DIY: Sun-baked Exterior Trim Replacement Thread

There is a plethora of threads on swapping out specific exterior rubber, plastic, painted body/trim parts on the forum, but no single place that covers it all: Let's see if we can fix that!

Know a piece that plagues Gen 4 Ram 1500/2500 ram owners, and you know how to do the swap, maybe have the part number or special way of gettin' er done? Drop that pearl of wisdom in this thread and help a buddy out.

My meager contribution:



Rear Bumper License Plate Light Covers. These things turn yellow over time, the black trim gets oxidized, you get the idea. I went with Recon replacements (to match the hue of my taillights) but had a ***** of a time figuring out how to remove the old ones to put the new ones in.

In this video, at the 15:29min mark, the guy has his whole bumper being replaced, but just focus on the metal clips he pulls from underneath that dislodge the light covers. Easy as pie.

S0CAL said:

In this video], at the 15:29min mark, the guy has his whole bumper being replaced, but just focus on the metal clips he pulls from underneath that dislodge the light covers. Easy as pie.

Click to expand...

Handy to know. Thanks!

-K

The primary issue I have is with the windshield wiper cowl. I have tried some of the easy sprays but none of them work. It looks like I will have to take the entire cowl off and do a better spray job.....or I saw a recent post somewhere about taking a heat gun and carefully melting the outside layer off, but that seems a bit risky. When I finally get the time to try some of this stuff out I will let you all know what works.

BTW, I think this is a great idea. If people actually post up their fixes this should be stickied.

Related thread on exterior trim coming loose (including due to the Sun!)

EVc96bKA said:

The primary issue I have is with the windshield wiper cowl. I have tried some of the easy sprays but none of them work. It looks like I will have to take the entire cowl off and do a better spray job.....or I saw a recent post somewhere about taking a heat gun and carefully melting the outside layer off, but that seems a bit risky. When I finally get the time to try some of this stuff out I will let you all know what works.

BTW, I think this is a great idea. If people actually post up their fixes this should be stickied.

Click to expand...

I used this trim paint on my old 07 and it worked great. It took out all the fade and restored it to a new look. A year later after I sold the truck, the trim still looked good. I only used the clear coat, but you can buy it in black as well.

The door window molding. Driver door trim part #