Need help trying to remove the side trim (to repaint) on my 54 Merc. Pretty sure it just snaps on/off, but having trouble prying without damaging the trim or denting the body. Do you pry up from the bottom, or pry down from the top. Being involved all my adult life with cars and many Mercury's, I'm embarrassed to ask this question.
It's been awhile since I removed trim but on my '54 Customline a lot of the trim clips bolted through the body. IIRC the ones you pry off are pried up from the bottom. As you probably know it's very easy to tweak the trim doing that. Here's what they look like. Hope it helps. https://www.dennis-carpenter.com/product_search/?globalfilter%5Bcustom1%5D=Car&globalfilter%5Bcustom2%5D=1954&globalfilter%5Bcustom4%5D=&q=fender+moulding+clip
Not familiar with this type of vehicle, but can you get in behind, just to see if there is a securing nut??
Don't believe there are any clips with nuts, the clips go into a hole and then twisted 90°. The trim then snaps over that....I'm just having trouble unsnaping it.
I believe @evintho is correct. I had the same on my '56 Fairlane. Why would '54 Mercury be different. If i remember , you twist them onto the stainless trim , not the panels. If you have the rectangular clips you would have to slide them into the trim from the end and then space according to the holes in your panel. So nuts, sorry for the giant clip
I'm working on my 53 Lincoln right now, and am surprised how many "snap on" clips hold the stainless trim on. This type clip, when installed, you put the trim over the top part of the clip, push it against the body, and down, to get the trim edge behind the clip, then push the trim onto the body, and it snaps over the bottom part of the clip. To remove, do the opposite. If your clips are in good shape, you need to push down on the trim to clear the bottom part of the clip, then when it clears it, push the trim up, and off.
did you remove any of the interior panels yet, to look at the back side of the clips? If not, do that first! before you break stuff. If indeed the clips are not designed to be removed, you'll have trouble doing what he said about pushing the trim down enough to release it...take a lot of time and patience.
A lot of replacement clips have a nut and stud instead of the original snap clips, so if the car has ever been apart before for paint or whatever I wouldn't count on the original clips being in there. Also, many of the cars of this era have a clip on the far ends of the door molding that goes through the outer lip of the door and is held on with a phillips head screw. Even if the rest of the clips are push-in snap type, those will have to be removed first. I don't have specific knowledge of '54's, but I'd be pretty shocked if all of the side trim was snap in clips only.
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