removing aluminum trim

[SA RS6]

how easy or hard is it to take off the aluminum trim around the windows on the outside of the car, i got everything else painted black minus those. and once its off is it east to put back on, oh also the trim under the headlight.

[RAUDI]

I, too, am interested in this topic. They seem a bit frail to go prying.

[JSRS6]

Trim under the headlight requires bumper removal. You can get both pieces for about $90 shipped, oem euro black optics. I assume you have a trim removal kit, so gently get the thinnest piece under the bottom of the four pieces that are below the windows and tap it upwards. The top part you have to remove the black rubber inside the door jambs that tell you where to put the roof rack ends. Then you will see the rivets to be dremeled out. For the rear quarter glass pieces, start where the rear door trim stops and slowly push out while sitting in the rear seat.

[kismetcapitan]

I'm a person who's fairly obsessive about blacking out things; I have always hated chrome. Audi did offer the black optics option so I know I'm not alone. But after some thought, I decided to leave the chrome completely untouched on my car. For better or worse, the chrome trim and aluminum mirror housings are RS signatures. The two things did battle it out in my head but in the end, maintaining that distinguishing feature of RS cars ended up winning.

Probably also helps that my car is a lighter shade (avus silver) - if it were black pearl, it'd probably get on my nerves more :P

[Turbowned]

I actually really like the matte aluminum. It's not chrome, it's not black. Something different.

[SteveKen]

I've removed the aluminum rain gutter trim on two avants and they aren't too bad if you are careful. I can't say it's the same on the sedan, because on my B5 sedan, I actually had to cut out the C pillar window to remove the trim.

The following is for the avant only:

Unless you want to buy the new inner cover strips, you need to carefully remove them by dislodging them from the U shaped channel. It's pretty hard to explain how to do this, but if you carefully examine things ans use some common sense, it can be done without too much damage. First remove any exterior B and C Pillar trim. Then the pry on the rear most section and then slowly pull it off moving forward. Do not pull or bend this piece at a sharp angle. The front of this piece at the A pillar is tricky and I can't recall the angel required to remove it, but it seems that it can only be done if the rest of the cover strip is already loose.

The aluminum piece itself is secured with many rivets. I use a sharp 1/4 in chisel to shear off the heads, working my way from front to back. With them loose, you can gently pull the trim off, separating it from the body. Once you hit the C pillar on the avant, the trim is just clipped into channels riveted to the body so it just pulls off.

I have had all my trim powdercoated matte black and it's turned out great. It's still sitting on top of the S6 now. I intend to do some paint correction before installing all the matte black trim.

Here's a pic of the powdercoated trim on the last S6 I did: Top - Roof rail, Middle - Rear roof trim, Bottom - Door window trim
http://kendrish.com/galleries/S6/trim/pc2.JPG

On the car:
http://kendrish.com/galleries/S6/build/for_sale/ds.jpg

[SA RS6]

Ok so what I've gathered for this is it's a bit of trouble lol. I may just wrap it or take a better shot at plasti dip again. Thanks everyone for input and help