A million apologies if this has been discussed so many times everyone is fed up reading about it ! Just got myself some new panels and ( apart from the door cards ) is there any other way to fix them to the van , other that using those awfully tricky metal clips where the holes and clips never seem to match up !! Has anyone ever stuck / glued / double sided taped them on and if so how ?
Whatever you do, make sure the waterproof membrane is sound before you mount them. Regarding the clips - bay window ones, and the rubber cup jobbies are smaller that Beetle ones as I recall, making fitting them a pain if you don't have the right ones. Get the right ones and its pretty simple tbh.
I secured mine with blobs of tiger seal. go easy just use it around the edge about an inch or so in. If you need the panels off again you will need to cut through the spots with a stanley blade , I have had mine off once to repair a sticky window lift but re secured them with the same material ( fresh application) the clips are a pain in the butt.. should nave mentioned that the panels have to be secured with tape until the tiger seal has cured which is usually overnight.
There are some with 6 mm and others with 7 mm bung holes. If you try to fit 7 mm ones where they should be 6 mm the bungs will fit but not the clips. Once you've got this right and assuming the holes in the door cards are as original it's pretty easy. Some folks are known to drill out the holes in the door metal rather than get the right parts. The 6 mm ones are more expensive for some reason.
I'll bow to your greater knowledge....it's been a while since I pulled mine and recall issue with wrong size clips.
The holes do line up when the clips are in the right position. You have to rotate them round and keep offering up, and suddenly they all point into the holes. And the right size clips fit the little rubber bungs and then they dont scrape the paint off. Cheapness is probably due whether the Brazilian buses used that size last
