frustrated with door panel clips

[jetboy]

Ok. so I bought some new door panels as mine are complete trash- and was sad to see that they did not come with clips! So I am trying to reuse the old rusty ones.. and they keep breaking and well...getting them to align with the holes in the door is an exercise in futility unless I drill the panels with new holes for the clips closer to the holes in the door (or I drill the door) as the panels are not an exact match to my 69.

long story short: I am thinking of just using a few tabs of E2000 glue and call it a day: if I have to remove just cut the glue and re-glue.

Hmmm just posting that made me think Ill do it. If I can get the clips to work in 2 or 3 of places I can just glue the rest.

may be a waste of a post but have others done this?

[narfire]

When my panels were on the opening handle shaft and window shaft, I got the panel as straight as I could and drilled through the panel (edges)and door. I used a metal screw with built in washers and it looks fine in my opinion.
If you use glue and need to take the panels off for any reason, door latch, alignment lug, window cable... you might end up cursing yourself.

I also recommend that when the panels are off, have a look see down the inside of the door. If any detritus is in there, vacuum. I also gave the inside especially the bottom of the inside of the door a healthy dose of Wurther's spray wax. Bit of spray lube on the door mechanism.

[jetboy]

I also considered a few sheet metal screws. placed nicely will look just fine and glad that someone has done so before me. might just go that route. thanks for the tip on the vacuming: been doing that a lot as I ripped out the whole interior.

With the glue, its removable with a thin knife slid up under the panel-- it stays rubbery-... but if someone did not know about it, they could curse themselves as they might rip the door panel trying to remove it. Or if I forget I glued it in several years.

[Nanonevol]

I heard somewhere of using Velcro.

[jetboy]

yes... industrial strength Velcro would totally work. I should have thought of that as I use it quite often for work.

[AriK]

+1 what narfire said.