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2G Door cap problems

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Doomchild

Proven Member
56
8
Sep 1, 2016
Ypres, Europe
I'm having some problems with my passenger side door cap.
It looked warped (picture below) so I removed it to see what was wrong with it. It was still straight but showed signs of being a 2nd hand replacement part (inside is red, my car is green, there seems to be some repair work done) and was fitted with 2 different types of clips, 2 were larger than the other ones.
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I ordered new clips and when they arrived i replaced all old ones with the new ones and refitted the cap.
The clips didn't seem to line up properly with the holes (not much, mere millimeters) and the cap looked just as warped as before.
To make matters worse, trying to remove the cap again snapped ALL the clip mountings.
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Is it still salvagable or should I buy a (apparently very expensive) replacement?
Would the misallignment of the holes really be the cause of the warped look or did I just ruin a perfectly good door cap?

I still got all the broken pieces, so I could technically fix it with compound glue and maybe fix the misallignment issue...
 
The only thing I can think of, is that the 95-96 (2GA) and 97-99 (2GB) had different door caps. That being said, it is possible that the mount holes where slightly off, or even the clips could have been different as well. That's just a guess based on the door cap difference.
 
Just use 3m double sided automotive tape. Order it off ebay, just make sure its 3M. I've had side skirts held on with tape only, so a door cap should be no problem. If the cap is actually warped, try heating it with a heat gun (not too close to damage paint), or even try boiling water, and maybe lay something on top to flatten it out or create a brace out of some lumber and clamps.
I've found this type of damage is caused by either using the wrong size clips or the bracket side on the skirt not hooking onto the clip and sits on top of it instead. Fairly common since there are so many to line up. People less obsessed with these cars just let it go and there's your result.

Someone else can chime in here, but I'm pretty sure the holes on the door and rockers are universal and it's the clip points that vary from year to year or model. When I pulled my twisty skirts off there were a bunch of extra unused mounting holes. A definite design flaw since they weren't even covered and allow water,salt,dirt,etc to get trapped in the rocker. I just covered them up, also used a dab of rtv on the body side of the clips. I'm just saying if you use tape as I suggested make sure you cover up the existing holes.
 
2 of the clips that were used were definately not correct, they were much bigger, heads were almost twice the size of the other ones. the new ones i ordered are also a bit bigger only the bit that goes into the holes, the heads of the clips are identical.

current plans are to check the alignment of the clips, adjust whatever needs adjusting (clip mounting on the doorcap most likely) to make them fit more snugly and also use double sided mounting tape to make sure the top of the doorcap fits against the door.
just finished glueing the mountings back on with 3M compound glue. we'll let it harden overnight.

thanks for the suggestions and insights so far :)
 
I have the same issue on my talon 2ga. Same color too previous owner used 3m tape but came off recently... I feel ur pain removes clean area well and 3M along with the clips
 
I had this problem when i did my whole 95-96 to a 97-99 conversion. Wanted to do it as low cost as i can so i left my 95 96 cap on when i did conversion. Was sticking out. Now to fix your break for clips 2 coats of jb weld or epoxy. You need to have some string handy. Tie around few times. Then apply. Jb or epoxy.
 
so the passenger side door cap is definatly a repaired replacement, shows signs of repair and is completely warped, tried mounting it with 3M doublesided mounting tape but when the top fits, the underside just flares out, trying to get the underside to fit and the top side rips up the mounting tape.
it'll hold for now but it definately needs to be replaced before i'm happy with it.
thinking of replacing both door caps and side skirts with the 2gb ones if I can find some that don't demand an arm and a leg as payment.
 
If you'd like I can ask a few people that are parting out the same color Eclipse back home (Bulgaria) and see if they will send you the door caps.
 
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