[Powdered Toast Man]

I've been thinking about "de-molding" the doors of my Magnum. I decided to ask Ralph what he thought - he responded in about 2 minutes!

 

[jimboy]

Why didn't you ask him when we're getting a new Magnum, instead? (sorry, it just slipped out)

 

[pug-man]

Name dropping, eh?? :thumbsup:
For what it's worth, I'd say leave the molding on..... Easy enough to see how it would look with some simple photo editing, too.

 

[UN4GTBL]

Nice! I agree with Ralph.

I took off the moldings on my Caliber. The one thing you need to be sure of first is that they are just on with 3M tape, and that there are no holes in the door skin.

 

[Stratuscaster]

Ralph is very approachable and enjoys cars - it's a good combo.

His tongue must be in pain from having to bite it as to not reveal future plans, though...

 

[FreeLantz]

Remove the moulding if you never drive the car in public places or park in parking lots, ever. Otherwise you should consider how bad it will look with a few years' worth of door dings. It's a little different on a truck or SUV where the doors of smaller cars will hit you lower than the mouldings anyway. On a Magnum, those things are a must.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Well Ralph's tweet got me curious so I looked. The only vehicles in the current Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep lineup that have any sort of decorative side moldings are the minivans. I kind of wonder if this is a result of Gilles being made head of design in this last generation of vehicles. There are pre-release press photos (that are on Allpar) of the Journey with silver side moldings but they did not make it to any of the production models. 05-10 300? Side moldings. 11+ 300? Clean doors. Same goes for Charger. Nothing on the Challenger. 1st gen Avenger had them. 2nd gen does not.

I've kind of had my eye out lately. It looks like that styling craze of gluing plastic molding and cladding to the doors has ended. Lots of newer vehicles have no molding at all.

 

[Erik Latranyi]

Other than Twitter, anyone notice Ralph has been out of the spotlight?

Maybe it's just me.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Why would he be in it? His job is to oversee design and to head up the SRT brand. SRT has nothing new to announce so yeah...

 

[Stratuscaster]

While he's head of SRT, Ralph does function as a public figurehead for all the CGLLC brands as he is also Senior VP of Design.

 

[valiant67]

Remove the moulding if you never drive the car in public places or park in parking lots, ever. Otherwise you should consider how bad it will look with a few years' worth of door dings. It's a little different on a truck or SUV where the doors of smaller cars will hit you lower than the mouldings anyway. On a Magnum, those things are a must.

That's why I'm thinking of adding mouldings to the Challenger. That's one thing I miss form the 300C.
The car may look better with no moldings, but it's gonna look horrible with door dings and there are enough people who don't care and slam their door into your car no matter how much you try to avoid them in a parking lot.

 

[pug-man]

That's why I'm thinking of adding mouldings to the Challenger. That's one thing I miss form the 300C.
The car may look better with no moldings, but it's gonna look horrible with door dings and there are enough people who don't care and slam their door into your car no matter how much you try to avoid them in a parking lot.

I usually park in the back, as far away as I can. Drives my wife and kids nuts, but a little extra walking won't hurt.

 

[UN4GTBL]

Well Ralph's tweet got me curious so I looked. The only vehicles in the current Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep lineup that have any sort of decorative side moldings are the minivans. I kind of wonder if this is a result of Gilles being made head of design in this last generation of vehicles. There are pre-release press photos (that are on Allpar) of the Journey with silver side moldings but they did not make it to any of the production models. 05-10 300? Side moldings. 11+ 300? Clean doors. Same goes for Charger. Nothing on the Challenger. 1st gen Avenger had them. 2nd gen does not.

I've kind of had my eye out lately. It looks like that styling craze of gluing plastic molding and cladding to the doors has ended. Lots of newer vehicles have no molding at all.

The Jeeps all have lower cladding, and the Rams have an optional (IMO gauddy) chrome trim for the doors, but you are right! Only the minivans have these.

My Caliber originally had them, and I hated the look of them, so I eventually removed them. I figured that their placement and the size of them made them worthless anyways. Sure enough, somehow somebody managed to put 3 moron-marks all in a straight line down my rear driver side door. Had the moulding been there it likely would have saved the door. I never understood how the moron did it, as it could not have been a car door when the way it damaged the door. It's as if I had lightly slid into a square post...only I didn't. Thankfully a PDR magician got them all out and it's been ok ever since then. But I always have, and will continue to park in "corner pockets" as my friends call them.

My only problem in almost 7 years of having my Caliber

The ones on our van have saved it from one moron mark so far.

I usually park in the back, as far away as I can. Drives my wife and kids nuts, but a little extra walking won't hurt.

Same here.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

My experience with regard to the side moldings offering dent protection is that it's a total crapshoot. My 06 Caravan had them but it didn't stop someone from putting a massive ding in the driver's side door. It all depends if the widest part of their door lines up with the molding strip on your door. Park an SUV next to a car and the car will get the dent above the molding.

I even accidentally just caught a Civic all the way up in the door handle with the edge of the rear door of my Journey.

The side moldings are mainly decorative.

 

[dak4x4]

The cynical part of me says Ralph wants you to have a dinged up car so you up and by a new one...

 

[UN4GTBL]

My experience with regard to the side moldings offering dent protection is that it's a total crapshoot. My 06 Caravan had them but it didn't stop someone from putting a massive ding in the driver's side door. It all depends if the widest part of their door lines up with the molding strip on your door. Park an SUV next to a car and the car will get the dent above the molding.

I even accidentally just caught a Civic all the way up in the door handle with the edge of the rear door of my Journey.

The side moldings are mainly decorative.

Exactly my thinking when I took mine off "what are the odds..." *bang*

But the ones on the van didn't save it from the moron mark by the front passenger door handle