Chrome trim renewal guide without need for window removal

 Hi all, Just finished off replacing my old dull plastic chrome trim window surrounds, I did much searching on this subject before I started out but it really isnt so difficult, and I’ll show you some of the details in the process that I was unable to find before so hopefully this will help someone in the future going through this process. First of heres my starting point



old, brittle, worn out sorry chrome plastic trim. just take a flat head screwdriver and prise of the joining piece, after that, prise of at one end of the trim an pull it out of the groove in the window..

 in my case there was a lot of dirt behind the trim, I washed that of with some soapy water and dried it of.

 

so now you'll have a clean starting point for your new chrome trim to sit in. lovely. I ordered my trim from werk34 and it was quite rolled up so to speak, I put it in hot water to soften it up

 

dont know if this actually helps, it cooles quite quickly once out of the water, but if your trim is bend this can be done to get it back to shape. now on to the mounting of the new trim, now wet obviously anyway the most important thing is to get the groove properbly lubed up before attempting to put the new trim in place. I used a teflon based lubricant that I normally use for hinges and doors, theres properbly many opinions as to what should be used when in contact with the rubber, but I would recommend something that comes with a straw nozzle because its simply impossible to get your finger in the groove and lube grease in that way. its important that the whole depth of the groove is lubed right down to the bottom, you will simply not be able to get the trim down if this isnt done properly. if you're using a lubricant with a straw that I did you'll be able to tell if you've done it right because you'll be able to move the straw along inside the groove when its lubed up, it will be all nice and slippery in there. 



now we're about to be ready to go.. take the end of the trim and yank it in where you want to start. adjust to middle be sliding it in the groove. I found it was the easiest way to work my way upwards, so grab your tool and put it on from the other end of the trim.

 

now push and whigle the tool so that it sort of spreads the groove to make the trim go in, and make sure the trim is seated right in the groove on both sides.



its actually not so bad once you get it going, but you'll have to keep an eye on it all the way to make sure its seated properly all the way, or you'll just have to undo it all again. it is not possible to try and simply push the trim in place without having the tool right before it or you'll just bend the trim. the hardest parts are the corners, where the trim wants to go outwards and pull out of the groove on one side, so just be patient and dont rush it and make sure its seated properly all the way. eventually you'll end here 



you'll be able to cut the excess lenghts of with a cable cutter. fit the joining piece and step back and enjoy your work 



 Happy days and one more thing of the list   

Oh so pretty now, having the right tool is such a good thing.  

I have a 1980 mk1 , do you need different rubbers to use the for trim ?

Not if the car came with the chrome trim originally, then the rubbers will have the groove already. 👍🏻