Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics door dings

can anybody help me answer this? How much does body color usually fade through the years, through sun and road salt and such? If I were to remove the door dings on a red 96, im wondering if underneath them there'll be a nice deeper red stripe. Paint fade? Any help=much appreciation. Thanks!

Well typically the farther south you are the more it fades. The less you wash you car in winter, the more it fades when the sun is out. My car has little fading. i can tell because I was parked next to a 95 Contour that was red(only one red shade made in 95) and it was a whole different shade.

So all in all if you have maintained your car and waxed it and all the fun stuff, the fade shouldn't be too bad. But if you havent, then who knows. I suspect youre from up north somewhere, if you are talking about salt.

detroit, MI. Yea, thing is, i bought it 4 years used...its waxed and washed regularly now, but im not sure how well the previous owner took care of it. But even with just a little fading, is the paint underneath the dings really gonna stand out or be noticable?

The best thing to do is test no more than 6 inches. Then step back and look at it. Do this for each one. If they are faded, just put them back on. It's not worth it to take them off and see that it's faded then have to do paint work on it.

I would agree with the "test it" recommendation, but I doubt you'll see much difference unless some part of it was resprayed with the dings on, or if it was clearcoated at the factory with the dings on. This has happened to a few people.

I would also venture that you can't just pull off a small section. You may have to take off one entire strip, clean all the adhesive, then give it a good polish to get a fair comparison. Still, if you do this on, say, the right rear door, it won't tell you if someone resprayed on the left rear door.

I guess the worst case is you find something after you think you are all done, and then want to put all the strips back on.

I don't know of anyone who has had a problem with paint fade, though.

A few have had paint fade problems. I personaly didn't. However 3m makes the cool 2 sided foam rubber tape that you need to reattach them if you so choose.

going to attempt mine on saturday i think...

nervous i am

mines a light tan color, even faded i dont think you could notice

Man every time I look at my car I want to do this mod I am just scared to death I am going to walk up to my car in a parking lot and see a dent of some sort.

id say remove 1, buff/wax the door as best you can and see how it looks in different light, if it looks good, try another and another.... if you find 1 that is too drastic and cant live with it, go to home depot, get a roll of soft double-side tape and put em back on. i took mine off the 3rd year with no color difference, but i maintain my car very good since it was made for me.
good luck

I think the strips are more so you do not dent your own doors. Because 'most' other cars are not the same height as your Contour. IE, big trucks & SUVs will dent your door higher up than the ding strips.

But yes it is so tempting I want to rip them off also. I'm more scared of the paint though as I know my front passenger side is newer than the rest because a UFO ripped it off at 80mph.