hey all,

i got a 1977 f100 xlt ranger. single cab short bed. right now, it's factory two-tone silver and white, but i've been thinking about repainting in one color. my question is about the aluminum body trim. My truck has trim all the way down the sides of the body. it's a fancy old truck. my thinking is that removing the trim will clean up the sides of the truck and make it look more smooth. what are the pros and cons of keeping the trim vs removing it. also, how does the trim come off should i decide to remove it? thanks.

 

Growing up I never liked any trim on these trucks. I thought I was really fortunate to find a truck with no trim anywhere since I rarely see them. Some of the trim is kind of growing on me now, though I don't plan on adding any.
It seems to me like most people like it, it's really up to you. Filling all the holes might be kind of a job though. You can click on my gallery to see a bunch of pics of my truck- no trim.

 

My 76 never had any, and I always thought it made for a cleaner truck as well. The only downside to the trim on these trucks was that water(moisture) was bad to pit the metal behind it that I"ve seen. The 77 I just purchased has it over the wheel wells too and I think it may have to go when I get my body work done and repaint, but it's alot of holes to fill.

 

I plan to remove the lower trim on my Ranger XLT. Also the trim around the back of the cab. I am keeping the trim in the dent and looking for racetrack trim to make mine 2 tone.

This is close to what I am looking for.



Doug

 

Depends on the trim... I dont much care for racetrack trim, or the upper trim with the strip in it...
I kinda prefer the solid alumnium upper trim... kinda like:

 

If you have or can find trim worth saving, put it on. When I painted my 79 f-100 12 years ago, I polished mine out. I am glad I did. At shows, when I see a 73-79, most of them left off the trim because they did not want the extra expense of replacing thr trim.

 

the only thing is that my truck is so fancy. i've never seen a truck this old that is so fancy, and i hate to alter it. its so handsome. i'm installing a set of 10-hole factory ford wheels from a 1995 f150 on it soon, and some new tires. i think if i go to repaint it and the trim gets damaged upon taking it off, i'll do without it.

 

The pro's are simple , it's personal opinion only -----------it's your truck , what do you like better.? The cons, there are alot of hole that will have to be welded closed and alot of pins that will need to be grounf off, all creating alot of body work to make it look perfect. Welding can cause heat warpage if you are not carefull enough creating more work. Myself , I love the chrome look, my 79 is black with the full chrome package and I'd never remove it. When I painted my 78 S-cab I remover the chrome because it was going to a winter truck ans I didn't want to give road salt a place to hide. Either way it's a 70's dentside, what's not to love.

 

Any of you guys wanting to remove your trim should pm me and send pics, I would be interested in buying straight pieces. I have a couple of other dents that I would like to put trim on.

 

I started pulling the racetrack trim off the bed of my truck - it's pretty beat up and the rubber strip is missing on one side.

One thing I noticed was that all sorts of dirt, leaves, and whatnot had collected between the trim and truck over the years and was causing rust issues...