Full body cladding strip this weekend, any advice?

[atomicmecha]

So other than a small sacrifice, any advice on how to go about removing all of the cladding from a typhoon? I've got one of those plastic rivet pullers. a small drill bit. and my socket set ready. My plan is to start with the front bumper and just start working my way to the rear bumper. I'm not taking the pieces behind the cladding on the rockers and doors off, just the cladding.

Need to get it all off for several reasons. One, need to get a condition list and find out which ones I need to send off to be repaired and which ones are ok. Cause once I have a full set thats in good shape, its all getting plasti-dipped by a local shop. Two, I'm going to have the edges around the doors, rockers, etc touched up by a local shop. Honestly, it all needs to be cut off, new panels welded in, etc. But its like $5k for all that. For now, i'm getting it sanded down, bondo'd, and sprayed. Just to stop the rust. Dont care about making it perfect atm. The cladding will cover all the blemishes. I just need to stop that damn rust before it gets past what the cladding covers. and three, some of the rivets are already broken and need to be replaced anyway. So I'm just gonna get one of those kits from sportsmachine and re-install everything properly.

Figured I'd ask since most of you have probably done something like this before and could offer some tips on what not to do.

 

[0966Sy]

Do NOT push, pull, pry or hit the factory cladding and you should be ok. Oh, and don't drop them. You will need a good sharp drill bit to center drill the rivets on the bottom of the rockers. Rear bumper is the easiest to remove, I'd leave the front and rear bumpers attached to the supports. Order a cladding rivet kit from sportmachines. Using a quality plastic rivet gun works best for the plastic rivets

 

[Norm]

Re: Full body cladding strip this weekend, any advice?

Reach inside the wheel wheels and there are a couple of bolts with nuts on them. Give them all a shot of wd40 or what ever you use to help so they don't break or put unwanted pressure against the cladding. Otherwise just take your time and make sure you have them all out before removing the cladding so you don't break any tabs.

 

[Adam#0213]

Re: Full body cladding strip this weekend, any advice?

Tabs will break reguardless it's 20 yr old plastic.Take your time and try not to spin riverts.I think davep did a write up on cladding removal at one time oh my bad he deleted it..