My new PiP with RAV4 side molding

In case you're looking for tips on installing the moldings on your car, here is what I've done.

Find the front and rear height where you want the moldings to be as mentioned above.

Put a piece of masking tape at the front of the front door and the back of the back door and mark on the masking tape the point where the top of the molding will be.

Using a carpenter's chalk line, snap a straight line on the side of your car between those two marks on the masking tape. This is where the top of the molding will be.

Then just line the molding up with the chalk line as you put it on.

The chalk line will wipe off when you're done.

 

An issue to consider is alignment to the car's lines. My install needs to be redone as the moldings end up straight while the rest of the car's lines are all angled to the car's wedge lines.

If you look at the pic, the molding seems slightly out of alignment. This also has to do with the wedge shape of the RAV4 moldings.

To redo, dealer is going to line it up, making the lower edge parallel with the lower side molding. This will tilt it down due to the wedge shape of the molding.

 

Thanks for the install tip. yeah, looks a little off whack there.

Going back to the silver metallic on the gray. Can any silver owners tell me if the silver is the same shade as the silver door handles and rear silver strip? I'm thinking if that shade is the same, then I'll go silver metallic on my gray.

Thanks

 

I'm confused: Allannde appears to have aligned the bottom of the molding with the bottom of the door, while M8s appears to have alligned the top of the molding with the bottom of the door. At least that's my reading of the two posts. Correct? If so, is it better (asthetically) to have the top or the bottom of the molding I will install parallel to the bottom of the door (or the ground)? Comments/opinions?

I will add that ProximalSuns' post (above) also confuses me: "To redo, dealer is going to line it up, making the lower edge parallel with the lower side molding. This will tilt it down due to the wedge shape of the molding." How will making the lower (bottom?) edge of the molding parallel with the lower side molding (bottom of the door?) tilt the molding down? Well, I guess the top of the molding will rise gradually front-to-back and this could be the "tilt." But won't this be up? If so, I think he/she is using Allannde's method.

Finally, I would prefer the use of ground level as the reference point rather that the bottom of the door, or the top or bottom of the bottom door molding (which not all of us have). Is there a reason not to do so?

And I AM sorry for all this . . . .

 

I think the top, straight edge of the BSM should be parallel with the contour line in the side of the body (the bend under the side windows).

 

I talked to the dealer about that today and the consensus at their shop was that would be too extreme an angle. They looked at all these pics and felt Allande's original install (bottom edge aligned the top edge of the lower side molding) was the way to go,

Their thinking was each piece, the lower side molding, the middle side molding and the upper straight edged of the car body are at increasing angles and this would have the best effect.

It came out well. I'll post a pic when the sun comes out to create a before/after pic.

They pointed out another aspect (they must have had everybody at the dealership give an opinion) which is the moldings are made to line up vertically at the break where the doors meet the way my original is installed per the manual (manual for a RAV4). By angling them down a bit, the break of the moldings are angled slightly. It is barely perceptible.

The dealership was having fun with it...no doubt laughing about the crazy Prius owners reading this thread and grabbing the pix. I was getting txt messages at work with pix with "Like this?" and closeups of the door transition spot.

 

yea, it pretty wacky ... i had 2 different prius owner say mine looked cool ... kinda strange 'cuase it looks like thiers, but the pip has a few changes and the secret moldings ... they make the car ... thanks allendale ... i did it exactly like him

blake master

 

You had the BSMs installed at the dealer? How much did that set you back?

 

searched online first ... found for $120 ... made toyota of hunt bch match price ... had body shop install with Allendale's pic in hand while they painted my euro mudflaps to match my classic silver ... $25 per or $100 total ... the install was free

blake

 

So you had all the work done at Toyota of Huntington Beach? Did they install the BSMs for free because you purchased the BSMs from them?

How did the painted mudflaps turn out? I'd love to see pics.

 

I haven't installed any BSMs on a 3G liftback but the instructions that come with the PriusChat BSMs, for both the 2G liftback and the Prius v, instruct you to put the top line about 1" higher in the rear than they are in the front. I went with 1 1/4" higher on two 2G liftbacks and two Prius vs and they look great.

I can't tell you what to do with a PIP except that I'd angle the top line to be compatible with the wedge shape of the car.

 

They charged me $95 to install the first time. The second time they were putting on the clear film paint protector on the front end, hood, leading edge of front fender and mirrors and bundled it into the price.

From the txt's and pic I got during the day about it (they ended up keeping the car two days and giving me a free loaner), they probably spent more time looking at pix on PC and playing with the side moldings than they spent on installing the paint protector on the front end. I think they kind of had fun with the whole thing.

 

Thanks to all for your speedy and informative replies.

Allannde: Did you align the bottom of your molding with top of the rocker molding by using the center 2/3rds (or so) of the rocker molding or by "drawing a line" betweem the tops of the two end points? Unfortunately, my v does not have rocker moldings so I will have to improvise and probably follow M8s' procedure.

By the way, the width of the doors on the III and v are the same (where the side moldings are placed), +/- errors of measurement.

 

How are the BSMs installed? I'm assuming it's just some peel & stick adhesive backing. If so, seems like they would be an easy enough DIY project. Why go with an installer unless there is more to it than that. Did you also have the rocker moldings installed, or were those installed at port? If you did the rocker moldings yourself, is it the same concept - simple peel & stick adhesive backing?

I really liked how yours turn out, so I definitely appreciate the info.

 

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Thanks again for all the help. FUUFNF: You are right--but special care is needed when the molding has two parallel strips of tape--one does not want to tear one of them while pulling it off because the other has already adhered to the car body.

And not to complain about Toyota nomenclature, but one would think it could do better than III, three, 3, v, V, etc. PiP makes sense--but I bet it is not a Toyota term.

 

I wuz wrong. Allannde is absolutely right! They're from the current generation RAV4.

(Notwithstanding the current generation RAV4 IS the previous generation RAV4! The current body style has been out since 2004 according to Wikipedia

Regardless, my box from TRD Sparks is labeled:
Part No. PTA-42060-20
RAV4, BSM, BLSD PRL, 070

I think 20 is the Blizzard Pearl color code for the RAV4, whereas it's 70 for the Prius....