Imperial Journey

With the existing trim around the column between and back doors upgraded and looking good my attention turned to the rear trim pieces. Despite years of searching, I haven’t been able to find any more of the U-shaped spring trim. OK, if I can’t find an exact replacement, could I make something that would work?

Every problem now looks like something that can be solved with a 3D printer. I can’t come up with a way to make the entire clip as a single piece – but what about making a series of 1/2″ or 1″ clips and stringing them together? It! Could! Work!

Fire up Fusion, sketch out a 1/2″x1/2″ U-shaped clip, extend it to 1″ long, knock it out on the 3D printer, and optimistically head to the Imperial.

Where it didn’t come anywhere close to fitting. Not to mention that there is a piece of door weatherstripping right where the clip would go.

OK, time to study this edge of the door opening more closely. Nope, nothing like the edges of the center column. Completely different shape.

Study the situation more closely. There is an L-shaped turned in edge on the door frame with the filler piece fitting inside the L. Dredging up the distant memories of long lost design skills, maybe a piece that locks into place at three points on the profile of the door frame could work? This would cover the top of the frame and extend down onto the filler. With the right design the printed plastic should have enough flexibility to snap into place and enough rigidity to lock into position.

Take a set of measurements across the door frame and filler piece, head back to Fusion, and start to design. The design went surprisingly quickly – leading me to suspect that it wouldn’t work… It is a small part, so it prints out quickly.

Head over to the car and try to snap it in place. It almost works. Which is actually quite encouraging! OK, the top needs to be a bit wider and the throat needs to be a bit deeper.

Fusion is a parametric design system. This means that you can change a design simply by changing dimensions. I was able to modify the design of the clip simply by changing two or three dimensions. And by changing I mean simply selecting a dimension and typing in new numbers – it was literally a 20 second job to change the dimensions and send a new part to the printer. And the new part printed in 7 or 8 minutes.

The new clip was closer but could still be improved. Version 7 of the design was finally the one I wanted. This wasn’t a problem – it was a very common example of the iterative nature of engineering design. The beauty of modern technology is that I was able to go through these 7 iterations an about an hour and a half with little effort!

With a profile that worked the next step was to extend this profile along the door frame – which had a variety of curves. The solution was to create a set of clips in 1/2″, 1″, and 2″ lengths. I then created multiple copies in the printer software and printed out 24 clips as a single job. This took about three hours, so I let it run and came back the next day.

Starting at the top I snapped the clips into place on the door frame, using 2″ clips for the straight sections, 1″ clips for the slightly curved sections, and 1/2″ clips for the most tightly curved sections.

Once again it almost worked. Most of the clips fit fine, but there was one place where they just wouldn’t lock into place. Oh! There is a doubled thickness of sheet metal where two panels meet! Look at what needs to be changed, head back to Fusion, and print off a modified clip. This time it only took me three iterations to get something that worked.

Finally! A set of clips covering the entire edge of the door frame.

The next question is how to wrap them with vinyl? They have to be removed from the door to do this, and 22 loose clips will be a pain to wrestle with. Fortunately two birds could be killed with one stone. I was concerned about the clips printing through the vinyl, and had planned to cover them with 1/4″ foam. By gluing the foam to the clips while they were still on the car they would stay in position while wrapping the vinyl.

Worked like a charm. Glue the foam to the clips, carefully pop the clips off of the door frame, take everything over to the bench, finish gluing, and wrap it with vinyl.

Take it back to the car and carefully snap each clip in place. And Viola! – good looking trim around the back seat!

This is a major change from when I first got the car. The interior has gone from horrible to something I’m reasonably proud of.

A set of fabric covered U-shaped trim pieces hold trim panels to the center pillars of the car. These are in absolutely horrible shape. I’ve been looking for replacements for the last four years with no success. And I’ve been afraid to touch these lest I totally destroy them, leaving me up the excrement waterway without a manual propulsion device.

After finishing the rest of the interior these pieces were really bugging me. With considerable and painful cogitation I dreamed up an almost plausible way to cover them with vinyl.

Yeah, that’s ugly…

Applying a liberal dose of fast setting epoxy to secure my courage in place, I removed the first piece of U-channel and tossed it onto the workbench.

Measurements and careful calculation suggested that a strip of vinyl 2-1/8″ wide would cover them.

Point of no return – carefully cut the cloth covering off of the wire spine. I’m officially committed!

My biggest concern was how to hold the wire spine and vinyl in place while wrapping the vinyl around the U. And how to secure the vinyl cover to the wire spine. The answer, which gave me the impetus to finally start this job, was three steps.

First, make a fixture to hold the vinyl and wire spine. This was done with two pieces of plywood spaced just the right distance apart making a channel for the vinyl and wire spine:

This holds the vinyl in place, but how to keep the wire spine from moving when I fold the vinyl over the edges? This is the step that kept me from touching these pieces for several years. I have a clear nightmare vision of trying to keep the vinyl centered while wrapping it over both legs of the U as being a a four or five handed wrestling match with a dyspeptic python. While everything is liberally coated with glue.

Thus the second step – run a bead of urethane adhesive down the bottom of the vinyl and bed the wire spine into it. This locks the vinyl and wire spine together.

This made it “easy” to wrap the vinyl into the center of the U – but how to hold it in place once wrapped? The solution was a liberal application of contact adhesive to the vinyl backing and to the wire spine. This is rather weak – the wire spine doesn’t have much surface area to bond to. But it doesn’t have to be strong – it just needs to hold the vinyl in place long enough to install the trim piece. The spring action of the wire spine locks everything into place after installation.

Between the plywood fixture and the urethane locking the spine to the vinyl it was surprisingly easy to smoothly wrap the vinyl into the center of the U. Coat the vinyl backing and the wire spine on one side with contact cement and give it 10 minutes to set up. Start at one end and carefully roll the vinyl over the edge. Every few inches stop and press the vinyl firmly against the wire spine with a plastic body and trim tool. Continue until one side was done, then flip the fixture around and repeat on the other side.

I’m rather pleased with the results. The final outcome is exactly what I was hoping for but didn’t really quite expect when I started this task And there was much rejoicing!

As I’ve mentioned once or twice, I seem to be a glutton for punishment. With the front doors done the difference between the front and rear doors was obvious.

I actually had all of the trim pieces for the rear doors. They were in the trunk of the car when I bought it. After doing the front doors I knew how all of these pieces fit. And how to do a better job of fitting the arm rest.

Sigh. Fine. Pull the rear door cards off the doors. Dig out the aluminum trim panels and chrome trim. Start the process from the middle.

First, cover the aluminum trim panel with vinyl and then fit it and secure it in place.

Fit the arm rest and start adding bolts and sheet metal screws to hold it in place. The bottom of the arm rest was warped, especially on the driver’s side. Screwing it to the door card flattened it out nicely.

Install the updated door cards back on the car, test everything, and rejoice.

Of course it wasn’t quite as simple as this description might imply… But it did go fairly smoothly and the results were good.

In yet another demonstration of a lack of common sense I decided it was time to tackle the front door cards.

Unlike the replacement hardboard panels on the rear doors, the front doors still had the factory door cards. These were made from a cardboard like compressed paper material. Which was fragile when new. It doesn’t age well. If exposed to water it basically falls apart. I’ve been afraid to touch it…

But the job has to be done. Sometime. Sigh, it looks like sometime is now….

Pop the first door card off and plop it on the workbench. Carefully take the arm rest off. The Imperial has a trim piece directly above the arm rest – an aluminum sheet with a sort of floral pattern and a chrome plated metal surround. This was also carefully removed.

The first view of what we have to work with is a bit of a mixed bag:

The first thing you can see is the (f)ugly carpet along the bottom of the door. This absolutely has to go. What was Chrysler thinking???

The second is that the door card is molded – you can see how the trim panel is partially recessed. This means that you will have trouble fitting things back together if you replace the factory panel with a flat piece of hardboard. This explains some of the challenges I had with the rear door cards. OK, I really need to save the factory pieces.

Time to carefully peal the old vinyl and carpet off. A heat gun softens the old adhesive and minimizes damage.

I’ve seen worse… It is actually in reasonably good shape except for the holes around the edges for the mounting clips. If I’m careful installing it should be OK.

The initial steps are like the rear door cards: cut and fit 1/4″ SewFoam to go over the whole panel. Double stitch the foam to the vinyl in 6″ squares – making sure that they line up with the stitching on the back doors. Spray the door card and cover with spray adhesive, fit the cover to the door, and staple on the back. The fit around the molded indents wasn’t great – but the arm rest and trim panel would pull everything into place.

The first major difference is the aluminum trim panel. These were worn and dirty. And ugly from the factory. Again, what was Chrysler thinking? I considered covering them with a nice walnut veneer. This would look rich – it was what Chrysler should have done in the first place.

I ultimately decided to just use some of the darker vinyl – I was already using it other places for accent. A round of spray adhesive, some fitting and trimming, and the updated trim panels were ready to go.

On the rear door cards the mounting of the arm rest and trim panels was a mystery. On the front doors taking them apart showed all of the mounting hardware and tricks.

First was to position the aluminum trim panel and the chrome trim. The chrome trim had a series of “nails” sticking out the back when went through holes in the door card and were then bent over. The arm rest used a combination of nuts and bolts, sheet metal screws, and the “nails”.

There was a bit of fiddling to deal with the thicker foam backed vinyl, but everything eventually went together. The last step on the workbench was to carefully install the retaining clips around the edge.

Time to cross my fingers, cart the refurbished door card over to the car, and attempt to install it. After a few gyrations the door card clipped into place. Install the courtesy light into the door and verify that it works. So far, so good. The last step was to install the power window switch and see if the window still goes up and down.

The window goes up. The window goes back down. The window goes up again. The door closes. The door opens. The door closes again. And there was much rejoicing!

Spend a few minutes admiring my work. Then on to the remaining door.

I’m rather happy with how this turned out! The old fiberboard held up better than I expected. The trim panel above the arm rest adds a nice bit of contrast. Walnut would have been nicer, but this is fine. This task went better than I expected going into it – always good when that happens! I’m beginning to look forward to cruise nights this summer.

Hopefully this will be the last post on the courtesy light electrical gremlins. It looks like there were two independent – and intermittent! – problems: prongs in the light socket touching the shell and a door switch not long enough to function reliably.

In the last post I described insulating the light socket to prevent potential shorting. A shim on the door provided a temporary fix to the door switch problem.

For a permanent fix I ordered a pair of door switches from Rock Auto. When installing them I replaced the bullet connector on the end of the wire just to be sure. And… The door wouldn’t close. The new door switches were too long. Crud!

When I had described the problem on Garage Journal several people had claimed that door switches were adjustable – the shaft could be extended. The Rock Auto switches weren’t adjustable – but the original factory switches were!

Of course the adjustment on the factory switches was frozen. Nothing that a vise, various tools, and strong language couldn’t overcome! With the shaft extended to what looked like a reasonable length there was nothing left but to screw it in place, hook it up, cross my fingers, and close the door.

Success! The switch now works reliably when opening and closing the door!

With two independent problems fixed I hope this problem is fixed for good! Time will tell…

As mentioned in a previous post I am (finally) re-doing the front door cards. Since this exposes the guts of the door it’s the obvious time to check out the wiring.

There is quite a bit of wiring in the front doors – power windows, power window switch (and connection to the master power window switch in the drivers door), and the infamous courtesy light. Plus the new power and ground wires I added to drive the electric windows reliably.

The wiring harness looked good. It always looks good. If it doesn’t look good I replace it! But there was something strange in the wiring to the power window switch… The wires weren’t exactly what was called out in the Factory Service Manual. Time to remove the tape protecting the harness and see what was going on.

Under the tape was a folded piece of wire not connected to anything else. Just sitting there. Strange! No idea what that was all about. With that wire out of the way the rest of it made more sense.

Anticipating working on the wiring harness inside the door I finally broke down and bought the right tool for the job – Tessa Tape. This tape is made specifically for wrapping wiring harnesses. It is made of cloth to be abrasion resistant. It has a special adhesive that sticks to the tape but not much else – unlike regular electrical tape which leaves sticky adhesive residue all over everything. Tessa Tape is a complement to electrical tape – electrical tape insulates and Tessa Tape is for wrapping wire bundles.

Using the Tessa Tape I re-wrapped the wire bundles I had opened up. I also wrapped the wiring harness where it entered the door to provide additional abrasion resistance and protection for the wires.

While it was on the workbench I took a close look at the socket for the courtesy light. Hmm, it looks like the spring loaded prongs that make electrical contact with the bulb are close to the shell. Wait a minute – what if one of the contacts has worn just enough that it can sometimes make contact with the shell of the socket?

There was the time that touching the socket to the door frame would cause the light to come on. I blamed the LED bulb I was using for the problem – replacing the LED with a regular bulb caused the problem to go away (at that time…). What if the problem wasn’t the LED but instead one of the contacts?

This is simple enough to fix – insulate the shell from any possible way of touching the contacts. A strip of plastic inside the socket would do the trick. I had some mylar drafting film that was perfect for this. Cut a strip just wide enough to barely touch the base of the bulb when the bulb is installed and slip it inside the socket.

I’ve been suspicious for quite a while that there were actually multiple issues with the courtesy lights and that I was seeing different issues at different times. The combination of problems with the door switch and the light socket would seem to cover just about everything I’ve seen. Hopefully the problem is finally fixed!