GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

The exterior trim panel that runs around the sides of the car on my 03' Vibe has popped out of it's clips on the front passenger door. It happened when my roommate was getting out of my car when it was parked by the curb and the edge of the door stuck on the grass and pulled out the edge of the trim when he closed the door. It popped off two clips on the edge of the door and one clip on the middle lower edge. The white clips are intact in the actual door and have came off the actual trim. They are square and look like the slide on to the trim bracket and pop back into the actual door. The brackets on the trim don't appear to be broken and the white clips look like they're still good. I've tried pushing the trim back against the door with no luck. If I could pull the clips out of the door without breaking them and attach them back to the trim, then I could push them back on the door. Problem is getting them out of the door without pulling out the other ones. Do I need to try and pull off the whole trim on the door and pull the clips from the door to reset them on the trim panel? If so, how? Any ideas or suggestions. If I did that, I would probably add some adhesive around the edges to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Thanks.

Get a body pin puller and yank 'em out. I'd just advise that you protect the paint with a bit of tape on the bend of the tool. If you don't have one, that makes things a bit tougher. You could try taking off the door panel, and pushing the pins out form the inside of the door, but some door panel body pins may get stuck as well, so you'd have to pop them out as well. Don't try a screwdriver or pliers from the front if you value your paint or pins. The pliers will ruin the pins, in which case you could pick some up from an auto parts store, and the screwdriver will scratch your paint to the metal, and do nothing to help the pin. The body pin puller tool is very useful anyway, so it'd be best if you got one.

I just had the same thing happen to me...I looked here for info. Perfect timing....

Ok, I just ordered this package online from Amazon for $10. Figured this would come in handy down the road for future problems or repairs. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...tails I'll post some pics of me, hopefully, fixing the cladding on my passenger side door when the tools gets here. Anyone have any input on an adhesive to put on the edges of the cladding/trim that contacts the door that can hold up to intense heat and has a strong hold. Is that Gorilla snot stuff any good? Oklahoma set a record for the hottest summer last year and my black on black Vibe takes a beating from the intense sun.

So my door pin tools came in and I tried to pop out the pins behind the plastic cladding on my door. No dice. Ended up just breaking them to get them off the door. I did a temporary fix till the new pins I ordered come in. Here are the replacement pins for the plastic cladding around the car from Amazon. Again, these are the ones you want for the outer trim/cladding that runs along the outside of the car. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...9WU6R Here are the replacement pins for the interior door panels. I had some missing and broken from earlier adventures in speaker installation, so I figured I'd order some of these too. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...9WU6R Here's the problem I was having. It rattled every time you shut that door and vibrated when driving on rough pavement too. So first I tried to pull it out from the outside and it snapped. I ended up just pulling out the broken pin. I then tried to push it out from the inside, but there was no way that was happening. There's no way of getting it back on the bracket without pulling the pin or taking off the whole trim panel and redoing them with new pins. Heres one of the broken pins. Here was my temporary fix. I cleaned the area with a towel and some alcohol and used some super sticky double sided duck tape. I folded a strip in half and peeled off one side of the folded tape, leaving the other side on it. That way I could get a clean edge on the back of the trim. You could use a number of ways to get the panel to stick temporarily. I heated up the area with a hairdryer to get a better adhesion. So far it has stayed put. Once the new pins come in, I'm going to try to fix it without having to take the whole trim panel off, but I'm guessing I'll probably will since it comes in a package of 25. I'll probably put a whole new set of pins on their and use that duck tape to seal the edges back to the door.

Nice improvisational fix. A good, heat-resistant double-sided tape is 3M red trim tape. Automakers use it to hold things on, and AVS put it on my vent visors, so obviously they trust it. If your badges haven't fallen off your doors in the heat (and it appears they haven't) than 3M trim tape will work just fine for you.

Thanks for the tip. I just put on some AVS ventshades a couple days ago and noticed that too. I'll have to get some of that.

So I fixed my panel. Pulled out the broken tabs, seated some new tabs on the panel, used some 3M automotive tape, cleaned/prepped surface, heated tape and door with a hairdryer, and attached the panel back to the door. Problem solved. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...tails http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...tails

Looks good man! nice job! Any thoughts about painting your gray plastic panels black? Think your car will look alot better painted, I'm gonna try & tackle this my self except by not removing it & using duplicolor spray can.& did you check to see if any autoparts store had the tabs in stock? I need to buy 2 for the driverside.

I have thought about spray painting the panels to restore the original darkness of the trim, but I've been a little hesitant to do that. I'm starting to get the "tiger stripes" on my bumpers and it looks like sh**. I've used the a couple of oil/silicone type stuff on it before and it looks awesome. Only problem is that it doesn't last for more than a month.I started looking around the web for something more permanent and came across some stuff call "Forever Black Bumper & Trim Dye Kit." It comes with cleaner and a black dye for the cladding around the car. They say the applicator sucks and to just pour it into a cup and use a foam painter's brush to apply it. Weather has been poor here lately, so I've been prepping/repairing the exterior and plan on doing it in a day or two. It's got 4/5 stars from 73 reviews on Amazon. I'll make a post after I put it on. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...tails I also bought some tire dye from the same company. Hoping that will last longer the wet tire stuff. I'm going to wait to put that on till I get the wheels cleaned up and painted behind my wheel covers. I've got some surface rust on the wheels that show through the wheel covers I've got on. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...tails As for the tabs, I didn't check the auto parts stores. They might have some, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. I bought some off Amazon and it came in a box of 25. I don't think they sell them in any smaller amounts. The GM part # is 94848834. I could probably mail you a some since I only used three of them.

Here's another source for the body cladding clips:

NAPA Balkamp 665-2849

It seems that Amazon is a little less expensive, but in many cases you can drive to the local NAPA store and get to work on your car right away.

+1 for this useful thread. I just had the same thing happen to both sides of my Vibe’s front doors. After driving around with duct tape for a (long) while, I finally made the repair. To reiterate the process others have already described:

1. Remove panel by prying off by hand. I tried to grab near each pin location to avoid potentially bending/cracking the panel although it seemed pretty robust.

2. Remove still attached pins from door. Almost all stayed attached in my case. I found the tines of a hammer useful to pry/break them out with a cloth between the hammer and door to protect the paint.

3. Clean/scrape remaining “glue” at top of panel on both panel- and door-side. I did not find a good way to do this other than a lot of laborious work.

4. Insert new panel clips onto panel. Apply line of 3M red tape at top of panel where “glue” was previously.

5. Press entire panel, panel clip and 3M tape assembly onto door. Heat tape with hair dryer or as directed by package.

6. Ask everyone who rides in your car to be careful when getting in near a tall curb so it doesn’t happen again.

Step 7: go buy a second gen Vibe. The original cladding design was stupid to begin with.

There is a good write-up for this with pictures in the DYI section

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=44681&p=523837&hil ... mp#p523837