1969 Convertible Boot Trim Piece Issue

[sweetair]

I have been meaning for quite a while to address the drivers side convertible boot trim piece that is loose. It just lifts up. The piece across the trunk and on the passenger side is snug. What this allows is for the boot to not want to stay down as the piece it is "clipping" into is lifting and the whole side of the boot just lifts up as well.

I ordered a few nuts and threaded stem pieces from WCCC. I undid a nut from the piece going across the trunk so I was able to fully remove the drivers side trim piece and saw that there was only one threaded piece there sticking down and where all the other pieces would go there is nothing to thread the "stem" piece into.

If I ordered a new piece would there be "holes" for me to thread this piece into? Can I tap shallow holes and make this trim piece work?

It is much better as it is, boot stayed much better yesterday, but I would like to get it as it should be.

Any info/thoughts would be appreciated.

[MrEos]

XR7 or standard?

The standard boot trim is (I believe) reproduced, and that might be the best solution.

If you've got an XR7, you're going to have to MacGyver something. On the XR7, the leading edge of the trim is connected to the window felts, which are then held to body with screws. The connection between the trim and the piece holding the window felt is the trouble spot - originally made by peening the stud, and the most forward one is too shallow to drill & tap. I used epoxy... but it took a few tries to make it work. I can't remember how ECI Bob handled this, but he may chime in too.

[sweetair]

It is an XR7. That is what I might need to do, use some epoxy. Would JB weld work? Put a small gob of it where the "stem piece" would be, and set it in some JB weld, let it set/dry and then screw some nuts on it? Would there be a better epoxy than that?
Appreciate the thougths

XR7 or standard?

The standard boot trim is (I believe) reproduced, and that might be the best solution.

If you've got an XR7, you're going to have to MacGyver something. On the XR7, the leading edge of the trim is connected to the window felts, which are then held to body with screws. The connection between the trim and the piece holding the window felt is the trouble spot - originally made by peening the stud, and the most forward one is too shallow to drill & tap. I used epoxy... but it took a few tries to make it work. I can't remember how ECI Bob handled this, but he may chime in too.

[1969XR7Vert]

I did see both of the Doc's posts but wasn't sure which posts he was talking about, guessing the ones other than the three that hold the window felt bracket.

What I did on the window felt brackets ones was to drill and tap (be VERY careful about how deep you drill) the two rearmost ones, used automotive "Goop" for the front one.

For the ones with the 8-32 (or were they 10-32?) studs on the rest of the trim that hold it onto the top well edge, jeez that's a tough one. I don't think there is enough material to drill there. Mine were all there but got somewhat eaten up by the rechroming process. I see the people that do Don's for him mask the studs (which would be the right thing to do). I had to crush the nuts for these somewhat in order to get them to grab what was left of some of the studs and I used Locktite Blue as well.

Epoxying anything on there is going to be iffy at best IMO but other than getting another set ($$) what else can you do? Spot welding new ones in place (like a body stud gun does) sounds like a possible solution but might mess up the chrome and not sure who could do that for you. Nothing else beyond that occurs to me, sorry.

[MrEos]

I had one of the threaded studs that broke off on mine. I re-attached it with JBWeld, but it snapped off again while installing. Second time, I scored the trim with a dremel tool to give the epoxy something to grab onto, and then barely snugged that nut when I attached it to the car. So far, so good.

Sweet... if you come up with a better solution, let us know.

[Bad69cat]

I am going to run into that issue I'm sure - has anybody ever tried to use some of that aluma-weld stuff on something like that? It doesn't really take a ton of heat (you can weld 2 pop cans together) and it's supposed to work on dissimilar metals? I bought some awhile back and the only thing I used it on was to rebuild a broken stud boss on a tensioner pulley - it's plenty strong - but that was thick material to start with.....

http://www.alumiweld.com/

[rare70cat]

Wow 7yrs ago. Bad69cat, did you try the alumiweld?