Replacing Series door moldings
For what its worth, here is my experience with replacing doormoldings on a Series 109.
After checking the postings on RN and other sites on this subject I called in to order a setof moldings for all 5 doors on the 109. After choking on the prices of original parts I was advisedthat the Defender moldings would work and were much less expensive.So I backed out and re-read the blogs andfound that it seems they would work.SoI call back and a nice gentleman told me that he’d done his Series withDefender moldings, and it worked well (with some manipulating of the moldingover the raised edges; I know some have said to grind them off).
When I got the moldings I found that the front doors workedOK, although not an easy job (about 4 hours per door to get all the rivets out,clean and apply). Bottom/sill piece has to be drilled to fit. The back door alsoworked OK but it really makes a tight fit.However, the middle door Defender moldings didn’t even begin tofit.So after destroying one trying tomake it fit, I call RN and another salesman told me “yes Defender fit, but notthe middle doors on a 109.I’m thinking “no,sh*t, I just found out the hard way”. But I didn’t say that, they were justtrying to help, and I ordered and paid the much higher price for the original 109 kits.
So I sent back the unused middle door for credit and paidfor original equipment and was sent Pro Line (mostly, a couple pieces were LandRover). After paying that kind of moneyI was expecting to place and rivets; expecting all holes in the moldings toline up and expecting the moldings to be cut to proper length.
The only piece (of 5 pieces that make up the kit) that fitwithout modification was the piece that fits around the latch area. The top rail piece did have holes thatmatched the body holes but did need to be trimmed, about 3” on either end; nobig deal.
The upper back and lower back and sill pieces did not matchany body holes so they all had to be re-drilled (not easy to get the holeexactly in the right place) and trimmed.
The front edge piece was the same as far as re-drilling allholes (none of the pre-drilled holes in 3 molding pieces matched the bodyholes.) When you drill the holes, if youdon’t get them exactly right you will get some “wavyness” in the metal strapmolding which will affect door fit.
In the end I found that there was way too much molding(thickness) in the front channel and the doors would not close because ofthat. After destroying one of themtrying to trim to fit I just ripped off both of those (expensive) pieces andtossed them. One might have shimmed out the door hinges but the door wouldn’tbe in line with the body.I’m certainlya novice at this so I’m sure an expert might have got it done right but I don’thave an expert hanging around. I’m going down to Pep Boys to look for thethinner molding.
Needless to say, neither the Defender or the Series moldingsfit without extensive fitting and drilling. It’s not as simple as placing the new molding pieces in the cannels, andriveting.
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Originally Posted by o2batsea
