I know this controversial topic of stripping the door sill's black tape has been discussed...but i did it anyways. Although i didn't go all out on the whole door sill cuz alot of ppl seem to notice that it looked "chopped" off toward the rear...so i opted to just do the center sills...which came out looking nice and subtle...

here's how i did it... i was surprised how easy it was with proper tools...took me only 45 min for the whole thing...with no sweat.

wat you will need...
1. powerful hairdryer ( i have a japanese hairdryer..it's hot has a heat gun)
2. bug and tar by Turtle Wax..awesome stuff
3. credit card or ruler ( used a card cuz i don't have a ruler)
4. tweezer (i used it once to put the rubber lining back in place)
5. hobby type razor blade



Step 1: Since i was not going to do the whole door sill..i used my law school (yes, i used to go to law school) copy machine card to align a cut along the tape with razor...please do not attempt this unless u have steady hands. I used very fine cut to just break thru the tape trying not to scratch the paint underneath.

Step 2: I began with Driver Side door from inside out. I heated the tape generously until i could easily peel the tape from the corner...then lead upward (along the inside door sill..to the cut line)

Step 3: Then I heated the outside sills until hot...then i started to peel away almost in full one piece...it was amazing how clean it came off with almost no goo.



Step 4: Although most piece came off at once..some portion were stubborn and required abit more work. As you can see, there were some tape left inside the rubber lining of the sill. To cure this, I rolled the windows down and used my hands to pull the rubber outward...then heated the tape again. The inside portion came right off with one easy pull.



Step 5: This is where most people will find difficult to do away with the tape cleanly. I found an easy solution...just heat the bottom portion area with extra heat...once heated... pull from outside (edge of door) inward slowly...this will pull out the whole bottom portion of the tape ...remember to use heat as needed. Your blow dryer will be key to this whole process.

Finished:

Here's a good pix of the difference between the tape and non-taped door sill.



here's a view of the two center sills undressed... notice that i have bypassed doing the whole door due to the fact the rear will be create an illusion of being cut off... so i kept the black tape all around except for the center. Notice the glare/shine the center sills emit...alot better than the black tape.,which to my surprise came out pretty damn good. i will post some better pix later..but this is wat i have right now...

please forgive my messy garage...

 

You know what....that looks absolutely great.

I am glad you just did the center sills....looks nice.

 

i had a mental picture of wat i was trying to accomplish b4 i set out to unpeel the tape.

i've seen couple of xB with the tapes all stripped...some looked okay...and some did look "chopped off" at the rear.

i didn't want to create such look or illusion..so i brainstormed for couple of minutes and thought about still doing the stripping but slightly different and abit more subtle...

result was my idea of just doing the center sills...i took the risk of cutting the tap toward the center top..but worked out perfect. everything looks stock , if not better ...cuz i still have the overall uniform tape seam from front to back.

i'll take better pix tomorrow if weather permits...

 

looks sweet...i shall attempt this tomorrow..oh yah

 

That looks super clean Blue. No disrespect to the other folks who did the whole thing but just doing the center looks pimpin' Kepp up the good work and nice goldline graphix.

James

 

wow....thats a good idea....
looks nice too....great job

 

That looks awesome!

 

good idea

 

Nice job, nice graphics

 

bluebox....you rock!!! That looks sweet. Thanks for the FAQ

 

any polar white wit tapes off???

 

That looks pretty dang interesting! I never would've thought to remove those to see what things looked like underneath them... I do wonder how they would look if you did on a lighter-colored xB though. Hmmm...

 

I strongly recommend undoing the center door pillars/sills watever u call that area for darker color cars..cuz it blends in better with the tape and it's subtle. Although my mod doesn't necessarily stand out...i like the subtle tone of it.

GoldLine is sposorning me for the show next weekend, so they gave me some simple graphix to put on my car..i like it alot...although i wish it was even bigger...haha.

 

added to tech section

 

I did mine a while back, but I did the whole thing. You can see the pics in my profile... :D

 

this post was in december before you even had the xB

 

I removed the black matte on my Camo xB this week. I started by following the instructions, using a hair dryer on a pretty hot day. I found that the heat made the tape more sticky and weaker. It took me about 2 hours to do the right side of the car.
The next day was cooler. I tried it without the hair dryer. I carefully started from the edges on the backside. Once I got it started, I was able to pull it off, thumbs on front, forefingers on back edges, in complete strips. I completed the entire left side of the car in about 30 minutes. :D

 

i know this is old but.. i wanna see pics with all the pieces removed

 

heres my lava w/it removed.










hope this helps ?

later,george


founder & president : ScionOwnersClub@yahoo.com

 

here is a link to the topic on the xB forum too and my pics of my car with the sill tape removed. :D