As one of those unfortunate miscreants who removed the oxidized, brown chrome
strip from my windshield and noticed that it now leaks, I appreciate your
pioneering and successful attempt at this most fearsome and challenging of
aesthetic improvements.

Bus Depot lists an entire set of chrome moldings for around $100, and now I am
tempted to order one and try this myself. The moldings on my '87 are all a
uniform brown, which contrasts unattractively with the van's metallic blue paint.
Not that I am trying to have a perfect van, but these old moldings stand out from
a mile away! With my freshly painted poptop, the van actually looks pretty good,
save for the moldings.

Dan
'87 Westfalia
'82 Adventurewagen
'75 Porsche 914

Frank Grunthaner wrote:

> Just finished installing the chrome trim strips in my windows all around and
> thought I share the details.
>
> Mine looked like hell and really detracted from my otherwise fresh '82
> Westfalia. You have probably all followed the thread about removing the
> oxidized strips - then 1) leave em out, call it the California look! 2)
> replace them or the window will fall out, 3) to replace them you must pull
> out the whole window, replace the trim then replace the window and seal and
> 4) replace them with the window installed - use a bent paper clip  - no big
> deal! In searching the archives all of the above are there along with dire
> warnings.  Lots of doomsday workers on the list (sorry).  I'm here to say
> that the archives are full of misinformation (sometimes termed BS). And so
> begins my story.
>
> First, the issue of obtaining the trim strips. They are in the EKTA CD and
> stocked by the dealer. Price will bring you to your knees.  They are also
> carried by West Coast Metric at a reasonable price. But Bus Depot had them
> for half the West Coast Metric price, so I ordered them from the Depot. This
> was not one of Ron's finest hours, but the 2 1/2 month wait helped me put off
> the operation for three to four months. Tempus Fugit.
>
> In the interim, I checked out the local Pick-a-Part yards which have
> contributed so much to my knowledge and my Westfalia. I went up to several
> Vanagons and pushed (vigorously) on windshield, rear window and side windows.
> The glass withstood my efforts admirably. I then removed the trim strip and
> repeated the experiment. Amazing, the windows popped out readily (pushing
> from the inside). After several of these I developed a qualitative measure of
> the force required to pop the windshield w/o the trim strip. The force
> required to pop the window with trim strip in place was at least twice that
> required to pop the de-stripped ones. This continued until I was escorted
> from the yard as some kind of nut.
>
> So, sorry,  Chris and the other purveyors of "pull 'em, leave 'em, its just
> fine!" are wrong (in my opinion). The trim strip is clearly a locking strip.
> Take it out and seriously compromise the safety and integrity of the Vanagon.
> No comment about water leakage, but the archived suggestion of increased
> leakage after removal of the strip makes sense to me.
>
> Then on to the problem of the install. The Doomsday approach of having to
> remove the window and rubber seal, pop in trim and replace the whole assembly
> just made no sense to me. There is one report in the archives of making a
> tool out of a paper clip which seemed reasonable but I felt there had to be a
> tool. Well, there is!  The tool is manufactured by Leslie Tools as Model
> Number 47000, and costs $12.95 at the local FLAPS. They probably won't have
> it in stock and will have to special order it. Typically 7 days. Plenty of
> time to play with it until the order from the Bus Depot arrives. BTW, amazing
> that no comment about installation method or the tool comes from either WCM
> or BD.
>
> OK, tool in hand, soap and water solution spray bottle in mouth, I attacked
> the Vanagon. One hour for the first one, 10 minutes for the last. The keys:
>
> 1.) Lube the channel copiously (50/50 mix of water and dishwashing soap
> worked well).
>
> 2.) Guide the strip to the tool by holding down 4 to 5 inches of material
> ahead of the tool with notch in groove.
>
> 3.) Use the smaller of the two tool heads provided.
>
> 4.) Relax, Mozart helps, well-placed colorful curses impede progress (Don't
> ask, we're talking data here).
>
> 5.) Leave about 3 hours total for the job with cleanup (Windows in place).
>
> 6.) Leave several days if window removal is attempted, also kiss up to
> neighbors before job (while waiting for delivery), in order to procure
> necessary additional hands for messy job.
>
> The results: Excellent, my friendly machine looks years younger. A quick test
> shows a mileage improvement of 0.03 mpg, clearly related to better moral of
> both driver and machine. Could be some reduction in drag, but I haven't had a
> chance to quantify.
>
> Negative: My 12 year old told her mother I repainted the camper! Later she
> qualified her statement by saying that I had removed the brown trim.
>
> Summary: Piece of cake. By the tool and rejuvenate your ride. Also: the
> Doomsday procedure involving the removal of the windows is certainly not the
> only way to make this modification. I could still be reserved for the
> masochists among us.
>
> Hope this helps someone, and my apologies for length.
>
> Frank Grunthaner