Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Upholstery and Interior mods Port Hole Trim...

Howdy. So I'm about to put some paneling in my interior and came to the realization that once I screw it into the pillars, the paneling will stick out from my ports by about 1" - 2" instead of being flush with it Basically, when I bought the van, someone had already ripped out the interior and in the process took out the trim rings for my ports... those trim rings are long gone as far as I know. Anybody have any tips / ideas / examples for how to bridge that annoying little gap bwetween my panelling and ports? It's a 73 B100. Thanks in advance.

-Andrew

I've seen them molded in

i still have that gap on mine. every now and then i look at it but still haven't decided what to do myself.

Make some cool wooden trim rings

I am confused.....if the rings are gone what holds the windows in? When I worked for a van shop years ago and installed windows the chrome ring was installed where there was a 2" gap between the ring and the wall of the van. We would the cut wooden blocks to fill the gap. That would accomplish 2 things: allow the chrome trim to finish off the paneling and give you something to screw or staple the interior wall to. I have seen windows installed where the chrome ring was reversed and was flush against the van but then you have the problem of finishing off the inside.

I was thinking the same thing Lee

I put my portholes in with the trim rings reversed. I needed to get them in so no weather could get in and I knew I wasn't gonna get to the interior right away. Now that I put my interior in I can't get access to the screws and put the rings on the correct way. Never really thought about taking off the rings when I put my interior together and putting them on the right way. I just wasn't thinking in my case.

My ports apparently had a second set of trim rings (sorry if I'm not explaining as well as I want!) that look as though they were designed to come outward from the wall to come flush with the panelling once it was screwed into the pillars. In any case, there's a gap.

Thinking I might be able to do something with wood as suggested above. I was thinking making some balsa wood to fill in the depth of the gap, then trim it with a nice wood ring.

Here's a visual example of the trim piece that's missing. Pic 1 has it, pic 2 does not... these are photos from a guy that owned the van before me... pic 1 is before he gutted the interior.

1: http://s609.photobucket.com/user/sh...y/DodgeShorty006.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

2: http://s609.photobucket.com/user/sh...73B100Shorty009.jpg.html?sort=3&o=36