I see a lot of nice cars here pretty often, but I notice that many of us have not restored the hatch glass trim. Has anyone done this or plan to do this? I sure know I want to... the rusty, peeling black look just doesn't do it for me.

 

i just sanded the areas where the paint was actually chipping, sanded some minor rust spots smooth, and sprayed w/ duplicolor....took maybe 15 minutes and looks great

 

got any pics?

 

i was going to pull some off mine spare hatch, but i didnt...

 

no my digi camera isn't working now....i sprayed the entire trim though, not just the problem areas, because you could tell where i had put on the new paint. i just sanded the problem areas, masked it off, and used duplicolor flat black...if i can get my camera working i'll snap a pic

 

fixed mine years ago when it was the original color. however its starting to rust again so i plan to do it soon. just sand and paint, i did it in my garage; much better then going through the hassle of doing it in a booth. it looks and works just as nice.

i have no real close ups unfortunately...

 

well I didn't exactly restore mine but I did scrap off all the rust and painted it over in a semi gloss black, looks a bit better than the greyish rusty finish before. I might have a pic and upload it later.

 

I am currenty doing this now. I just sanded half of it, and have it smooth. I SHOULD paint it tomorrow, if nothing is going on. Like said above, just sand it, tape off the glass and put newspaper over the quarter panel, and have at it.

It will look better than with the rust.

 

I'm thinking of putting POR-15 on as a base and then painting it... that should keep that rust from coming back, I think.

 

i havent had this problem , 55xxx miles and no winters and garage storage has done wonders for the car. But i have to do it with the defrosterless hatch i just picked up . Just sand prime and paint.

 

In the process

 

Yeah I'll be doing this soon as well...

 

haha, that's too funny. Your setup looks vaguely familiar to mine.






Yeah yeah, I know I posted 4 pictures, but I didn't think there would be a huge response for this one so I gave myself permission.

I have more shots of the car if you would like to see them.

 

Are you guys just fixing the top, or are you going all the way around the trim, to the bottom? I would think that for a straight-up resto of it, you would need to take the hatch off the car and do it. I'm sure that would be a lot easier in the long run.

IF YOU HAVE 5 PEOPLE TO HELP

 

I've done it. It makes a big difference too. Just sand it down a little bit, clean it. I used flat black model paint to paint it. I put it on with a brush.

Looks good over 2 years later.

 

The trim around the glass had some surface rust on it. I papered it off so that I could give it a light sanding, priming and painting. To be honest, the whole process took all of maybe 3 hours to do... which is def. easier than taking that heavy hatch off.

 

But doesn't the trim go all the way around to the underside of the glass? Are you painting that part too? This is what TZF is saying about taking the hatch off... it'd be a bitch to paint the underside with the hatch open. You'd have to mask the whole rear interior too.

 

yes it does a little bit, but I didn't have any rust under there and it looked good enough to me not to do anything to it. I also put a coat of clear on top of the paint. So far so good, no rust returned.

 

that's the first thing i did when i got the car. here's a little variation from the other replies though....for the paint...they sell spray cans of "black trim paint" at automotive stores, but what i found to have a better (more stock-like, longer lasting) finish is the spray paint made for BBQ grills. seriously. i've used it on wiper arms and the antennae as well. like a charm.

evan.

 

So where is the final pic with all the paper off???

Anyone ever do or think of doing a contrast color?

 

I used a can of primer and a can of flat black spray paint. I took a chance with the flat black and I really like it.



and, no not really.

P.S. I know... I hate the downpipe too, hopefully I will be getting rid of it soon.

 

anyone replaced or restored the 4 bolts that hold the hatch on the hinge? i am missing one of the covers on one of them and it's all rusted up. any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Hatch off-took 2 of us and a clothes prop to hold it open while we got our fingers underneath! Then bare metalled both sides, followed by etch primer and satin black. Looks sexy!

 

Mine was the same way. I popped the other covers off, and smoothed the bolts out, and painted black over them. They still look good (a lot better then the mis-matched covers and stuff)

 

I just got through painting the hatch trim yesterday. I found it easier to remove the hatch than to mask off the rest of the car. That also allowed me to get the sides of the trim rather than just the top. I went with semi-gloss black but I imagine flat black would have looked much better. Honestly if I had to do it all over again, I would just rip that blasted trim off. My 94 T/A doesn't have it and looks just fine

 

When I installed my 4th gen wing on my GTA I removed my back window and actually painted certian parts of the glass black before tinting it. The top of the hatch glass is hard to tint perfectly so that was painted, as well the grid lines for the left and right side of the defrost were painted on the sides of the window to make the job look very clean. While I had it off, I sanded down the moldings, applied an etching primer and hit them with a high gloss black. If you are still curious I can post a few pics. I just need to go grab my digicam and shoot a few pics.

 

I just sanded, primed and painted. I used the Dupli (spelling?) paint that is supposed to match the car, it doesn't match but the trim isn't supposed to match. Actually it might if I used there clear. I think it looks pretty decent, definatly a huge improvement from the rust.
My car is black BTW.

 

I did mine when i painted the car.I took i off the glass and cleaned it up with a scotch bright pad on a die grinder.
Then pinted it with sem trim black looks like new now.

 

Post em!

 

Okay I just clicked off a few pics. They came out kinda dark as the car was in my shop. The car is a dusty mess because yesterday I just dropped my tank and installed my Walbro pump so bear with me

Tomorow when I pull it outside I can take some better ones if these don't do the tick. Its kinda hard to see the gloss black shine, but it looks very good compared to just the factory flat black.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...elected=868329

EDIT: I just looked at the pics, they really don't show the trim that well. I will take some more tomorrow with the car outside.

 

I still wonder if a contrast color would look nice.

silver or whit. get the piece chromed , golded or powder coated.

a blue car with white stripes could do all the trime in white.

black with yellow strips the same

green with purple stripes the same