My clips upgrade for Rubber-metal side trim and Rocker

[pehlivanov_tii]

I just experienced some issues with poor mounting of the side rubber-metal trim and i decided to share a little hack that i made. My clips were coming of the body.
Also a hack for the white clips for the rocker trim which i haven’t tested yet, but theoretically it should work. I am talking about the white clips with the pin that is used for both trim.

 

1. Rubber-meral trim clips issues

- I find it very hard to push to the end those pins

- when finally managed to insert it it feels like it is not hard this clip to come off the body.

 

My solution is upgrading the clip to bolt + nut securing for which as you guess the interior cards must be off. And this is working for rear quarterpanels and door clips (except the first front clip of the door)

1. With the angle grinder i removed some material to make space for the screw/bolt head, you don’t need more than 1-1.5 mm taking off. The bolt is diameter M5 mm x 20 mm long with stop nut (i used the ones with the self locking rubber material in their thread).

2. Also i removed the part that is actually inserted in the door (i left around 1-2 mm from it to be easier when mounting it will stay in place in the door until i tight the bolts and the nut

3. In my case i had to put an offset stainless steel washer between the clip and the door. Until i put the washer in my case the trim was not attached good, the goal is to hear a nice click when push the trim in the clip. in most of the places 0.5 mm is just fine for as tight fit as possible, but in one place i needed 2x0.5 mm. My trim is from MVP.

 

 

 

2. Rocker trim clips

now this is not tested, and i know it has been discussed a lot black type clips vs the new white ones. When i ordered these the black ones were not available, now they are back and i will try them as well, but hear me out.

Again one of the issue is easy coming off the body clip. And since i can’t do the bolt + nut hack here, i tried another thing. The pin of the clip is 5 mm. So i thought that if this diameter is higher that will additionally extend the part of the clip that goes in the body and it shouldn’t come off so easy. Also it is hard to remove the clip if you have to. So i managed to put a screw/bolt without a head (i don’t know how they are called, but you should know) with diameter 6 mm (+1 mm from the original

design). With the tap thread tool i had to make a thread. You only need 2-3 mm of thread, the screw will do the rest, and especially don’t go all the way with the tap thread tool to the extendable locking part of the clip - the goal is to stretch that part a bit more and making thread in it won’t help that. I haven’t tested that but for sure it can’t be worse than the original design.

 

Edited May 8 by pehlivanov_tii

[TobyB]

I was thinking maybe you had done some 3d printing with TPU, which would be a neat solution...

 

...I too have used fasteners.  With a little care, they work a lot better, I agree.

[Mike Self]

Truth be told, I've never had a knee trim piece come off due to a clip failure. 

 

Rocker panel trim, yes--especially with the white clips (actually meant for an E21), but the original black ones were NLA for a long time.  Now they're available again.

 

Hah!  I won a bagful at the recent Mid America 02Fest door prize drawing!  

 

mike