Side moldings for the Leaf doors

I hate door dings and regardless of how careful you are, sooner or later you're going to get one... That is why I do not like cars with doors that do not have side moldings. Moldings, at least, give you a fighting chance...

So, I found a company that is now offering them for the Leaf at a discount:

http://www.sportwing.com/nissan-leaf-body-side-molding.aspx

Here is the url of the company that actually makes them. They don't yet have a full picture of them on a Leaf...

http://www.dawn-ent.com/bodyside/nissanbodyside.htm

I like the idea of that, thanks.

I'd love to see photos of a whole car to get a better idea of what they look like after installation....I'll see if they have any.

I purchased after-market side moldings for my '06 Prius. Best thing I ever did. But the price here for these ($124.95 on sale) is a little steep. I think I paid around $85 on the Prius.

On the Sportwing site it says 2012. I wonder if they meant 2011. On my Honda Civic GX, I had them, but they were too low. Someone did a really good job with a shopping cart on the passenger side.

Just go to a local automotive paint supplier (they sell paint to professional car painters), they will have an endless selection of rubber moldings at reasonable prices.. pick out the one you like the best.

The devil in the details is in getting it painted to match the car...

Herm said:

Just go to a local automotive paint supplier (they sell paint to professional car painters), they will have an endless selection of rubber moldings at reasonable prices.. pick out the one you like the best.

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Those custom moldings look pretty good on a Versa:

http://www.dawn-ent.com/vehicles/nissan/versafe.htm

I went ahead and ordered in Cayenne Red for my Leaf. The price listed is for both sides and includes the install kit. They're offering free shipping and 15% off, so I'll post photos of what it looks like when I get it installed...Thanks to the OP for posting the link, this is just what I've been looking for....

Randy

I ordered them as well for my red LEAF. I found a coupon code: 0771186 that will give you an additional 5% off.

Thanks for posting the discount code! After seeing how they look in the Versa photo, I went ahead and ordered red too.

Ready2plugin said:

I ordered them as well for my red LEAF. I found a coupon code: 0771186 that will give you an additional 5% off.

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mogur said:

...After seeing how they look in the Versa photo, I went ahead and ordered red too.

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Really? That photo looked so photoshopped that I questioned whether it was even a photo at all. I couldn't tell anything about how the moldings really look.

mogur said:

The devil in the details is in getting it painted to match the car...

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Painted rubber moldings?.. the paint sticks or flakes off when a door hits it?.. Most of my moldings have been black rubber, sometimes I chose chrome for the bling.. usually costs under $20 to buy a roll.

The side moldings came and I installed them this morning. They were shipped very securely in a tube wrapped in a very long nylon sock material, complete with instructions...

They recommend that you prep for the installation by cleaning the door areas and then laying out a long piece of painters masking tape, where the bottom edge of the tape meets the top edge of the molding.

Then you peel off the 3m double-faced tape on the back of the molding, starting with 12" on the part that goes by the door seam, and then peel as you go with the installation and press in place. After installing, they also recommend pressing the molding to the car doors firmly along its length to seat the adhesive / tape...

Here are a few photos, showing the tape prior to installing the molding and then after the installation. The color was a dead match for the Cayenne Red...

So far, I'd highly recommend the company supplying the moldings....Let's see how it holds up in use / weather, etc. So far looking good...







Randy

Looks really good, Randy. I'm a bit dense about these things, so could you say something about how you decided what height on the door to position them? Did the moldings go at an apogee point on the curve of the door? Did you use a level with the blue tape? Thanks.

Which is why you don't want painted ones when color matching, you want the color impregnated versions. Personally, I dislike moldings that don't match the color of the vehicle as I think they look tacky and cheap...

I ordered the same red ones as Randy but haven't had a chance to install them yet.

Herm said:

Painted rubber moldings?.. the paint sticks or flakes off when a door hits it?.. Most of my moldings have been black rubber, sometimes I chose chrome for the bling.. usually costs under $20 to buy a roll.

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Hi Alan,
I guess I forgot to mention that part of the installation...

They recommend in the instructions that you install the moldings at the height on the door where it sticks out the most...How's that for a technical term? I guess you called it, the apogee point on the door....

So I held the door open and used a straight vertical stick and took note of the height where the door came into contact with my stick-o-meter and installed the door moldings at that point. Then I used the blue tape to level out the whole installation...

Of course, another car's door may hit higher or lower depending on the geometry of that door, but you can't protect for everything....

I can tell you one thing, the 3M adhesive is very strong, so you need to make double-sure that you get it right the first time when installing. You only get one shot....

Randy

Looks like the Sportwing folks liked my Leaf molding photo so much that they took it from here to post on their eBay auction and on their website...

Geez, they even mis-spelled their own website name on the watermark that they put on MY photo....

Randy,

Could you measure the height from the bottom edge of the door to the bottom edge of the molding? I assume you used a constant height from front to rear... It looks good in your picture and I see no reason to reinvent the wheel by trying to find a good height....

Thanks!

Hi Mogur,
It's easier to measure straight to the ground, which is 26" to the bottom of the molding on my car.

I found that an easier way to find the level line to install the moldings is to measure the height of the top of the wheel well at each corner. Then measure up from the ground by that measurement minus 1.5" at the four outer corners of where the moldings will go and place a mark there. Then simply run a blue painters tape line between those two points on both sides of the car. The bottom edge of the moldings then go on the TOP edge of the tape line. This eliminates any problems with the ground not being even, the car not being quite level, the set on the suspension, etc. You could also try measuring up from the bottom lip of the doors but I found this too hard to do with all the curves involved...