Hello everyone.

I just bought a 1999 GV in very nice shape, a week ago.  I really really like the little truck and I intend to keep it in good shape and keep it as long as I can.

I work at a garage that also does undercoating (a kind of oil spray but it has the look and consistency of ketchup before spraying - Rustblock).  What I would like to do is remove the body cladding (wheel arches, rockers, and door panels), remove any splash panels in the wheel wells, etc, and undercoat all of it, and then put the body cladding back on.

I saw a whole bunch of plastic clips that hold the rockers on from underneath, but what holds them on top, and what holds the door panels on?  Will I have to take the interior door panel off?  And will I have to get new clips (like christmas tree clips) to get it to all go back on properly, tightly against the body?

I just want to know what I am getting into, I don't want to ruin any of the claddings and I want to be sure it will all go back on looking nice.

Thanks for any tips, I searched the site and I found a lot of stuff on how it looks with the cladding off, I would rather have it on but I would like to get under it to "rustproof" it ASAP.

James

The things with no clips simply use those christmas tree clips you mention. To get them out you have to pull, but once you put them back on they don't fit as well as they did. I suppose you can buy new ones and then the fit would be perfect again...

That would be the door panels I suppose.

I'll see about taking the inside door panel off and see what's going on.... I guess if I want to get new christmastree clips they're dealer only at like $13  a piece, I bet...

James

The clips can be expensive if you go to the dealer, I would try and go to a body shop and see if they can get you the clips. If you remove the the interior door panels use a pair of pliers and a plastic spreader. Squeeze the clips and use the spreader to pry the moulding away from the door. It should save most of the clips

It's ok, I'm all done.  They're not held on by xmastree clips (they HAVE to be replaced to snug down as tight as originally installed).  The wheel arches were held on by little square white plastic clips that are released from inside the fender, all I do is use some... well I'd call them pinchy pliers, they're actually for hoses but I squeeze the clips one at a time and they all come out.

The three hardest things to do were
1.  The front black plastic inner fender liners have a metal screw tucked under where it meets up with the front bumpercover.  Whatever it screws into was rusted to it or siezed, when I turned the screw (actually a bolt) I guess the plastic nut on the other end broke so I had to kinda rip a hole to get the plastic inner fender out.  No problem now though, now that it's all back together.

2. The wheel arches that go over the rear wheels, the clips are still not accessable even after removing the inner fender liners.  Fortunately none of the clips were damaged.  Also all of the fender liners have a kind of "seal" thing that goes around the top edge, well the rear ones were loose and floppy and it was hard to get them to stay in place while I was reinstalling the rear arches.

3.  Realizing that I had to install the front inner fender liners BEFORE installing the front wheel arches.   That was a bit of a pain.

Other than that, no real problems, everything that came off, went back on no problem.  The rocker panels are the easiest.  They (and everything else) use pushclips that you use a screwdriver to pry up the center and then pull out.  Once all the pushclips are out the rocker merely lifts off, no hidden pins or clips to break.  Went nuts with the anti-rust agent - used about twice as much as I would on a normal car.

TTYL

James

Oh yeah and I didn't remove the body cladding from the doors.  I took the door panels off (very easy I might add, I guess I'm just used to door panels being a pita) and lifted the plastic sheet, and I could see that some of the white square clips were really really hard to get to so I decided not to take them off.  Instead, since the door panels were off I just went in there with the rustproofing gun and sprayed all around inside the door.  I love those doors, they come apart and go together so nicely.   

James

Got any pics of the work?