Any way to separate parts glued with the windshield silicon?

Krzysztof

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I have a problem to remove the fender trim in E30 325iX.

Shop in Switzerland (previous owner's homeland) put in on with the rubber like glue which is used for windshield mounting.

I tried to heat it up carefully but no movement.

Unfortunately the profile is eliminating to use a knife.
Piano string could do the job but probably damage the plastic trim and the paint.

Have you faced similar situation in the past?

For now, the only way would force me to paint few parts in the car and replace damaged trim.
Due to lack of ideas I keep it untouched and planing to drive as is as long as possible but would really love to dismantle it and put it back with the corrosion protection and proper BMW clips.
 

mulberryworks

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If it is a silicone based adhesive, it will likely be very heat resistant. They are stable up to 200 °C (392 °F) or higher so your trim and paint would probably start to fail before the adhesive. You don't know the coverage of the adhesive behind your trim, but I'd suspect that you might be OK leaving the trim and pain around it. I know, not what you want to do but short of pulling it off, destroying the trim, you don't have many options. Dental floss could work, but will be arduous. Anything more aggressive will likely do damage to trim or paint.
 

Krzysztof

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If it is a silicone based adhesive, it will likely be very heat resistant. They are stable up to 200 °C (392 °F) or higher so your trim and paint would probably start to fail before the adhesive. You don't know the coverage of the adhesive behind your trim, but I'd suspect that you might be OK leaving the trim and pain around it. I know, not what you want to do but short of pulling it off, destroying the trim, you don't have many options. Dental floss could work, but will be arduous. Anything more aggressive will likely do damage to trim or paint.

I can only confirm. I heat all up to the temperature when I was unable to operate without gloves and it still was holding tightly.

I'm not sure if there is any specific dental floss which is tested to be the most durable? Any suggestions Gentlemans?
 

Markos

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If it is a silicone based adhesive, it will likely be very heat resistant. They are stable up to 200 °C (392 °F) or higher so your trim and paint would probably start to fail before the adhesive. You don't know the coverage of the adhesive behind your trim, but I'd suspect that you might be OK leaving the trim and pain around it. I know, not what you want to do but short of pulling it off, destroying the trim, you don't have many options. Dental floss could work, but will be arduous. Anything more aggressive will likely do damage to trim or paint.

Windshield adhesive is urethane based.
 

Markos

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Interesting idea. Question is which would give up first: paint or rubber glue? Do you have experience with it so far?

Don’t hold me to it, but my vote is the adhesive loosens much sooner than the paint.

I’ve done this on several cars with ABS flares:

 

Krzysztof

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Don’t hold me to it, but my vote is the adhesive loosens much sooner than the paint.

I’ve done this on several cars with ABS flares:


It is not applying to my case ans iX fender trims are painted same color the car is.

The purpose of separation is to put all original mounting hardware in and secure it against water, salt (rust) for another years.

This is good to check once on unpainted ABS.
 

Markos

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It is not applying to my case ans iX fender trims are painted same color the car is.

The purpose of separation is to put all original mounting hardware in and secure it against water, salt (rust) for another years.

This is good to check once on unpainted ABS.

My point was that pain holds up well to a blow torch. I’ll do a little experiment later this week.
 

Krzysztof

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I will try to play with dental floss once I will catch one nice day .. . We had time change and it is dark and cold at 5PM. Only weekends are possible than for me.
 
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