I am looking for the best and safest way to remove the chrome pillars I have on my car.

Is the old hairdryer and goo gone trick the best route to go?

What is the best technique?

 

Follow up:

Didn't want to wait any longer waiting for a response so I decided to go at it.

I just used fishing line to "cut" into the glue after heating it with a hair dryer for a little bit and peeled back the chrome very carefully in order not to strip the paint beneath. I didn't even have to use goo gone, the 3M tape residue came off with no problem after a little bit of heating.

Now off to buy some Mothers back-to-black to restore the shine in my pillars

 

Nice... Your car is going to look so much nicer/cleaner without the chrome

 

Thanks bro! I'm currently working on a caliper/brake pad paint project next. Since the rim shop screwed up my caliper color and a few things down the line, I let them have a piece of my mind and parted ways from their service and decided to do things on my own.

I went to the nearest lowes and got me some high temperature black paint to paint my red calipers to black, which was what I wanted originally , and also to paint my EBC Greenstuff brakes black as well since the actual pads are green...

I wish that post from Eddy B would be fixed with the pictures so I can learn how to install my new rotors and brakes instead of having a shop do it!

 

There are a few writeups on doing the brakes on the forum. I wrote a loose step by step a few years ago but with no pics. You can do it man! Do you have a good jack and jackstands? Decent assortment of sockets/wrenches? A couple hours?

 

Pretty much if you have these things you should be able to pull off the job on your own. If you bleed your brakes make sure you look up how to do that properly. That's usually the thing people screw up on when it comes to working on their brakes.

 

I have a craftsman 3-ton jack that came with a creeper and two jack stands that I got from SEARS for $100. My variety on wrenches and sockets aren't the greatest, although I have been wanting to make an investment on good tools since I've grown fond to the DIY lifestyle. But, I don't even know what bleeding brakes means. I'm kind of leaning towards the approach of having a professional do it before I kill myself for trying to save a few bucks. Although, I am absolutely sure it is easy as pie once you know what needs to be done and how. Just kind of hesitant on doing it, Eddy B's write up look very detailed and illustrated which would help novice people like me more than just a text based guide.

 

So after taking my car out of the garage for the night I realized when I walked up to the driver door that after removing one of the chrome pillars I know have a faint blemish on the original pillar. I tried using mothers back-to-black but it didn't seem to work very well.. Any suggestions?

The image is kind of dark but you can see the blemish on the pillar... I will try to take a better picture in the morning.


Here is a side view after the de-chroming stage... again dark picture but I'm doing a graveyard shift tonight so I had plenty of time to waste lol.

 

I'll check my photo archives to see if I snapped any pics the last time I did it. Sounds like you probably have enough tools to get the job done, a large C clamp or caliper piston compression tool can also come in handy, you'll need one or the other. You don't necessarily need to even open the brake system to do this job and therefore you don't need to bleed the brakes. However if you are still running the original brake fluid it is probably time to have it changed out. Bleeding can be done independent of changing pads and rotors and vice versa.

Do you have any gearhead buddies you can lure over to oversee the job, perhaps with a few beers and pizza?

I definitely want to encourage you to DIY, but this is a safety related repair and you absolutely do need to know what you are doing or have experienced assistance/oversight.

 

I like Chrome, albeit a minimal amount.....so have to agree with the others....your's looks so much cleaner without the chrome pillars...seems to make the car more 'swoopy' again!

As for the blemish, although I'm in the UK, I found the best back to black type stuff was that, that you paint on rather than spray on for hiding marks. May take a few applications though. Although, I'm sure one of the detailing Pros on here will have a much better idea for a permanent fix.

 

Looks great... Next project should be replacing the rest of the window trim with black.