Hi everybody,

I'm about to start on body work on my Dart, and I'm not sure how to go about removing the side aluminum trim. I have the shop manual, but the illustrations don't tell me everything I want to know:

I can see that there are some studs that hold the trim in place on the ends and other select locations, but there are also nylon clips.

My question is, what is the proper way to remove these nylon clips? Do I squeeze them from behind with plyers and push them through or what? Is there a special tool?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the side trim in my sig pic below. Thanks!

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'68 Dodge Dart 4dr Sedan

The nylon clips will release the trim if you carefully push up or downward on the trim piece and pry the opposite side away from the body. Use only wood or plastic tools to do this, and be gentle, the clips are brittle. The rear trim end pieces can be pushed back to make it easier, and the front fender pieces can be slid forward to make it easier to release the front edges. The door pieces I have never removed, but I suspect its just a matter of unbolting the speed nuts.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

If the nylon clips are like my 64, they have a little peg in the center that you pop out (toward inside of car) with a punch or bolt and that releases tension on the clip and it will pull out. Look on inside of panels to see the peg clearly.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks guys. I will give it a try.

I removed and installed the trim on my 63 V200 when I did the paint.

To remove the trim from the plastic ones, I lifted the trim up from the bottom and then worked it over the clip with a small screwdriver. I put a piece of padding (tool box drawer liner) above the trim so I didn't scratch the paint with the screwdriver. This is sort of a lift up from the bottom and pull out from the top motion.

Be careful not to break the plastic ones. They are no longer available (at least for the 63). I ended up using some universal metal clips everywhere I could access the back side to reinstall the trim. I then used the remaining good clips for the inaccessible body holes.
Good Luck,

John Killin

Got all the trim off of one side so far, including the drip rail mouldings and DART letters. I was originally thinking of powercoating everything that is chrome on the car black (to go with neon green paint and black minilite wheels)...now that I've had a good close look at the aluminum side trim, I might just delete it and paint some stripes down the side. Thanks for the tips.

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'68 Dodge Dart 4dr Sedan