Replace body side molding on 68 VW Beetle

This VW bug requires quite a few things to be done before considered driveable. First I’m going to cover the body side molding replacement because I can do that quickly.

This VW Beetle was missing the rear quarter panel side moldings on both sides and the door, front fender and hood moldings were dinged, bent, scratched and generally dull. We don’t know if they were the originals but they needed to go. The new replacement set was made in Germany and came from West Coast Metric.

Removing the old body side moldings wasn’t rocket science. They all came off simply by prying with my fingers. The body side molding clips were all old, dry rotted and brittle, and needed to be replaced. They would not hold the new body side moldings and we didn’t want to risk loosing the body side moldings due to re-using bad molding retainer clips. Besides, new clips are not expensive. Even the 7 piece body side molding was only $28. You couldn’t justify the work required for straightening and buffing out the existing body side moldings when you can buy new for that price.

Removing the molding clips wasn’t difficult either. I used a good pair of vise grips. You wouldn’t want to do this with an old worn out pair. The pair I have are only about 6 months old and the serated tips are nice and sharp so I know they will grip the body side molding clips well with minimal pressure. If you don’t have such a good pair you could drive the center pin through the clip using a fine blunt tip punch. Without the center pin, the molding clip retainer will shrink and the body molding clip will likely just fall out. I didn’t need to use such precision though. The vise grips worked real well.

Before inserting the new molding retainer clips you need to be sure the holes are clean and free of any rust scale, body filler, or built up dried paint. You can use a drill bit, run it in and out by hand or a sharp pointed knife to clean the inside edges of the holes. If the holes are not clean the center pin might not sink into the molding clip correctly when tapped because the expansion collar on the backside of the molding clip can’t open properly. I had a couple that did not sink in properly dues to the panel being too thick where there was body filler. I tapped the molding clip center pins down as far as they would go and then cut off the remainder with a carpet knife.

Be carefull not to use anything too heavy when tapping down the molding clip center pins. You can deliver a fair amount of force with something like a hammer and dent the body panel, or crack or chip any body filler. I used a 1/2 inch pipe plug which weighs only a couple of ounces.

Once the body molding clips are in, you can simply snap the body side molding in place. The same procedure goes for the hood/trunk center molding as well.

In the next article I’ll cover the replacement of the wiper switch.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Automotive day. The entry is tagged under You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.