Door Window Trim Blackout
 

I quite like the standard quarterlight vents on my doors but I'm in the process of blacking out the "chrome" trim.

What have people done with the door windows? The quarterlight frame is no trouble to remove and paint but what about the bead of aluminum that sits beside the window scraper/ felt channel. Do people paint this or remove it completely? Whats left if you remove it and what rubber do you use to replace the original?

Cheers
Jeremy:)

you cant remove it, the outer scraper is rivetted to it and your felt channel clips wouldnt stay in place without it... im going to buy NOS jeans beetle surrounds for mine as they are already black, but ive had success with the ally side trim by prepping it with 400grit until all the laquer is removed and spraying with satin black hammerite. seems to be tough enough to withstand some abuse...

Door trim coating
 

Jezza I have a 1303 superbug and did manage to get the door chrome powdercoated black. It was not simple ! What I did was to remove the trim and take the small rivets out by drilling with a fine drill bit . Then the whole thing comes apart. Then they were powdercoated and I used small rivets again to crush the scraper felts back in place. You cant buy them separately as replacements they only sell the later modell ones as a set , so what I did was go to the automotive rubber supplier and get one that had the right profile and it does the job well. It is a bit of mucking around but it works ! Good luck. :D

How much did powder coating the trim cost?

cost of powdercoating
 

The cost of the powdercoating was $30 AUS. Pretty cheap but a good look . Its done in satin black. :D
Cheers David

kewl :)

Thanks guys

Bren - where did you get the jeans beetle door window trim from? The "new" Mexico beetles have black door trim as well don't they?

CU
Jeremy

havent bought it yet, but i will get it from: http://www.status-vw.co.uk/

Does anyone know where to get these in the USA? I contacted Status VW in the UK but they won't ship to the USA and I don't know anyone there that could get them and ship them to me. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

RC

since found out that all new mexican bugs come with black 1/4vents and dorr surrounds, so theres another avenue to look down.. UK prices are high, but should be less for you guys in the US...