Removing and replacing miata door belt-line molding

The rubber on the door belt-line molding is totally toast. It instead has been replaced by rusty metal which becomes scalding hot when the sun's out (don't even think of resting your arm on the door if the car's been sitting for more than a couple minutes). Anyway, the reason I posted this thread is because in the shop manual the note in regards to removing the molding is "Step 1: Remove door mirror, Step 2: remove front belt line molding". I tried just pulling on the thing and prying on it some, but it seems that there may just be a tick more to the equation than that. Any suggestions? I've got the new ones sitting here also, so any installation notes would also be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Andrew

I seem to remember my body man having a tool that made this job simple, but its been over a year and my memory is foggy.

Hmmm... I'm italian, so I know some folks who know some folks who may be able to jog your memory :twisted:

That strip is held on by a series of plastic clips and one plastic pushpin at the front (don't remember about the rear.)

If you have replacement clips (a GOOD idea) undo the front pushpin and just pry up on the molding with a plastic pry tool. You'll break most of the clips that way but the molding will come off.

Remove the remains of the broken clips from the door and install the new molding.

ah, gotcha. That makes sense, I'll give that a try when I get home tonight... after taking apart the rear suspension... ;)

The new ones I've got have all new clips on them fortunately.

Oh, have the window rolled down. That gives a lot more working room.

The windows were already down ;)

I went ahead and did this tonight. It was surprisingly easy. Took maybe 10 minutes per side and a little patience. The hardest part was using a screw driver to hold the 'stop' on each clip in and another to pry the clip off. I actually only mangled one of them removing the molding, and only lost 1 of them in the door removing the clips lol.

For anyone who's curious, there's 2 pins, one at the front and rear of the door, and then 5 or 6 plastic clips that snap in to the door.

Thanks for the help folks