75ZT Community

Right, the door trims on Connie have been bad since I bought her, and finding new ones has proved near impossible, the rears are available from Les at SMC, but the front ones are like hens teeth!!

I finally got a full, second hand set from a chap called Mike who supplied my gearbox and flywheel. However, even one of these was starting to rust on the back, whilst looking fine at the front. So I have repaired it and taken some photos to show you all, as yours may be rusty without you knowing it, and prevention is better than cure


Here is how my original drivers side front one looked



And my original front passenger side one wasn't much better!!

So time to change them. Start by pulling the hard plastic finisher off from around the door, but not completely, you only need to get at the area covering the door trim, next, pull out the window sealing rubber, the part that the window sits in, you will have to pull the rubber up out of the door, but don't worry, it just slides back in. Then you will have 3 screws to undo,
then the door trim just pulls up and off. Here is my drivers side one off the car



The rusty holes shouldn't be there!!

Here is my new (second hand) one, looks fine here

But when you look behind....



So it's time to prevent it getting worse. Start by removing any foam anti-rattle pads that may be in the rusty area, be careful as you will need to replace these!! then remove all the loose rust, especially from the channel, I did this with a flat headed screwdriver



Then I coated the rust with copious quantities of Kurust

Then, when the Kurust had dried, I painted it with Hammerite primer



Then I finished off by spraying the area with Hammerite sill stone chip paint, masking off the front so that no over-spray could spoil the finish. Then, replace any foam anti-rattle pads you may have removed, and then it's just a case of re-assembly, there is a small amount of movement in the screws so that you can get the trims in just the right place.

the finished article



Sorry about the focus, I think my camera is on it's last legs, but at least the car looks better around the doors!!

Interestingly,this was the only one that was rusty, all the others Mike had supplied were fine with no rust at all!

Hopefully this will help others out, and maybe you should check yours, you never know what they look like behind!!

It should be noted, that as these are getting harder to find, some owners are treating the rust on their's and them wrapping them in plastic, carbon fibre effect seems the most popular

Are you aware your pictures come out really small on the boards? PM me if you want assistance in uploading or resizing images.

This is been explained already on here .................. Gotcha!

See Here!
http://75ztcommunity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=708

Dallas wrote:This is been explained already on here .................. Gotcha!

See Here!
http://75ztcommunity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=708

Not as a how to

Thats because mine is in the wrong place......

Dallas wrote:Thats because mine is in the wrong place......

I'm sure it will be moved for you

When you did your's, could you see any reason for them getting so rusty?? from what I could see no water ran where the rust was

This is it! I have been racking my brain over the same thing ...... as you say, dont look like water can get in but its got to be the only cause really.

It looks like the water can run down from the face of the finisher plate and from the inside of the plate fold section, just where the rust starts.....


Were all x4 of yours rusting, I've just replaced the front two on mine (back ones look fine) but I have not taken them off yet to have a look.

Nope, just the front 2, I had all 4 sent to me, and as I said in the write up, the front drivers one I was sent was also rusty!! however, the other 3 were fine, in-fact they looked like new, but were also off a 1999 model

I wonder if there was a bad "batch" of front ones fitted, that nobody realised weren't painted properly. I also don't know if it affects later cars as badly as early ones.

I expect we will never know, one of life's great mysteries

Anyway, maybe our threads can be combined, like they were on the other side, and then put in the right section, any mods around????