Rear wheel trim

[Dutch 165]

Finally gave up on trying to bend aftermarket rear wheel trim to look halfway decent where the quarter panel makes a hard angle near the bottom at the rear of panel. I had bought original trim years ago and decided to check the fit on the AMD replacement quarters. After a little careful bending and redrilling a few of the holes, it fit where I can live with it. Removed the trim, boxed and shipped it out this afternoon to have cleaned up and reanodized. Going to be a little costly but I won't be beating the body up any more. If anyone has original trim hang on to it or make some ones day by selling it at Mopar show.

 

[Avalanche]

I have bought these from year one and they fit really well. Just needed to open them up a little.

 

[Jim k]

I need all 4 wheel opening moldings for my cuda. Anyone else have decent fit with the year one moldings ?

 

[Dutch 165]

The first set I started with came from year one. They fit pretty good until I got to the lower bottom of the quarter panel where the body makes that beautiful 45 degree turn in. That section towards the back of the car being more pronounced then the lower front area are where the after market trim sets have the problem. The vendor that made the trim for Chrysler must of had a bending jig that would put that angle on the trim without distorting it too much. All the original trim I have has a little distortion in that area on the back side where it doesn't show. With the aftermarket trim we also have possibility of marring the anodizing when doing some serious bending in that lower area. I read somewhere that one solution was to cut out a small section, bend trim, tig weld it, grind and repolish, then send it off to have it re-anodized. I'm not totally against aftermarket trim as if you don't have any at all you have to start somewhere I just wish the companies making it would pay more attention to the fit of their product. After doing some research, it seems the Chevy guys have the same problem with the wheel trim.

 

[Dutch 165]

Posting pictures of factory wheel trim showing clamp marks that show up at both ends only on the inside where the molding faces the mounting lip. The outside shows no clamp marks and was probably cleaned up before it was anodized. It must be quite an operation, maybe sometime it will show up On How It's Made. After looking at piece of trim from my 65 B'Cuda the E body piece looks like child's play.

 

[Dutch 165]

Posting pictures of the c clamps and cut pieces of different thickness of paint sticks used in the very crude and unrehearsed you tube video I made some years ago installing wheel trim.

 

[Jim k]

found your videos on youtube. part 1 and 2. looks like a pretty good attack plan.

 

[Dutch 165]

Jim, thanks for your comment, looking back I should have taken the time to do a better job. I'm waiting to hear from Bill, the fellow I sent the rear trim to. He said he would call and give estimate but it won't matter unless it's over a thousand or more. Then again restoring a e body is like owning a boat. Bring Out Another Thousand

 

[Jim k]

Yep. I’m getting $500’d to death. will be well worth it in the end though.