Profiling side trim

[Maindrian Pace]

I can't count the number of times that people have asked me how I profile (add shape to) side trim. Actually no one has ever asked me that, but here's how to do it.

Restoring a glue bomb '61 Falcon and the rear 1/4 panel trim on both sides, as well as the 1/4s themselves, have an obvious problem: AMT didn't do such a good job aligning the sliding die components, so there is a misalignment of the trim that can't be repaired because it is at two different levels.

The first step is to remove the trim and sand the 1/4 panel smooth, being careful not to nick the door trim.

Replace the trim with Evergreen strip of the appropriate width, the thickness doesn't matter as much.

Run an Exacto blade over the whole trim at a right angle to scrape it down to the correct height. This trim is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, so the blade was held at an angle to rough it in. Note that the trim looks pretty close, and wouldn't be that noticeable when foiled, but we can do better. Make a custom profiling tool out of a piece of Exacto blade glued into a piece of Evergreen rectangle stock. The end of the rectangle will act as the guide that you will run under the trim to scrape it evenly. The blade has to be trimmed and rounded to match the contour of the trim. I do that with a sharpening stone, holding the little piece with pliers.

Some experimentation told me to add a little CA glue to the plastic guide to center the curve of the blade in the trim. Hold the tool and scrape the length of the trim thusly:

Play with the angle that you hold the tool to get the cutting edge right where you want it. The angle shown above worked the best here. Take many light cuts rather than digging in hard to work it to shape.

Finished, with a comparison to a second body.

[NOBLNG]

Great job on that molding Mike.? No way could that original molding be made to look good!?

[Oldriginal86]

I thought at first it was a four door body. Well done on the repair.

[rattle can man]

nice save! Is the tool being used to make the center of the trim concave? or is it to give different "layers"/ steps to the trim? I'm trying to visualize the tool and how it is used, but not quite connecting the dots.

[Muncie]

Thank you for the post, Good tip, great tool - It is something that I will use on project that is getting closer to the workbench.

[Maindrian Pace]

  On 9/1/2024 at 1:36 AM, rattle can man said:

nice save! Is the tool being used to make the center of the trim concave? or is it to give different "layers"/ steps to the trim? I'm trying to visualize the tool and how it is used, but not quite connecting the dots.

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Yes, the tool is used to make the trim concave to match the shape of the original moldings. I ground the blade to a curved shape to fit in the recessed area, then scraped light layers away until the desired depth was reached. You can make trim look stepped or cut a recess in the middle of the trim, like in the side trim on '70s GM and Ford pickups, which have a painted recess. Any shape can be made by grinding the blade to whatever shape you need.

[hedotwo]

Great tip!  Have run into this same issue multiple times.  Thanks!

[rattle can man]

Thank you!

[dino246gt]

Nicely done and clearly explained, thank you!

I'm working on an old Falcon now, but it's a vintage gasser, so no chrome required, LOL

[TarheelRick]

Excellent tutorial, I can envision a couple of builds this will work well on.  Besides it gives me something to do with all those old X-Acto blades.

[Straightliner59]

This is an excellent tip! That you could custom shape your tool makes the possibilities pretty much limitless. Nice work, and thanks for sharing it!

[Bainford]

I finally got around to reading this one. Great tip, and well illustrated. This is very useful for sure. Thanks for sharing.

[bob29579]

Wow, what a difference.

[bisc63]

Excellent work, and thanks for sharing!