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The trim on the driver's side door is no longer held firmly by the trim clips. It will pop onto them, but after a few good closings of the door it works its way loose.

It seems to me that it is either the clips or the trim piece.

The clips do not look different/worn in an obvious way.
I have not noticed anything with the trim piece.

Does anyone have advice on how best to proceed? One way would be to buy a whole bunch of clips to replace, but as I mentioned it is not obvious to me that they are overly worn. What would you recommend?

Call Marshall at 002 Salvage in Hayward. 510-782-2002

New clips are available cheap

I take it from the last reply that the best bet is to just replace the clips and see whether that fixes it. If it does, then the issue is with the clips.

Thanks.

Or you could drill a 3/8 or larger Tek screw through the trim and the door, that will hold it. Kinda ugly though. I prefer originality.

RonDwyer wrote:Or you could drill a 3/8 or larger Tek screw through the trim and the door, that will hold it. Kinda ugly though. I prefer originality.

Was that really your advice? I thought it was a joke, but I think you are actually serious.

Before you buy anything, try to take one of the clips off of the door skin. It's not as easy as you may think. It's actually a pain because the center locking dowels can't be pushed in because the inner door impact frame is directly behind the clips and prevents this.
With the moulding off, get some small pliers and make sure the edge that goes behind the clip's edge is flat and not rolled over. If you see nothing wrong with the clips you have, save yourself the time replacing clips, it's most likely not your problem.

I'd just change out the clips, they do seem to wear with age, especially if they've been off once or twice. My technique on removing the clips is to drill a very small hole part way in, then screw a sheet rock screw in a little bit and use a pliers to extract it. And don't forget the one that bolts on and doesn't just snap in.

Thanks for the pointer on removing the clips. I went ahead and ordered new clips (and they arrived today). As a temporary fix, I twisted the clips a little so they are slightly off angle. It seems to hold a little better, but I bet replacing the clips will do the trick.

Fumes: Coming from a guy with a picture of hitler for an avatar I would have least expected you to be one to take me seriously on the Tek screw suggestion.