Removing (and possibly replacing) Black Out Tape?

Thinking of removing the black out tape that's between the windows. Mine are fairly marked up and the pillars behind them are painted (it's basically just a vinyl sticker from what I can tell). Anyone with an MGM CM done this yet? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

@Roman can you verify if these have their own adhesive backing by chance?
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Pick up a small roll of 3M 1080 vinyl wrap and re- cover the ones you have now. I did mine in gloss black, here's a before and after

 

Thought about doing that actually (and changing the color just to play around), but I wanted to see what it looked like w/o them before buying new vinyl first.

 

Looks good gloss!

 

I did the pillars on my Jeep the same way. Makes a big difference on looks. Yours looks good!

 

For anyone wanting to add a custom look to your stock pillars check out this link. Tuf skinz offers high gloss carbon, matte carbon, blazing blue, gloss red, gloss white, chrome and many other custom colors. There $199 but they're pre cut and ready to install. They also offer a lot of other interior products. I’ve used all their colored interior foam inserts and they are great!

https://www.tufskinz.com/collections/toyota/products/2007-up-toyota-tundra-door-pillars-4-piece-kit?variant=8226437038176

 

Does anyone happen to know the shade of red in the TSS Off Road decal for MGM (and possibly other colors) trucks? It would be nice to be able to match that as closely as possible for vinyl accents. I've contacted Toyota and they don't have any info about it.

 

They do come with adhesive on them.

 

For those that have removed the "black out tape", I was wondering what the weatherstripping reveal between the front and rear doors affected the "look". I would like to remove the black out on a Salsa Red, but the thought of the black weatherstripping makes me wonder if would look awkward.

 

@Sas I just did mine gloss black to make it look like one big window

 

Using vinyl over the old blackout? I'm thinking that trying to remove the old might be, uh, problematic. Waiting to see how that goes.

 

I was out on the road for work Ft Worth area, I believe that's what guy told me, I walked over to a bar, didn't see install, he just went over old one he told me, $50 bucks great job

 

I took mine off my silver double-cab, thinking of doing it to my mgm cm.

 

Here's my old silver DC.

 

Rockgate, THANKS that's what I want mine to look like!

There is a piece of weatherstripping between the front and rear door. It looks like it was put there to complete the "blackout" theme, because I don't see it doing that much good as the doors all have weatherstripping between the door and the cabin. Since I don't want a black stripe showing, I'm think I'm going to remove that piece of stripping so the truck body color shows thru. Can anyone give me a good reason not to do that?

 

I suspect it would be cheaper for Toyota to apply a blackout tape to that column area under the door gap if hiding body color was their sole reason for that weatherstrip. You won't know if "waterleaks" is a good reason until you try it.

 

Welcome from NY.

 

JohnLakeman, That makes a lot of sense! Since that piece of weather stripping is held in place by clips, not adhesive, I can give it a go and if it doesn't work out.....snap it back in. I would have to cover the clip holes in the pillar with duct tape or something, because those would leak in. Still up in the air.....first tho is to see what it looks like with that stripping in place....this line of questioning may all be for naught.

 

You know, it could be the other way around. The sole reason for the between-the-windows blackout was to hide the presence of a weatherstrip necessary to seal the door gap. Toyota has used this between-the-doors blackout device on many vehicles since the eigthies; I always assumed if was a styling trick to make the "column" between the doors disappear to the casual eye.

 

I would bet that weather strip is there to keep out water and debris. Think about it, weather strip is considerably more expensive than black paint or tape. They wouldn’t waste the money there if they didn’t think it was necessary.

 

Zapp, since it's only 20" long and just runs behind the blackout tape, I wonder how much water and debris it could keep out. The door has its own weatherstripping securing the door to the cabin, but it isn't at the doors edge so there is space for water to enter at the top of the door.....which is channeled down the edge to exit at the door sill area. I think its worth a try just to see. Again, if that weathstripping doesn't look "funny" when the blackout is removed, I'd let it ride. But if I think it would look "cleaner" without that stripping......off it comes!

 

It’s not my truck so it’s not my issue. I’m just looking at the logic of it. That is, “if they installed it” it has a purpose. What that purpose is I don’t know. It could just be an NVH issue.

 

Zapp, Thanks for your input. I believe that ALL input is valuable! It makes one think about things they may not have thought about......and some that they have. I would rather hear something 2 or 3 times than not hear it all. I can appreciate your statement! By the way. does NVH stand for Noise, Vibration, and ????.....

I agree, the strip was installed for some reason. I'm just trying real hard to see what the purpose was. I'll keep looking.....maybe I'll find out and maybe I won't. The risk is on me!

 

Some models come without the tape.

 

Noise, vibration and harshness is the industry statement for all the squeeze rattles and road noise.

Whatever you decide to do please post up what your findings are as I too am interested to find out.

 

... as usual

 

So all you did was remove that black pillars and underneath is painted?

 

Yes, I was worried the paint might not look good underneath but it was as good as the rest of the truck. Be careful though, it extends under the black moulding.

 

I suggest if you don’t want the black weather strip line under the pillar spot. Just get a little bit of color matched vinyl wrap and wrap it.