T350 silver door trim attachment

[non_linear]

Does anyone know how the silver trim at the top of the door is attached?
I've had some bodywork done and they removed the trim, and re-attached it with pop rivets, which isn't right. The other door appears to use nuts , but hard to see how to get access to the bolts without removing the glass. Are there captive studs bonded into the door?

[Adrian@]

I stripped my Tamora (to re-fabricate a broken lower window runner bracket) and found this hand fettled steel mounting plate that my alloy attaches to the shell with, it has two countersunk bolts at each end through the FG and then two more bolts with nuts used as packers (M5 bolts that slide down the extrusion).



I think it started life as 3/4 x 1/8 bar with tags welded on each end for the countersunk bolts....I welded up the unused holes and blasted and prepared/painted before re installing it. (with lots more pictures/write up on my FB page).



A@

Edited by Adrian@ on Monday 10th October 16:39

[non_linear]

Thanks Adrian. Looks like I need to sign up for FB.
Can you access the countersunk bolt going through the FG with the glass in place? I can't get my fingers in there without removing at least the outer rubber.
This is what I have:

[Adrian@]

As I stripped it down, I found this...reworked the FG ...first fitted...final one was this, then S/S countersunk dressed flush.









Glass was still in place, both caps were off.





THE job was this lower bracket broken (hot clued in position whilst the adhesive was drying). A@

Edited by Adrian@ on Monday 10th October 16:42

[non_linear]

Wow, looks like that door was in quite a mess before you started work on it.
I've photographed my other door, which I'm pretty sure is how it left the factory. You can see the nut holding the trim onto the FG. I've no idea what it screws onto though. Bonded in stud or countersunk bolt from the FG side, in which case how on earth would you access it?

[Adrian@]

I undid the three Allen bolts under the door that held the door card on and removed that
and then used a miniature spanner to hold the nut in the door whilst undoing the Allen head countersunk bolt... I was adding speakers (how they look now, again all with pictures of the process).

)

I will agree your looks to be an M6 bolt where mine was countersunk.
Both horrid rusty unfinished steel supports were the same and got the stripped out and refurbished with the bolts replaced with S/S items. A@

[subseamatt]

Not sure if this helps much, but mine (mk2 (2006) Tamora) has captive big-head bolts as per the photo below.
May sound stupid but if you wind the window down, the glass shouldn't be in the way to access the rear anymore (due to the shape/movement of the glass) - see second photo. Should then be space enough to insert from behind.

[Adrian@]

subseamatt said:

Not sure if this helps much, but mine (mk2 (2006) Tamora) has captive big-head bolts as per the photo below.
May sound stupid but if you wind the window down, the glass shouldn't be in the way to access the rear anymore (due to the shape/movement of the glass) - see second photo. Should then be space enough to insert from behind.

I am going to say that yours is using a stud holder (there are options, cropped) https://partsfortvrs.com/tvr-parts/part-details/tv... with a nut, then where my steel cross bar unit was packed and spaced out on the two centre bolts the picture looks to be a joggled piece of alloy ... IMHO all good info because you can see the profile and square slot/access for the mounting bolts that would then slide down and through to the centre of the extrusion to then be able to bolt to the steel OR in this case the alloy cross bar. A@

Edited by Adrian@ on Tuesday 11th October 19:44

[non_linear]

subseamatt said:

Not sure if this helps much, but mine (mk2 (2006) Tamora) has captive big-head bolts as per the photo below.
May sound stupid but if you wind the window down, the glass shouldn't be in the way to access the rear anymore (due to the shape/movement of the glass) - see second photo. Should then be space enough to insert from behind.

That's the information I was looking for. I didn't want to have to cut out the rubber cap on the drivers door, or pull it back and risk breaking it to see what is there.

Adrian@ said:

I am going to say that yours is using a stud holder (there are options, cropped) https://partsfortvrs.com/tvr-parts/part-details/tv... with a nut,

Thanks for the link Adrian, I'm assuming this would originally have been bonded into the fibreglass.

Edited by non_linear on Tuesday 11th October 22:39

[Adrian@]

non_linear said:

Thanks for the link Adrian, I'm assuming this would originally have been bonded into the fibreglass.

They can be bonded, but they regularly get positioned in from the back of a hole and then a pop rivet used to stop it from rotating (IF there is not any way that the flange can naturally be limited from rotating). That one looks to be a cropped version of the M6 oblong one, which is limiting out on the side of the door shell, using a flange nut helps, as they tend to have serrated flanges that will dig into alloy, and not need any washer.
It is nice to see that the car evolved on from using rusting steel and two nuts as spacers to stack the extrusion forward. A@

[non_linear]

It's a shame the partsfortvrs mountings appears to be in mild steel and not stainless. I think I will remove the pop rivets and then open up the hole a little if required and then epoxy one of these in, with the treaded part within the FG. That should protrude the least into the door that way.

https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/m6-x-10mm-c...

[Adrian@]

For that job, I did not need to use them...I just changed to a a S/S bolt, nut and washer as was...BUT I did buy EC1000 from them to bond the alloy plate to the shell and repair the radio holder (that used pop rivets to hold them in (to spread the load across very thin material, as it had started to fracture). A@

[subseamatt]

non_linear said:

It's a shame the partsfortvrs mountings appears to be in mild steel and not stainless. I think I will remove the pop rivets and then open up the hole a little if required and then epoxy one of these in, with the treaded part within the FG. That should protrude the least into the door that way.

https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/m6-x-10mm-c...

The studs are standard items available all over the place. We used Bighead fasteners when I was at uni years ago.
They are available in stainless like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353319498116?mkcid=16&a...