How to Apply Door Panel Chrome Trim to a Beetle

Hey guys! Chris again from ClassicVWBugs.com. And today's tip is pretty cool actually. I will show you how to apply door panel chrome to your door panels. We've actually bought this chrome from JC Whitney and applied it to the door. You can actually go to your local Auto Zone or Auto Parts; they might have these roll as well. Here is a 56 door panel that we're going to apply it to. Now I do sew the real trim to go and poke through the upholstery and to fast it behind the door panel but whatever we were searching for we are out of stock and they are just a little too much money. So here is the roll from JC Whitney which is actually cheaper. Just look up the automotive trim and then here are the clamps you're going to need. Take measure and a ruler. So what I'm doing here is I bought this from West Coast Classic Restorations in California where they do the period correct door panels. When they give you the door panels without the chrome on it, they actually punch -- they have little holes that are through the board. So you can apply the real chrome to it that they sell. The real chrome actually pokes through the upholstery and fastens behind the panel. Like I said, we couldn't find any that were in stock. So we went ahead and bought the rolls of chrome from JC Whitney. Basically, on these 56 to 57 door panels, there is no stitching on the upper portion of the door panel like 55 and earlier or even 60 and later. So we punch the holes through the door panel to give us a good indication of where to apply the chrome. If you have some stitching or you don't have those holes punched through the door panel, you can actually just measure six inches down. You can see on a 60 door panel, there is some stitching on the top here. So it's easy to kind of apply the chrome to the next stitch down. But we have stitches on this door panel. So we are going to use a ruler and we measured six inches from the top down as you can see here. So once you measure that, you want to do it on one end of the board and then check again on the other end. And then once you have that lined up, get these clamps to hold the ruler down, because you don't want that ruler to slide and double check of course the measurements. Alright. Now once you have that fastened down, you can basically get ready to put the roll on. Here is a closer view of where we poke the holes and like I said, those holes are already poked for us from the shop where we get the upholstery from. Now, here is the chrome trim that you can either get from JC or get from your local auto parts store. It has an adhesive sticky side to it on the back. What we're going to do is on the edge here, instead of leaving it a square like that, we're going to make it rounded. So it has a more of a finished look to it. Now, most bugs had the chrome on their door panels up until 1959. After 1959, they did not have the chrome on there. But they mysteriously came back again in 1966 for just one year. But you can apply this to all your door panels. It's usually - of course it's about, like I said, six inched from the top down. There is a nice rounded edge, so it's just the way you want that to look. It looks good. It's usually about six inches down and below the window cranks and the door pull. So here you want to apply the chrome, just testing it, but you don't want to go all the way to the edge. You want to leave some space. Don't go all the way to the end of the door panel. Back off just a little bit. Then we measure the size and then we cut the stripes. You might want to roll it out and try to flex it straight, because it is rolled. So my father there is trying to stretch it out, so it gets rid of that unraveled feel to it. Just butt it up against the ruler. Just start taking off the sticky -- taking off the piece of plastic to expose the sticky side toward the 3M which is a pretty good stick. If you press down good, it's going to stay on there forever probably. Right now, we're just applying it lightly and as long as we are just tying it like rough estimate here I guess you could say. Then once you have it down, secured up against the ruler just to keep it straight because it is a flexible and bendable stuff. So you want to have straight line. Okay so we just butt it up against it and then once you're satisfied with the line, you just pres hard to push it down. That's basically it. It looks nice. Like I said, you could do this on any years really. Once you take the clamps off, take the ruler off. This is your finished door panel. It adds a more character to it, especially 56 and 57. There is no stitching up on top of those door panels if you get the correct period door panels. So you put that chrome up there and it adds more light to it. Basically, you do the same thing to the rear door panel, just measure down and make sure it's lined up and towards the back of the door panels, some panels actually curve downward a bit as you can see. I'm going to zoom in here for you, so you get a better idea. But they also have holes punched in the back. So the same kind of curve slightly down towards the back. Alright, so that's it. If you have got any questions, email me chris@classicvwbugs.com or visit my website www.classicvwbugs.com.