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I'm just fitting my seam finishers and have a couple of questions...

Anyone have any tips for how to bend them slightly, without crimping them (ie. I tried bending one and it suddenly folded on itself). The fit is "okay" but not ideal.

Secondly, the front mouldings have a little tab at the bottom with a hole in it. What is this for? I bent it back 90-degrees for now while I fiddle with the fit.

Thanks!
W

In my experience they're are not easy or even possible to bend , you really have to rely on the clips to hold 'em in place. Goes without saying that the repro ones don't fit aswell as originals.

Big bucket - fill it with hot water - seam finishers in - wait 5-10 min - fit

you can use a hot air gun, but its easy to damage the plastic chrome, so if you do-? be carefull.

Jens Christian


edited 19-10-2010

yes vertical missed that

Assuming we are talking about the vertical not the horizontal seam finishers.

Use genuine ones, rely on the clips (stainless steel are available from Minispares) to hold them in place, once they are something like I usually use a blob or two of sikaflex or even araldite to encourage them to stay in place.

The tag with a hole you refer to is so they can hang them up when they are e coating them in the factory, this should be cut off before painting.

Thanks Mark, good to know I can cut the tab off!

Would you recommend running a bead of sikaflex down the whole seam?

Cheers,
Warwick

warwick

when i removed the seam covers from my mark 2, they where held on with clips and had a very thin bead of white mastic to 'glue' them on. obviously this was done before the car was painted, so you would need to be careful with it showing on your car

Thanks. Somehow I'd like to seal the panel joint from water (there are a few spots where there is a very slight gap in the panel joint) so I think I'll try a small bead of something when I install the moulding. I'm off to get the finishers painted this week...one more step closer!

As Rich says, in the factory these were fitted before the shell was painted on both my early cars there was no top coat under these finishers, just primer.

rather than trying to fill all the gaps with sealer I would suggest using the odd blob so the seam covers can be removed at some time in the future if needs be & once they are firmly on flood the entire area with waxoyl or something similar. This will wick up inside the seam cover & protect the area.

Glueing the entire thing on seems a bit permanent to me.