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Short Rear Side Molding


padgett

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Bad news is that I had the driver's rear side molding fall off the blue. Good news is I have a spare. Bad news is that the back side is not so good and too much is gone to hold.

Has anyone sucessfully repaired these ? If so how ? Alternately does anyone have a nice blue one with good plastic in back ?

post-31022-143138523532_thumb.jpg

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Padgett,

I was talking to my paint & body guy the other day about repair of these moldings. They are an unusual material (marked TPU, not sure what type of plastic that is exactly) that he is familiar with. He told me there is a good two-part product out now (mixed kind of like an epoxy) that has been very good for repairing bad spots in this type of plastic. He did not disclose the name of this product, but I could probably coax it out of him.

That said, I think it is geared more towards repairing gouges and nicks on the finish surface of the molding, rather than the "structural" part that holds it to the mounting clips. I rather doubt there is anything that will do a decent job of reforming the "lip" that pops over the plastic clips, as the pressure required to snap it over would probably crack the repaired area and negate the usefulness of the repair.

After typing all that, I guess what I am trying to say is that a new (well, undamaged) molding is going to be your best bet.

I do need to have some door ding type nicks on the 88 side moldings repaired. I will be interested to see how these come out with the repair compound he was referring to. I'll try to find out what this repair compound is and post it here for the knowledge base.

KDirk

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I have had very good success with using silicone sealant (caulking) as an adhesive.

One old but good test was bonding speakers in place on Corvairs. The original speakers were held in place with a stamping. Replacement speakers were much shallower than the originals so the factory bracket would not work without modifications. I would put a bead of the sealant at the screw locations, place the speaker on the underside of the dash and hold it there for 24 hours with a scrap of wood. Never had one come loose.

More recently I always use the silicone to hold "R" emblem on Reatta hubcaps. Epoxy is too brittle and road bumps will break (epoxy) loose.

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Just had a thought: since there are only two clips on the rear molding and both slide off the same way, why not JB Weld the molding to the clips ? Since just painted last year I doubt that I will ever need to remove and if I do, it should pop off sideways. Thoughts ?

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Guest Mc_Reatta

I'd suggest you go with silicone adhesive as Barney also recommended. Think it would be much superior for this application.

I just did one of mine this way when I could not find a replacement clip anywhere.

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Guest steveskyhawk

Problem is if you jb weld the clips to the moulding you will llose the forward back adjustment ability unless the placement of the clips is perfect.

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