Good day all,

Looking for some advice on how to re-attach this chrome trim to the drivers side kick panel on my '66 Toronado. I've attached pictures below on how it's supposed to look (not mine - ref picture from interweb) and mine. The chrome trim is attached to the carpet by long, thin, and bendable spring tabs attached to the back of the trim but mine are all broken off and long gone by the looks of things.

Any thoughts on a repair to this? It certainly doesn't have to be perfect, I just want the trim piece to stay securely attached. I've thought about it quite a bit and I cannot come up with anything slick. The blue arrows are pointing to the broken tabs. They go through the carpet to the other side of the plastic kick panel and then they are bent down to securely attach the trim to the carpet.

Thanks everyone!


Picture for reference (not mine)

Blue arrows show broken tabs

 

The trim strip looks to have a rolled lip on the back side, so maybe a body side molding trim clip with a spring could be used?

 

It would likely be sort of a PITA but the inserts on the backside of that trim strip are regular steel. The trim piece itself is stainless steel.

Anyway, if you have a junk piece of the regular steel insert....or even some scrap sheetmetal of a similar gage/thickness, you could cut out a set of the "prongs" that are missing/snapped off of yours and WELD them into place on the steel insert. With clean metal (the insert and the newly cut "prongs") you should be able to get a decent quick/hot weld to attach the prongs. The prongs were/are easily bent and the new bends will be above the welded spots.

The later cars (Cutlass, etc) have their own versions of those trim pieces...they were typically used in each door panel to separate the vinyl covered area from the lower carpeted area. I have some of those from a '70 - 72 Cutlass and they have the same construction, prongs and attachment method.

Heck - if you have dimensions for the trim strip you show (total length and width)....we might find that those trim strips are the same as later Cutlass style I mention (again, used on the door panels....two trim strips per door panel). You might even be able to shorten a couple of them if the Cutlass trim pieces are longer than what you need.

It would also help to have a better pic(s) showing the "profile" of your trim strips.....the pic you show appears to be VERY similar, if not the same, as the later Cutlass strips I mention. They have beveled edges that are polished and the flat "face" of the strip is a brushed finish.

I can post measurements of the Cutlass trim strips if it would help.

 

Stainless door panel trim pieces from '70-2 Cutlass/442....probably the same thing as what you're looking for but may not be correct length:

 

Thanks everyone for the tips, but ended up going with a simple solution. I cleaned up the metal in the channel and used some JB Weld to attach some nuts to the back of the trim. Then I could just use screws from the back side to hold the trim in place. Worked out excellent actually.