Thanks to Tim 2nd day expressing the first set of silver side mouldings to me, I now have them installed and will share the pictures with you.
(1) First off, the installation is very easy. Took all of 10 minutes to do. The templates supplied with the side mouldings are very useful.
(2) Make sure the top of the template lines up nicely with what they call the character line of the car, which is a raised edge all along the body.
(3) Another thing to watch out for is to make sure the bottom of the two templates for the front and rear door lines up nicely. Otherwise, your side mouldings will look crooked. I used masking tape to secure the templates to the doors.
(4) Also, don't forget to use Isopropyl alcohol on the area where you will be adhering the moudling strips.
(5) Unfortunately, the templates don't tell you exactly where to place the moulding strips as the strips do not cover the entire length of the door. Markings on the templates would have been helpful. After examining my Honda Odyssey and other cars on the road, I concluded that the blunt end of the strips should line up fairly close to the edge of the door. The tapered ends point toward the front and the rear of the car.
(6) Make sure the strip lines up nicely with the template before putting any pressure on it. Once it is sticks on, it is very difficult to pull off again.
(7) Apply pressure evenly all along the strip to make sure it has securely adhered to the car.
I tried taking pictures from different angles to give you a good feel of how it looks. I am very pleased with it.
Please hang on for the pictures. My pictures are too large to attach. They are currently about 370KB each. I will try to get them down. If anybody has an idea how to do this, let me know. Sorry.
Can you help document how far in fractional inch the front piece BSM is to the rear edge of the front door? The same for the rear piece to the forward edge of the rear door.
* Front door where the strip would go - 40 3/4"
* Strip for front door - 37 1/2"
* Rear door where the strip would go - 29 1/2" (it is actually longer than that, but part of it is not flat close to the rear wheel where it is raised. So 29 1/2" is the flat part)
* strip for rear door - 27"
Notice that the longer strip goes on the front and the shorter strip goes on the rear. Just thought I'd mention it even though it should be apparent.
So you have some room to play with. Most side mouldings I see have the blunt edge come right up to the door, but most side mouldings span the length of the door. I have a 3/4 inch distance from the edge of the front door and a 1/2 inch distance from the edge of the rear door. The reason I have a longer space for the front door is that I thought that spot protects more of the door. It is really up to you what you feel is best. I also noticed that there are many side mouldings on cars have a thinner piece right at the edge of the door. I don't know if that means somehow the moudling might get caught when the door is fully extended. That's another reason why I didn't place the moulding all the way against the edge. Though when I open the door all the way and look at the clearance, there didn't seem to be a problem with the moulding getting in the way.
Oh, here is another IMPORTANT TIP. I feel it is probably best if you have two people working on this. The reason is that the template is kinda flimpsy. I did tape it down pretty well, but to get the edge of the moulding exactly against the edge of the template isn't that easy. You can't exactly tape down the edge of the template where the moulding is going because it will end up sticking on top of the tape, so it might be helpful to have someone press down on the template while you get the moulding lined up just right before putting pressure on it. Better yet, I used a long piece of flexiplastic to set my moulding against. It is easier to have something solid like that to put the mouldings against. Bottom line, if it isn't straight, it won't look right. Hope this is helpful.
Thanks, Moo, for the detailed description of installation experience. I have a 4 foot fiberglass leveler and will surely use it in the way you describe.