Installing inside door trim

[René R.]

I got an upholstery kit from Sewfine -- it looks terrific. Now I want to install the stainless trim for the side panels, which I bought from Wolfsburg West.

But-- there is no way in hell the provided clips will fit into the channel on the back of the trim pieces. I've even tried filing / grinding them a bit but to no avail.

Is there some secret to this? Or a source for correctly-sized clips? Very frustrating.
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Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996)

[ZENVWDRIVER]

I never bought anything from WW... if they sell the trim ,they must sell the small slide-in clips... no? You'd think so... how about the originals?
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[René R.]

They supply the clips with the trim. I guess I need to call them to find out why they won't fit.

Unfortunately I don't have the original trim to recover the old clips from.
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Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996)

[ZENVWDRIVER]

[56Island]

I purchased both the molding and the trim clips from WW and had no issue with the fitment. There are early and late model clips, are you sure you have the correct ones?
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[hutmo]

Purchased the trim and the clips from WW... totally satisfied. You must have the wrong clips.

Silver clips... simple "L" shape. Slides right in.

HUTMO
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Samba Member #1115
Joined Feb 6, 2002

[René R.]

I have emailed WW to ask. The clips were sent as part of the set, they weren't ordered separately. But there's absolutely no way they will just slide right in so perhaps they did send the wrong ones.

To be continued!
_________________
Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996)

[txoval]

Can you post a pic?

[René R.]

Problem solved. WW said they were the right clips, and to use a strong pair of pliers to slide them since they're tight. Well, I had tried that but they were much too tight. I decided to try flattening the raised ridge on the base of the clip to relieve some of the tension in the channel. A couple of hard squeezes with pliers lowered the ridge enough to allow the clips to slide, still with a lot of difficulty but at least it was possible. The picture below shows the slightly flattened clip above a normal one.

Once I finally got them in place it was smooth sailing. They're all mounted and they sure aren't coming off. Looks great.

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Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996)