TIPS ON RETRO FITTING DELUXE SIDE TRIM NEEDED!

[baybus70]

Just bought some deluxe side trim for my bus.
Just wandered if there's a better or worse way to fit it.I've heard some people on the forum using double sides tape.Is this secure enough? whats the most effective way of ensuring it's straight. A mate at work said 'use a spirit level'! hmmm don't think i'll take that advice,for obvious reasons!
Bus has no holes in right now so starting from scratch!
Here's the bus in question...

 

[Guest]

im also retro fitting but havent got round to it yet as the bus is still in bare metal. I dont think id trust any kind of tape, ill be drilling and fixing that way.

 

[Bookwus]

Hiya Bay,

If I had to fit/install beltline trim on a Bus with no holes for that trim I'd do this..............

Visit a boneyard and find a Bus that has had the trim stripped off.

Start off by taking a lot of pictures for later reference. It's also a good idea to include a ruler or meterstick in those pictures to give a good idea of scale.

Then take a roll of masking tape (purple or green would be best since they are not terribly sticky) and place it over the holes in each trim section just as if it were the trim itself. Then go along the tape and punch holes in the tape to correspond with the trim holes in the bus. You now have a template for drilling the holes in your bus.

By making a tape template for each trim section and paying attention to those pictures you took you can now go back to your bus and lay the tape in the exact position it needs to be. Drill the holes and you're ready for trim clips and trim.

 

[andewilson]

my top tip is drill before you spray :shock: then if you make a mistake you aint scratching a decent spray job and you can draw on as many reference pioints on the van as you want.
sorry i realise thta this advice is no good to you. i would bond it to your van with a double sided strip. you would be amazed how strong it can be. and i would hate you to slip with the drill. around 40 holes on a convex surface without one slip. odds are one is going to slip

 

[Araon]

Use masking tape and draw the centre line round the van mark out all your drill centres and drill through the tape so you get the initial bite to keep the bit on target, I'll have a look for the quantities of clips ....

measure three, four, five times before drilling, get it right first time.......

take a close look and a few measurements at Vanfest from swage to bodyjoint to the top of the belt and again from swage to body joint to the bottom of the belt (take some lo tack masking tape with you and a pencil to get an accurate guide and stick them onto a credit card or such like for protection), the clips are centred so with the above guides you can easily mark the centre line on the swage.

Doors L = 4 ea =8
Doors S = 3ea = 6
B post = 2 ea = 4
Corners = 4 ea = 8
All long pieces = 5 ea = 25

Total clips = 51

 

[Clem]

I did mine.
I masking taped it to the van and critiqued it for some time with two mates, when happy, I drew a light pencil line along the two edges of the trim, then removed it all, and then drilled the holes in the centre of the two lines.
Measure thrice and drill once, and also smear some waxoil or ankor wax into the freshly drilled hole.
Once the first hole is drilled - its a breeze! :lol:

 

[Guest]

I did mine.
I masking taped it to the van and critiqued it for some time with two mates, when happy, I drew a light pencil line along the two edges of the trim, then removed it all, and then drilled the holes in the centre of the two lines.
Measure thrice and drill once, and also smear some waxoil or ankor wax into the freshly drilled hole.
Once the first hole is drilled - its a breeze! :lol:

definitely a good idea with the masking tape.

 

[AxlFoley]

I did this on my old bug, what i would say is once you have the clips, make sure you have the correct size drill bit for the hole, also i would drill a pilot hole first.

 

[baybus70]

Thanks for all of your advice.
Sems i should have realy decided to go for the trim pre paint! But hey!
I'll use the advice wisely!and try not to slip with the drill! :lol:

 

[Haveacamper]

i'm always asucker for photos, so progress pics would be real good. NaFe

 

[strongy]

i also dident fancey drilling my van.mines been stuck on with tape for 18 months now with no probs whatso ever,if it will hold some of the huge trims used on modern cars, it will hold some light alloy trim.that was my thinking anyway :mrgreen: takes about an hour to fit rather than a day