HOW TO: Remove side rub strips

[Yohan]

Well after reading through some threads today about this there seemed to be a lot of people saying it's taken them hours to do. This confused me a bit because I did this on my old Golf and it really couldn't be easier.

Sooo I thought I'd take pictures of the process I used on the Fabia. For reference my car is a black vrs 2004 model.

Hope it helps.

So this is what you start with, a standard rub strip.

Next step is to start heating the edge of the strip. I did this for about a minute or so using a hair dryer. Just make sure to keep moving it around so your not concentrating on the same area.

Once it's hot, get a piece of dental floss and using a sawing motion to cut through the glue about as far as you can see in the picture.

The next step is to slide some type of card in behind the strip. Again work it in about as far as you can see in the picture below. At the same time as the card is behind it, pull it towards you slightly.

Now that you've done this, it should give you enough of an edge to start pulling the strip off. I can't stress the following enough - Pull it SLOWLY

The slower you pull it, the more glue that will come off with the strip and not stay on the car. This will make life so much easier for you.

Et Voila

As you can see, all that's left behind is just some dust/mud and a tiny trace of glue.

To remove any pieces of glue that do remain I used a pressure washer. This is the quickest way to get any glue off, just be careful not to hold it against the paint for too long.

Now for the final stages, I gave it a rub down with a petrol on a cloth to dissolve any remaining traces of glue. After this I gave it a wash again to remove the petrol. I then used T-Cut followed by another wash. Finally to finish I gave it a polish to protect the paint again.

Cheers,

John

[Lukefvrs]

top guide fella, just followed this myself!

[Titanium_Man]

Great guide there Yohan (and just realised how long it's been here :p )

This has come at a perfect time as looking at getting these painted... does anyone know what type of glue/fixing method is best for putting these back on?

[Volvomeg]

You will destroy them getting them off, so when you have to get new ones and they come with sticky already attached or should do,

Get one of these to remove glue

[Titanium_Man]

You will destroy them getting them off, so when you have to get new ones and they come with sticky already attached or should do,

Get one of these to remove glue

oh... wasn't banking on them being ruined by being taken off....might need to re-think then!

cheers dude, appreciate the reply

[Eskimo]

Could you re-upload the photos? Be a great help.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[Souldriver]

pics aren't there now. are they no holes behind strip then? I got old there was ,?