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Old 11-20-2007, 07:52 PM
fletchjames fletchjames is offline
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Sprint QV Fading green strips on bumpers

strips of green are faded and falling off the car...

anyone found a good solution for replacing the strips?
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1986 Sprint 1.5 QV
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  #2 (permalink)  
Old 11-23-2007, 07:28 AM
SprintnSud SprintnSud is offline
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I replaced the strips on my car with some aluminium stripping I bought from the local hardware. I fixed it to the black plastic body trim and bumpers using bits of the original strips and it has worked really well. The basic approach I used was:

o cut the aluminimum to length and shape it. The shaping took a bit of time (especially to get the corners right) but the aluminium is pretty thin and easy to work. You have to be pretty exact as the ends need to be cut down slightly to lock into the black plastic sections. I didn't use any special tools, but you will need pretty sharp tin snips or each cut distorts the end of the strip - in hindsight I would probably have been better off with a very thin cut-off wheel on an angle grinder.
o cut the existing plastic strip into 10mm (or less) sections and file the coloured surface flat on each one(this is tedious but these become catches that allow you to mount the new aluminium strips into the bumpers and door/body panel trim)
o glue the plastic sections to the back of the aluminium strip. I used contact adhesive and it hasn't come away at all in 4 years.
o paint the aluminium strip with a colour that matches the original strip (red on my car). I rushed this stage and screwed up the finish on a couple of the pieces.
o Push the aluminium strips into place. The little sections of the original trim should lock into the black plastic trim nicely. I didn't glue or silicon them in and they haven't looked like coming off.

The only part that I'm not 100% happy with is the rear bumper. I couldn't get a single length of aluminium that was long enough so had to make it in two sections that join in the middle. I did it on a fairly warm day and had it pretty well perfect but on cold days the aluminium contracts and the gap opens up to a couple of mm. On balance though it looks a lot better than the faded, cracked original it replaced.

It's a bit fidly but looks the goods and can be removed, painted and refitted should the colour ever fade again. It improved the look of my car a lot and am sure anyone with a QV where the strips have gone that pale blue colour would think the time well spent.

Last edited by SprintnSud; 11-30-2007 at 05:45 AM.
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