I'm not awfully anxious to take the door trim panel off again -- as easy as the guy makes it look in the video, it's NOT an easy job. Removal is a challenge. Before you can remove the trim you must remove the door handle and the window crank, of course. Then the armrest must be removed -- two large screws underneath in the later model cars (at least '73+). Then to remove the trim panel I used a small, flat pry bar with a thick piece of terry cloth, folded over several times, between the pry bar and the metal body of the door interior so not to scratch the paint.
Each clip must be CAREFULLY extracted from the corresponding hole in the door, in which there is a rubber insert. The biggest problem I had with removal of the trim panel was that the pressed board that the trim interior is made of will sometimes tear away at the clip point (that is, the hole tears through to the edge). This makes reinstallation of the trim panel very difficult, because you can't install the clip properly. This problem is a direct result of the very poor quality of the materials from with the trim panels are made.
I also had trouble with the vinyl trim that covers the pressed-wood panel interior coming unstuck -- after only about a year since the panels were purchased new. A little judicious application of contact cement, with clothes pins to hold the fabric in place till it dried, solved that little problem -- at least so I thought. Now here we are with another year passed, and the vinyl trim is coming unstuck around the edges again!
So -- I have (very carefully!) removed the door trim panels again, and they are laying on a piece of carpet in my garage. I've discovered a product called "Gorilla Glue," which is touted to be the strongest glue in the world (we'll see!). The glue requires 3-4 hours to set up, with the glued pieces clamped together. As I indicated, wooden clothes pins work very well for this. So far the Gorilla Glue is very promising -- I guess we'll see after another year has passed!
There is supposed to be a plastic sheet stuck to the door frame behind the door trim panel, but its very common for this sheet to be missing. You can often see the line of old glue around the frame where it was held in place. Rob reinstalled this plastic sheet behind the trim panels in his ’68 Bug to keep out the wet. Some water always gets into the doors - the outside rubber is not perfect even when new.
Before reinstalling the trim panels, there are three things you must do -
Install the trim panel slowly and carefully. MAKE SURE sure in each case that the clip is properly aligned with the rubber insert in the hole in the door frame before pushing it into place. If the clip is misaligned, and you try to pound the clip into place with your fist or a rubber mallet, you will tear out the clip hole in the trim piece every time. Voice of experience here -- if you tear out the hole (and it's very easy to do!) you've got a difficult problem on your hands.
In an attempt to repair the torn out holes, I glued some thin metal reinforcing strips (cut out of a tin can) along the edge of the panel for the clips to slide over; now with the panels off again I have found that this works very well, except, like the vinyl, the metal strips are coming unglued. Gorilla Glue seems to work well for gluing these strips in place as well.
Another difficult part of the door trim replacement is reinstallation of the arm rest. On the later model Bug's (at least '73+ on) there are two little white inserts that the reside in two square holes in the door frame. The arm rest screws are supposed to screw into these inserts. The problem is, the inserts have a tendency to fall out, and with the door trim in place that's a bit of a problem. The older design, in which the arm rest has a bracket behind it which slips over a tongue in the door, was superior. In that design you just bend the trim panel a little and you can see the bracket and slip it on, then line the clips around the rim up with the holes and pop them in. I solved the problem in my '73 SB by drilling a hole in the door frame and screwing a sheet metal screw right into the metal.
Good luck! I would welcome any comments, suggestions, war stories, whatever.
Disclaimer stuff: Rob and Dave have prepared this information from their own experiences. We have not assumed any specialised mechanical knowledge, but we DO assume that anyone using this information has at least some basic mechanical ability.
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Last revised 20 May 2004.
