Re: [VW-VR6] side molding

You should consider yourself lucky for them staying on for so long. During the first two years of ownership on my 96 Jetta, I went through two complete sets of door moldings under warranty. They either peel off or fade really badly. After warranty was over, I went through one more set (through Potter-much cheaper) and then finally got tired of it. I purchased the European moldings (except the bumper covers and flares) and had my body man paint it. No problems since. The Euro ones actually have the clips that hang onto the doors.

Kinda stupid if you consider that the holes in the doors are already there. VW just decided to cut cost and give the later cars the crappy ones. The double stick ones come painted from the dealer, so it would just be a peel and stick thing. Good luck.

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Wilson Tam                                         http://www.home.earthlink.net/~wtam
wtam@earthlink.net
wtam@ee.ucr.edu

----- Original Message -----

From: Marc Gallagher

To: jettaglx ; vwdrivers ; vwvr6

Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 4:17 PM

Subject: [VW-VR6] side molding

From: Marc Gallagher <mgallagher@langan.com>

Hi all. I was washing my car yesterday (gotta love 55 degrees in February) and found that the molding on the passenger door is loose/peeling off. First, I am more than annoyed that a 2 year old car has parts falling off so has anyone had any luck in dealing with VW customer support for these type items? I would like to have them own up to a production flaw. Second, has anyone had a similar problem and put the molding back on themselves? If so any recommendations? Materials? Methods? On another topic, I finally got replacement e-brake cables, made some mods so they won't rip again (hopefully) and had them installed at the dealer. Why do I rag on dealerships? Well......the "it will take about 1.5 hours to do (about $115)" estimate turned into a bill of $175 (52% increase) and I asked them to rotate the tires (since they had 2 off already) and was charged another $30 (which works out to about 1/2 hour of labor! a half hour to pull two more wheels!) I am waiting for a call back to explain the increase and 1/2 labor to pull two wheels. I am not saying everyone has these experiences but I seem to have many. As far as the mods to the brake cables I will try to explain. Since the problem is the stretching of the rubber gaskets when the cable is released, I attempted to install "arresting cables" to keep the rubber from feeling the load when the brake is released. I took two short lengths of stainless wire and made loops around both ends of the gasket (one at the tip and one around the metal ring at the base). I then connected these rings with two short lengths of wire running parallel to the brake cable. So when the brake is released and the gasket has to slide back into position, the wire keeps the rubber from stretching. That was probably a horrible description but w/o a picture it is hard to explain. Anyway it seems to work in the living room. Ask me in two years and I'll tell you if it made a difference. Thanks in advance for any help with the molding thing. Marc 97' Jetta GLX - Red/Black

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References:

side molding
- From: Marc Gallagher <mgallagher@Langan.com>