Top of Door Trim

[Dutch 165]

Body shop called today and said they were going to install top of door and quarter panel moulding but couldn't due to the trim not being curved enough to lay flat against the top of the doors. He tried to bending it to match the door and it broke. This is repro stuff so I don't know what to think. No holes were drilled for the clips. He also said the fender wheel moulding doesn't fit also. The wheel moulding trim is from year one and the fenders were junk from goodmark. Has anyone had any experence with this?

 

[71Plym]

The repro top of door trim is flat and the original had a curve to follow the top of the door curvature. I had my originals and had to bend the new trim to match. I bent the repro very gently on the top of my thigh. Eventually got a bend that was close, but the repro trim still has some stress marks from the bend.

Not certain about the lack holes for clips. I don't think there should be any holes. The plastic clips attach to studs on the door and then the trim snaps on to the clips.

 

[Dutch 165]

Thanks for the reply, The holes are for the the fingers in the plastic clips that are expanded with the small plastic dowel pins to hold them in place I believe. I'm going to leave them off for now. Car will be back this week, I,m going to tape up the wheel openings and check the wheel moulding to see what going on with that. What was wrong with your original trim pieces and do you still have them?

 

[71Plym]

The plastic clips you describe sound like the ones for the trim that goes around the tail panel on a Cuda (Barracuda did not have that trim).

There should be studs on the top of the door for the trim clips. Again, this is Cuda trim. Barracudas did not have top of door trim and will not have the studs.

 

[71cudajoe]

I replaced the door top trim on my car -- a 71 Cuda. I bought reproduction pieces and they fit really well. I sold my original pieces because they were tarnished pretty badly. I actually bought my new ones through a seller on ebay: classicconnection1.

I also have new wheel well trim on my car from YearOne and it fit well also.

I dug back into the photos of my car during its restoration. Here are a couple from a year ago when I was working on the window glass. I'm not sure if it helps, but you can see the door top trim clips.

 

[nqkjw]

The wheel well trims on my challenger came from yearone.
3 fit fine.
In the 4th one the holes were drilled in the wrong places so I just redrilled the fender lip to suit the trim.

 

[burdar]

Wheelwell trim should always be fitted to the car before paint. Most of them need tweaking to fit. Trying to put them on for the first time after the car is painted is not good. Many times you need to use clamps to bend the molding to conform to the curve of the fender/quarter.

I've heard that the Cuda trim is worse than the Challenger trim.

 

[Dutch 165]

Thanks for the pics, they will come in handy, I'll show them to Tony at the body shop. I still have the original fenders, I'll check the wheel moulding on them first. Not sure what to do on the rear since both quarter panels were replaced, I'll tape them up before trying to fit the moulding.