Bulging lower door trim

[markwm]

Noticed the exterior strip of trim at the very bottom of driver and front passenger door is bulging ever so slightly at one end. I removed the trim to have a look, just seem that the plastic fascia has bulged away from the backing is filled with all kinds of dirt, not sure what's caused it. The fascia and the back are glued together it seems so not sure how to split them without causing damage.

Been quoted £130 for each strip+fitting so it's gonna be expensive for a minor issue. Is there an DIY/cheaper solution?

[Ellis]

Would also be interested to hear if anyone has sorted this issue. I notice I have a slight bulge on drivers side front door.

[Noyjatat]

Yep happens all the time on them especially if people are jet washing the car and concentrate too long on that area. It's only held on by a few screws on the inside of the door so worth taking off and having a good look at it. You can rebond it sometimes otherwise it's new parts which often require spraying.

[Audi Pardner]

There was a brief thread on this a while ago but I can't find it on here so it could have been on another forum. A member had this problem and he'd repaired them by clamping the metal backing plate to the front piece after using some sort of special adhesive. I might have printed it off so I'll have a look and see if I can find it for you.

I think these are called door blades and from memory someone said they were about £80 each

[markwm]

I saw the price on the screen from parts supplier at the VW indy place I go to and they were £129 inc vat each.

Mine improved by me taking them off and simply scraping some muck out with a screwdriver. It's hard to get out them as it's wedged inbetween

[RIV]

Timster did a thread on this a couple of years ago

[markwm]

found it

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=105283&p=616439&hi ... ue#p616439

and another thread on it viewtopic.php?f=35&t=106764&hilit=door+card

reading these threads, just sounds like they didn't totally remove the entire back from the fascia, just cleaned out the crap from where it bulged and then re-glued.

edit:

two more threads that I found while searching for something else...

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=96605&p=513993&hil ... ps#p513993

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=99044&p=544817&hil ... ps#p544817

[Deano_123]

I'd be interested to hear how people get on as my drivers door has this. I thought the strip had somehow warped and a new strip was required so I just sort of ignore it.

[Dolphie]

Markwm,

My driver's door side blade did the same thing. The body Shop said they are prone to it. Apparently they have a metal strip on the back but the fastenings are made from a different metal (where have we heard that before with Audi ) causing them to corrode and bulge.

I think it was about £100 for a new blade and the same for painting and fitting. Looks a lot better now though.

[markwm]

I'm currently half way through fixing mine. Got one side clamped waiting for the glue to cure. Don't have enough clamps to do both sides at once and I'm not using a rapid setting adhesive. Will post up pics once I'm done. It's weird why it only seems to affect the front doors strips and at the end near the pillar.

[markwm]

Right, done this now on both front doors.

Before, not massively noticeable but once you see it.....and it will only get worse as water continues to get in. You can feel the difference, the side near the door pillar is at least 5mm proud whereas the hinge side of the trim is flush with the door:

Trim after unscrewing, full of dirt. Seems to have come apart quite a lot more than you would think looking at it while attached to the car. This seems to be because there's a recess behind where the trim fits on the door so you only see the distortion on the fascia, not on the backing.

I cleaned out all the crap best I could using a small flathead screwdriver, a nail and a stanley knife. All of the rusted metal came out. Then used some cotton buds to clean the inside surfaces.

Clean:

Biggest problem I had was deciding what glue to use. There seems to be two ways to glue it back together. Where the trim has come apart at the very top, it requires a lot of force to close the gap and even then it's impossible to completely get it back to how it was. I'm not sure it's even necessary to completely close this gap as the recess in the door will allow it. If you clamp the trim as below, it will straighten the trim but the top gap remains, the point of contact is further inside the trim. I considering using one of them super glue with powders like QBond or supafix AP4, I think they'd work best if you left the gap at the top, as there's virtually no working time with them you'd have to clamp up, then fill the gap with powder and glue:

I decided instead to completely close the gap at the top, so that mean putting all the pressure at the very top edge of the trim. Had to make a jig for the clamps using some 2x1" timber and a 7x7mm piece of steel(b&q), the steel fits perfectly in the recess at the top edge of the trim:

All masked up, dry run before gluing. Trim virtually back to where it was, just 1mm or so off laying flush. Requires a lot of pressure to close this gap so glue needs to be strong.

Opened up the gap again, filled with glue, clamped, cleaned off, removed tape. I decided to use Stixall(clear), it's similar to tiger seal, sikaflex. I know how strong it is, allows more working time, easier to wipe off excess/spills and is also a sealant. Only downside is it takes 24hours to fully cure so I had a day or two driving around with no door trims on:

Clamps removed:

I also noticed on one of my trims, a little section of the underside had come apart swell, I just sealed this up:

Done, don't notice it at all now. It's not 100% perfect, the plastic and steel backing have obviously been distorted for a very long time and as such you'll never get them 100% true again, as well as that the metal backing of the plastic is no longer there.... but it's 99% and you'd never notice it.

[Audi Pardner]

Great write up; thanks

Need to have a look at mine so very timely

[Deano_123]

Looks sweet man, how did you get it actually off the door?

[markwm]

Two screws on the inside of the door at either end, then it just slides out. Really easy.

[Ellis]

Yeah, how does it actually come off the door? I see some pictures from a previous thread - how do you access this screw if it is behind the trim? Bet it's dead easy, just having a thick moment here.

download/file.php?id=14484&mode=view

Edit: PS thanks for the pictures / write-up. Love when people take the time to do these.