I want to paint my car and change the color, but I don't know how to handle the trim around the edges and top of the windshield on my '83. There is a kind of rubber/plastic molding that runs around the glass and wraps up and over onto the A pillars and roof for a very short distance.
If you just mask this molding off, any movement or shrinkage will expose the old color of paint found under the lip of the molding. How do you deal with this?

Does this molding just come out, you paint the car, and then replace and reseal it with a new molding? Or some other method?

 

The best thing I did when I got my car painted was I had a Brand New PPG windshield put in. I had some bubbles above the weather stripping, and the blue tint on the top turned to brown over time, which I assume yours is doing.

The less that is on the car the easier it is on ther painter. Plus when its done really notice how chippd up and scractched up your old window really was.

Kevin

 

I've done quite a few paint jobs where the trim around the winshield was just taped. If you use quality tape (3m) and do a good job masking it will work. However, the last car I did, the windshield was broken. I took it out before I painted it, I'll never paint another vehicle again with the windsield in if I can help it. At the very least I'd try to remove the trim.

 

The windshield moulding is easy to replace and most glass shops keep a generic replacement in stock. If you pull it out, you may need to scrape some of the old urethane sealer out of the channel thats left between the glass and the body to get enough space to put a new moulding in. And it really is just a moulding, removing it shouldn't cause a leak.