I see these posts alot. The rubber under the windows starts to degrade, turns spotty and looks like ****. Well, I installed a 06 mirror on my drivers side today and decided to refinish this trim piece while I had access and everything was apart. Thought I would share....

All I had to do to remove this, was yank up and it popped off. This is done with the mirror removed of course. Contrary to what I've read, the spotty grossness is not the metal underneath "corroding". Took my pocket knife, cut a slit along the width, and the rubber peeled right off. The rubber is only glued on along the edges and ends, so you can take 90% of it off with just your fingers. The rest came off with fine grade steel wool. As you can see the metal underneath is in perfect condition, no corrosion at all.


Sprayed it with krylon flat black, put like 6 coats on. Turned out damn good imo.


Heres the redheaded stepchild part of my truck, for comparison. Neglected at the moment and still rocking the flagstyle mirror lol.



All in all worth the time it took, and saved $30+ to spend on something else. If you decide to do this, be warned that this piece is very thin aluminum and will break if you look at it wrong. The paint finish looks pretty durable, but only time will tell if it will handle the everyday wear and tear of a daily driver/offroader.

 

Nice!
I need to do this. Mine look like crap too.

 

WOW! i can't believe how much better that looks.

 

somebody should move this to the "how-to" section...

 

In time my friend. in time.

 

yeah, step this out for others and how-to it, looks incredible

 

Damn... that looks incredible!

 

Thanks guys. Its funny how we think little details like this make an improvement. Most people wouldn't notice, or bother to take the time to polish their rigs like this haha. I couldn't help it though, that nasty rubber bothered me every time I got in my truck. Almost clear coated it, but I liked the finish of the flat black. It'd be cool to see somebody try it with rubberized undercoating, plastidip, bedliner or what-have-you. And if it gets f-ed up, its 20 mins of masking and a few cents worth of spray paint to fix it.

 

I'd be interested to see what a rubberized undercoating would do.

 

It looks awesome! I am going to do that.

 

Looks great!

 

How do you remove the mirror in order to remove that piece?

 

Pretty simple really. Just remove the interior door panel, as if you are going to change one of your front speakers. Once you get that off, you'll see there are three holes on the inside where the mirror bolts come in. You need a deep socket, or a socket and small extension to get the nuts holding the mirror off.


You can see the access to this area in this how-to.

https://www.ranger-forums.com/interior-exterior-electrical-123/how-install-06-mirrors-107484/

 

That looks way better!

 

Very nice! I need to do that too!

 

Unfortunately mine was turned up and the metal badly rusted. I have the Ford replacement part and I am trying to figure out how much of the door I need to take apart to install the new one. Do I need to take off the door panel, mirror etc.

Thanks
Oldranger98

 

on my 04 i just removed the interior plastic door panel to access the mirror, removed the mirror and then you just pull up on the window strip. It might require some finesse, but it should pop out, it clips into little slots on the inside of the door. You might be able to just yank it out without taking the mirror off, but i dont like to force things if i can help it.....

 

Just found this, and i did mine about 5 months back slightly different. I left the trim on the door and just taped off. Looks a million times better and has not flaked or chipped yet.

 

I'm going to do this to the new one, but i'm gonna try it with plasti-dip

 

Let us know how it turns out, with pics if ya can. Did you plan on just spraying over the rubber? Itll be alot easier if you dont scrape the old **** off, and would probably hold up just as good with the plasti- dip. I just got a can of it for my billet grille, I wish i had it when i was doing these. I had the krylon laying around though, so it was basically free. It hasnt chipped, scratched or faded yet since i did it, so im happy. I can always pop em out and spray them again too.

 

might as well just use electrical tape. plastidip wont last long

 

Have you bad experience with it? everything ive read says its pretty durable for what it is...guys even spray their rims with it. Hope i didnt just waste $7 lol

 

x2. From what i understand (i've never used it) this stuff is tough.
If thats the case. rubberized undercoating it is.

 

use that duplicolor textured stuff. plastidip didn't last long up here. I'd never buy that crap again personally.

 

My trim has some hail damage on it. I was wondering before I remove this will I be able to knock the dents out from the back side to smooth it out?