Fitting wheel arch trims

Morning you lovely lot,

I will be shortly fitting the wheel arch trims to my GTi. Any top tips? Is it best to start at one end of the arch, or the middle?
I have a wing that has never seen them fitted so will need to drill holes, how do you go about protecting from rust? I know I can put paint on the hole, but the self tapper will cut through that.
All suggestions welcome!

Cheers

J

On mine I lined it up and drilled the central hole first.

I didn’t self tap but uses a rivet gun as the screws rust in solid over time (or at least the ones I removed were).

With rivets they are easy to drill out and replace with new rivets.  

Must admit I used stainless steel rivets just because I happen to have them, which means future removal won’t be as easy as aluminium.

If I had really thought about it I would have got black ones to look better.

Don’t forget a washer, the plastic is soft and it needs some support. Again get black or pain before using.

Ps I assume this is Tin top gti arches and not the cabby arch kit.


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Thanks for that
Yes it's a tin top.
Never thought about rivets, good shout that. I have got some plastic washers but I don't think they are black, another good call. EBay here we come!

I've used stainless steel self drilling/tapping screws, with stainless washers, then I painted them black.

Aluminium rivets should also work well as they should corrode instead of the steel of the wings.

Paint the hole you drill and a good blob of waxoyl or similar to stop the rust worm.  

Has anyone bonded them on, I still have to fit mine but don't really want to drill holes if I don't have to!

I've read of some folk bonding them on, I may have to do that with one of mine as one of my wings doesn't have much of a lip. Will let you know of I do…

The Clipper is held in place with double sided weather strip tape, I have seen folks use window weld and tape them in place for a day or so for it to cure. RTV shoudl work as well.  I held badges on it that survived a rear ending with out falling off.
 

I used "Tiger seal" in the UK to hold on bodykits before. Obviously side skirts had some screws in the correct places. However i did stick i spoiler down with it and it was good to 132mph and didnt come off…………. i let the foot off after that……… 10 years later i had to cut it off. It was still stuck on there good. So if you use tiger seal make sure you get it on straight first time or you may have an extended time getting it off to reposition. Its pretty stout stuff.

I also used one of those plastic welding irons from amazon to fix side skirt mounting holes (they were ripped out) and also fixed a front end bumper with a big old hole where the plastic had been pealed back. you have to cut out little notches so the new plastic can take a good grip but its fairly easy to repair plastic with those little irons and filler plastic.