[Teohenwhy]

As some of you may already know alot of BMW's as well as other cars have a problem with vertical scratches after getting their windows tinted. That's because of the weather stripping. Dirt and residue gets caught between the hard plastic part of the weather stripping and the glass which then scratches the tint. On E90's I noticed that the top part of the weather stripping has the felt already on it as seen in the photo below, but the bottom part of the weather stripping that you can not see is actually made of hard plastic which is the problem. What happens is after time, dirt and other crap falls down and gets wedged between the had plastic part of the weather stripping and the window which causes scratches when you roll the window up and down. What you need to do is install soft moleskin on the hard plastic.


You can remove the weather stripping and install the moleskin without removing the door panels. I know some people actually pull out the door panels but it is not necessary. Here's what you do. Just grab the top of the door panel on one side and pull it towards you.


The top of the door panel is held on by metal clips .


Once you have the top of the door panel fully loosened from the metal clip you want to grab the middle part of the weather stripping and pull up. If you have a hard time pulling up with your fingers you can use some pliers and grab it.



My car already has the felt on the bottom part of the weather stripping but some of you will have hard plastic on the bottom part of the weather stripping



This is the moleskin you can get from www.tintprotector.com. It comes in a roll with adhesive on the backside of the moleskin to help it stick on the plastic part of weather stripping.



So what you want to do is measure the moleskin to make sure you cut off enough to cover the length of the weather stripping that you will be applying it to. Then trim the rest off. You will be applying the moleskin along the area of the weather stripping shown with the red line.


Now you need to peel off the white backing that covers the sticky part of the moleskin.


Now stick the moleskin on the plastic part of the weather stripping and it will now look something like this. In the picture I only stuck on a section of the moleskin since my weather stripping already has it.


After you are done installing the moleskin put the weather stripping back in by reverse procedure of how you took it out. I find it easier to put in by sticking one end of it into the top part of the window first then pushing it down and then pushing the rest of it down along the window. Hope this helps some people with installing moleskin without taking door panels off.

[NeoItaly1]

How do the metal clips pop on and off the panel? I have a 2011 335i sedan that I need to do. I was going to pay the BMW dealer to take the panels off for me so I could install tint protectors on. Just dont want to screw anything up...I got my windows tinted and rolled down my drivers window down and it scratched it. I have not rolled any other window down since....

[Teohenwhy]

Originally Posted by NeoItaly1

How do the metal clips pop on and off the panel? I have a 2011 335i sedan that I need to do. I was going to pay the BMW dealer to take the panels off for me so I could install tint protectors on. Just dont want to screw anything up...I got my windows tinted and rolled down my drivers window down and it scratched it. I have not rolled any other window down since....

I'm not sure about the 2011 models but most other years I have done you just pop the panel off the clip and then you pop it right back in afterwards.

[cdgatti]

One thing I found while doing this job is that if you remove the torx screws from behind the wood trim and the inner door handles you can just pop off the panels from the top like the original diy above more easily. This allows a little more freedom for working at the top of the panel when you are taking the rubber/felt seal in and out. You can leave the panel fully clipped in on the bottom so there is no need to support the panels as when you take them all the way off.

When I did one door with just pulling from the top clips and not taking anything off, they do pop out but I ended up putting a very slight crease in the panel as it must bend to allow the top out but keep the rest tight to the door. I thought the removal of the torx screws only was a nice compromise between this DIY and the full panel removal method as mentioned in the tintprotector.com instuctions.

[SQ5]

Sweeet write up. Tint Protector is good stuff.

[migey330i]

Thanks!

I just ordered mine, now I think I'm ready for the install

[Thrakos]

Thanks for the great writeup - saved me quite a bit of time!

[SQ5]

I wonder if you can also do this same thing with the four door?

[Ninpo1]

Originally Posted by fastsupra

I wonder if you can also do this same thing with the four door?

Yes. Same thing on the four door. I just put moleskin on my sedan following the same process as above and it works great! No more scratched tint!

[Kjelly]

Thanks for the DIY write-up and pictures. For the first two doors, I followed the TintProtector instructions. The last two, I ended up only taking off the wooden trim on the doors and then pulling the top away from the door. Everything worked out well except for one door, when the window wouldn't go back up. I figured out that the moleskin was catching against the window because I didn't cover the plastic/rubber weather stripping properly...

[bhanner95]

I am so glad I stumbled upon this. Thanks for the write up!

[bhanner95]

It looks like there's a different procedure for the E92. The gasket appears to be a larger piece that goes around the edge of the door

[SQ5]

Originally Posted by bhanner95

It looks like there's a different procedure for the E92. The gasket appears to be a larger piece that goes around the edge of the door

Looks like Tint Protector has instructions for both the 2 and 4 door.

Does anyone know which model year(s) E90s already come with the weatherstripping wrapped? It might be easier just to buy the new piece and slap it in there.

[rogerdiaz]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

Does anyone know which model year(s) E90s already come with the weatherstripping wrapped? It might be easier just to buy the new piece and slap it in there.

I would like a part number also.

[gotto87]

Does anyone know of this affects the e91 3 series wagons?
Thanks

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by gotto87

Does anyone know of this affects the e91 3 series wagons?
Thanks

I don't know why it would be any different than an e90. I imagine the internals inside the door are all the same or very similar.

[OldmanBMW]

Just did this using this DIY. Great Job!

FYI: 2006 330i 4 door Sedans already have the felt on the front doors. The rear doors do not. The "Hard Plastic" piece on mine was more like hard foam/rubber.

Another tip. You can remove the weather stripping with out rolling down the windows. I personally suggest doing this only because I got a scratch line in one window from rolling down the window before removal of the weather stripping. Trial and error, then learn from mistakes.

[modobrew]

Old thread, but I had to bump it because it saved me a ton of time. Tint Protector's instructions would have had me take just about the whole door panel off. I'm glad you posted this. Many thanks!

[blueridger]

Thanks to OP and others. No need to remove door panel on my 2011 335i e90! Many thanks to all who have contributed.

[dspence44]

So is this the exact same for the E92's? Can you follow the same steps as mentioned above or is the weatherstripping different on our E92's?

[fatjoez]

Just installed tintprotector today. Some tips below:

- The tintprotector is both longer and wider than needed for the whole car length + size of window strips

- Suggest measuring and cutting the width before sticking on it's easier

- Take the door handle screw entirely off, but just loosen the trim screws

- Use your fingers to squeeze the protector firmly to the plastic once you've stuck it on and before you install it back to the car

- once installed to the car check the window are going up and down properly.
one of my windows the tint protector caused the window to catch on the rubber and push the whole trim up. I had to slightly trim the rubber & tint protector in that area so it wouldn't do that