Shaved Side Markers
 

Has anyone on here shaved their side markers themselves? I know of a few body shops that can do it for me, but it seems as though all that needs to be done is plastic weld/mold a piece to where the side marker once was. I've looked everywhere and haven't found anything specific saying how it is done. Is it really that simple? Or should I have an auto body shop do it for me instead? :iono:

Filling the gap is the easy part; just slap some fiberglass and bondo on it. You're paying the body shop to know how to seamlessly blend that patch into the rest of the fender and paint it so that you can't tell the sidemarker was ever there. I'd go the professional route.

there is a push rivet for the front bumper under there. You can access it from the wheel well lining if needed but its certainly easier from the outside.
It it was me I'd recommend just getting your stock one painted and leaving it there, incase you ever need to get under the bumper.

I've been thinking about if I even need them to paint match it though. I am getting it wrapped in a few weeks, so paint matching isn't really a priority for me. Would it be easier to have them paint match it anyways? Or should I just not have it painted, and save on costs?

This. I just vinyl wrapped it, and now the sidemarker is barely noticeable. Unless building a show car or a person is just a super picky owner, painting or wrapping works well.

Vilar Autobody in Linden did mine.

The pushclip is now just a nut and bolt, i cut a lot of bracketry out so under full compression there is more room.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7057/...68347308_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8871/1...87c4eb8f_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/405/18...6c34a17c_b.jpg

And this was way before when i jsut had paint matched sidemarkers. honestly for the hassle just go paint matched and done shave...even though it does look super clean sahved. I also have a shaved front bumper too so i'm biased i guess.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...49568643_o.jpg

I'm sorry, is this even legal? I'm pretty sure U.S. law requires all cars to have side markers. Don't mean to be a killjoy or anything.

It would only be fully legal if you modified some other part to have an amber reflector near the front/side. in many vehicles you'll see it integrated into the headlight assembly.


As far as advising people on things, a 2nd unstated reason for recommending just painting the stock ones is if he gets a fix it ticket, he can purchase new/used OEM sidemarkers to replace back, When making modifications of this kind I generally tend to stick to the med difficulty/easily reversible options.

Yea I don't see the point in doing this given how much trouble you can get yourself into, possibly expensive trouble at that. Imo if you don't like the amber reflectors just swap them out for some clear or smoked ones and then switch back to OEM when you take the car in for inspection. I know side reflectors are just ugly in general but the law is the law :iono:

If one switches out for inspection, imho mounting of sidemarkers should be modded. Too easy to brake off tabs from them. I'm also thinking that car would look better without them, and if they are must have, then should be rather placed in side mirrors, +that will also make front bumpers cheaper to manufacture .. but as they are where they are, and we here have technical inspection every year, i wouldn't want to deal with switching them each year.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wv_AU5zVtZM/maxresdefault.jpg

May save some money shaving with these guys! :)

yes, and the law also requires no tampering with emission devices, no window tint, a front plate, etc etc etc. This won't hinder me from passing inspection ever, and when was the last time you heard someone get pulled over for not having side markers. what you've said can be said about a lot of things.

Thanks guys! I will probably just go with having the side marker vinyl wrapped with the rest of the car. Maybe sometime down the road, I will look more into having it shaved. But thank you for all of the advice!