but it probably represented 75% of all body imperfections on the car. I'm one of those people that when using a car park think carefully about where to park and take into account things like is the car next to me a 2 door, does it have a child seat in the back, is it beaten up and uncared for etc etc, some of you will know exactly what I mean and yes I know I'm sad. The reason that the CC picks up these dings is because there is no flex on the ridge as there is on the flat parts of the panels so a minor impact causes damage also the ridge seems to be the widest part of the car if you don't take into account the wheel arches. I thought long and hard on how to remove or hide the dings and also prevent further damage and found a side body moulding on a roll on a well known website. The moulding is 18mm x 4mm, has a chrome insert and cost £24 delivered. I wasn't sure what it would look like or how it would sit on the ridge, I stuck with 18mm as it would easily cover any damage and being narrow would stand the best chance of fitting on the uneven surface, it's also in keeping with the window rubbers above.
Having now fitted them I'm actually rather pleased with the look of them, they fitted over the ridge better than I could have hoped for and have broken up that massive door panel nicely. I personally think it's also added to the overall styling, obviously it's a personal thing and I'm sure others may disagree but there's no denying it has successfully hidden the damage for which I am really very pleased.

[Stranger]

I think that looks well and really suits the car, as you say it breaks up that massive door very nicely, congrats

[Draggon]

I like it....but what does the ends look like...are they easy to finish?

And more importantly...where did you buy them from?

Sorry for all the questions...we have Bright Red CC

[robm]

I don't think your sad, I will always park other side of supermarket car parks, even will park in 2 space's at times. our other car is Citroen C4GP 4 years old, which I purchased last year and is totally unmarked/WAS.....
had giving it a polish, was thinking to myself with a smile how pleased I was with the C4GP and still unmarked,, well, we went to cinema next day,,,,,, sure you know what I'm going to say, when I came back there was a Ding in the door, could clearly see it was from the car which had parked next to me, to say I was angry was a understatement, if I could have picked that car up it would be on the other side of that car park upside down............. Back to you CC

The more I look at it, the better it looks, well done, that really works, I showed pictures to my wife and now she asked me to do the same on her CC, Think I need to go down the road of painting the moulding same as body colour as our CC is Blue Pearlescent, done think chrome will work on ours.

Car mouldings seem to be big in the states with lot of web sites here is one https://www.trim-gard.com/photogallery.asp
is this your moulding on eBay! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8372-Car-Body ... 2c645a8aa2
Rob

[continentalgt]

Robm yes it is the one on Ebay If you see the sellers other items there are other mouldings although the wider they are the more difficult it will be to fit over the ridge. My photos show the moulding as grey but it is black, just the light and camera I guess. I also wanted a plain black moulding but I couldn't find any, as you say there seem to be lots available form the states but not in the UK. The chrome in the centre is just foil and can with a little effort be peeled off, I tried a small section but felt that the chrome would be in keeping with the silver wheels and door handle.

Draggon the ends are easily cut with a junior hacksaw and I dressed them up easily with a sharp file, most of the cuts were straight but I did angle the cut at the rear to around 45 degrees. The moulding did what you could see on both sides of the car and I ended up with 700mm left over. The actual fitting consisted of cleaning the area to be covered with white spirits to remove the polish then drying thoroughly. Cut the moulding to the desired lengths and clean up the ends, I left a 10mm gap (which is plenty of room) between the front of the door and the front wing to make sure the moulding didn't catch the wing as the door pivots open. The trickiest part is getting the trim on straight, it sticks like the proverbial so I cut strips of masking tape and stuck them to the door 9mm up from the center line of the ridge on the door and wing at about 125mm spacing and then lined up the edge of the moulding to the edge of the masking tape. I found that if you pull off the backing tape and let the moulding kiss the door lightly you can carefully remove and adjust it if necessary, the best way to check straightness is to frequently look along the side of the car while fitting.