1965 Barracuda Door Trim... What a Pain

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Bruce Leee

Bruce Leee

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So this all started when I bought this car. I noticed both door trim pieces were cracked but they were still there. I was told they were rare and hard to find. A few weeks later. I took my car to a shop to have them see why my car kept dying. They broke one of them. Accidents happen. Lucky one popped up on ebay so I bought it right away. It was not the rigiat color for my car, so it needed to be painted with a clear coat. Had a tough time matching the paint with so many close colors. Sherman Williams Auto paint had it. I had my painter paint it up. 3 screws... Seems easy enough? Not even close. I wanted to smash it 10 times over. It would not seat right. 1 screw would sit well and the other 2 would not. It was not lining up on the dash either. Frustration! Here is what I did that worked in the end.
1. Took out the screws from the car where the trim would go.
2. Took out the top piece of trim also so I could get the lip under it.
3. Started from the bottom screw and worked my way up. - Presto all 3 screws in.

Now just to get the top back in. Easy right? Nope!

4. Had to take out the back trim to get the top back in. - 2 screws
5. The top would not slide back in like it came out. It popped back in with a few taps. 5 screws to put back.
6. Put the back piece back on.

Only took a few hours to figure this all out. But what a pain in the ***. Photos below.
 
Photos

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Nice, but how the heck did they break something that is so far out of the way if they were troubleshooting. I mean theres no wiring behind the A pillar.

Btw that old hard plastic can be glued back together easily if you have app the pieces with plastiweld solvent adhesive available from hobby lobby. If you dont have that available, methyl ethyl keytone from lowes with an acid brush works just as well.

Of course you would still have to sand and repaint
 
Mines all broken. Havent figured out what to do with it yet. Thats a long ways away.
 
Tooljunkie said:
Mines all broken. Havent figured out what to do with it yet. Thats a long ways away.
Click to expand...
Try using some "flash break tape" taped over the cracks on the finish side of the trim, then brush MEK over the cracks on the back side of the trim with an acid brush, and allow to dry. Its a solvent and will melt the plastic to rejoin it, without using glues. It makes the repaired joint as strong as the base plastic. Once dry, you can sand the part, primer, add a skim coat of evercoat polyester filler to the small defects at the crack area, and repaint.
 
I had chunks broken out of the rear plastic of my ramcharger. Holes, big holes.
Duct tape and mar-glass was all i had. Cant make it worse, right?
Well,i was amazed at how close it came to matching the texture. Had to look close for the repair.
im going to invest in some fiberglass mat and resins, build some molds and try my hand at making a few parts.
The lack of some of these parts is going to be frustrating.
 
Typical crack i fixed on a 69 barracuda grille. 4th pic is a piece of lexan plastic i used as a reinforcement over the repaired crack on the backside. The flashvbreak tape is key to keeping the solvent staying in the crack and holding the part together. The reinforcement probably wasnt needed as the glue joint was as strong as the rest of the part within 1 hour, but i figured it didnt hurt to put it on there.

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moparmat2000 said:
Nice, but how the heck did they break something that is so far out of the way if they were troubleshooting. I mean theres no wiring behind the A pillar.

Btw that old hard plastic can be glued back together easily if you have app the pieces with plastiweld solvent adhesive available from hobby lobby. If you dont have that available, methyl ethyl keytone from lowes with an acid brush works just as well.

Of course you would still have to sand and repaint
Click to expand...

My guess is they used that part of the car to help get themselves out of the car. There was missing pieces when I got it back. The other pieces were in my seats... It was beyond repair.
 
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