Thread: Fitting Rear Door Trim Finisher

Originally Posted by chuck

Rear Door Trim Finisher on the passenger side broke off on the freeway the other day.

....

Which one?
Do you mean the C pillar external trim piece?

Originally Posted by AK83

Which one?
Do you mean the C pillar external trim piece?

AK 83

Yes that the one - passenger side.

I currently have mine out, and replaced one of those external pillar trims too.

Remove the upper rear side trims. These are easy, and require simples tools. Depends on which model you have too.
My early(99) used only push clips(mainly christmas tree type clips)
My 03 has mainly chrsitmas tree clips, but two are screw in, with covers to hide the philips screws.
If you have alarm fitted, then the only 'snag' will be on the drivers side where the volumetric sensor is fitted, if you want to save it, needs to be unclipped. The sensor stays on the trim tho.

Then for the lower trims, you need to locate the same colours christmas tree clips, about mid way down vertically on the trim. I didn't pull these lower trims all the way out, although I should have.
They need to be pulled back just enough to get the socket in to unscrew the nut.
Seat back obviously needs to come down, I didn't fold all the way forward, enough room just the back down. Once you have things apart, you should see 3 round gaffer tape spots, two hidden by the upper trim, and the bottom one revealed when you pull the lower trim away.

I used a 1/4 drive socket on a screw driver handle .. 7mm socket for the trim nuts. You need to peel or cut the gaffer tape circles and be sure to clean it out of the access holes. If any threads are obstructing the holes, you will(99.99% chance) lose the retaining nut down the pillar, and it'll be gone forever.
I used a magnet on the tool to try to hold the nut on while I extracted it out of the recess hole, and only lost one(I had spares anyhow.. but not the point).
I'd suggest maybe use a small sticky stuff in the socket to hold the nut .. maybe a dot of bluetack or similar.
There is a fair amount of thread on the trim piece, so you can't really use a magnetic socket(socket with a magnet inside it) .. the thread needs to get deeper into the socket for the socket to bite onto the nut.

It really is another stupid design by the LR engineers.

Note, there is a large square shaped access hole at the base of the inside of the pillar, when you pull back the lower trim section. I would suggest you stuff rag(s) down in there before you try to remove the nuts. The nuts could be easily retrieved if they fall off the socket .. but the idea is to stop them going deeper down into the wheelarch depths inside the pillar, from where you'll never get them out.
Don't over tighten the nuts up when it's fitment time too.
What I did, was to have the nut in the socket, carefully get it back in the pillar, and line it up at the access hole you can see from the outside. I did the bottom first(coz this is the harder of the three) lined up the trim thread to it .. and just a could of turns to hold it in place. then the same for the middle nut, and finally the top .. all loose then tighten them up only to the point where you can shift the trim around a little by hand but it'll stay in place. Close door, line it up nicely, and then tighten them up properly.

If you don't have one, get yourself a proper trim clip removal tool .. the screw driver/fork/jimmy bar type tool to prise up trim clips.

example tool.

I have the plastic versions of these trim clip tools, and they do work ... but the really cheapo (free in a trim clip pack I bought) metal version is so much better.

EDIT: forgot to add the upper rear trim above the door. this piece just pulls out.

Yes the rule is don't move the car backwards by pushing on the plastic trim.

I cannot recall the steps, as I replaced mine several years ago as it dismantled itself as I was driving past Goulburn on the expressway, but the post seems correct. What a pain it is.

My number plate cover now has a big crack across it, as SWMBO had not noticed a light had fallen behind my fridge and tensioned the door so it wouldn't unlatch. The fix was to push on the door while working the latch as I found out after breaking the plastic.
So now I need a LH plastic trim behind the rear wheel and a numberplate light cover. And I bet you have to dismantle the door to replace it.
Anyone have any spares or know a cheap source.?
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by PhilipA

.....
So now I need a LH plastic trim behind the rear wheel and a numberplate light cover. And I bet you have to dismantle the door to replace it.
Anyone have any spares or know a cheap source.?
Regards PhilipA

I would fibreglass it if it's just a crack and no pieces missing. If you had pieces missing and are expert at fibreglass, then even better.

Cover comes off relatively easy, just one annoying nut/bolt(can't recall which) near the lock mechanism... otherwise fairly straightfoward.

I changed the shards of plastic that remained on my bros D2 a while back .. IIRC the original type uses flanged nuts, where studs are embedded into the plastic cover ... I replaced with a fibre glass one off ebay but I think it used threaded inserts in the fibreglass, and came with dreadful bolts and washers. Getting washers in there and held in place with the bolts ... dumped them and used flanged bolts .. knowing full well that this would save me a ton of skin, anxiety and swearwords (saved for a future date).

One thing that did catch me out tho is that you may need to release the retaining clip for the wire that operates the handle to latch, and if so, don't just leave this clip hanging on the wire connector. Put it in a safe place and guard it well. Annoying mongrel when lost. If you have a spares hack that has one on it .. no worries.

Thanks.
I have Araldited the number plate light cover pretty well, but would like a better one.
The rear mudguard moulding was broken when I backed into the towball, when someone asked me to move my car.
It broke in half. I used UV cured resin to fix it and it turned out OK. I drilled out the self tapper mounts and put a bolt through and that is how I should have left it. But no, I had to be more exact and bought some countersunk bolts with black push on caps to be neat. Of course I pushed a cap on and snap, another bit broken off. I superglued the broken bit but it is getting pretty patchwork now!
Regards PhilipA

I've been doing work on the rear interior trim for the past few days. I've had this annoying banging coming from in there and I reckon I've worked it out. Had the entire rear trim out.
I've added some additional insulation to key areas for what I reckon is making the annoying noise. While doing all this, I replaced the C pillar trim piece too on the drivers side. Still need to get one for the pass side tho.

But, while trim was all out for a week or so the external pillar trim held up fine. Soon as I've boxed it all up(now trims are all nice and solidly mounted ... I noticed that the lower mount point on the external pillar trim broke at some point!

Prior to my trim breaking off on the freeway had the same sort of noise on corrugations.

Had just figured out an action plan - was going to black automotive grade silicone it on the weekend and it broke of on Friday going home - lol