Shortchanged on trim?

[Chick Chandler]

I removed all of the plastic/petroleum based/whatever side trim from my '92 RML doors, sanded it all down and repainted it. When putting it back on I noticed that all of the longer pieces seemed to be about 2 inches shorter than the chrome on which they were mounted. This forced me to have to center each piece and does not look all that good. Does anyone know why Buick did this? Was this just a production error as I have seen other '92 RML's and the plastic stuff appears to be the same length as the chrome.

 

[azroadmaster]

Shrinkage!

 

[Chick Chandler]

Mine is the same color as yours. "Barry" White.Would you do me a favor and measure the length of the plastic trim pieces on one side of yours and let me know what they are? It would help me to determine if mine are mutants and to know what lengths I need to look for.
Shrinkage or my RML got longer.

 

[azroadmaster]

My trim is long gone!

 

[Chick Chandler]

I thought about leaving my plastic strips off but scratched the chrome up pretty bad in the process of removing that dried up glue. Leaving the chrome on would not have been consistent with my plan of blacking out most of the chrome on the car. The car looks nice blacked out. Sort of stealthy. Now if I could only solve the shrinkage problem.

 

[hotrodder]

I had the same shrinkage problem. Rear panel rubber shortened about 2" when taken off and re-glued. I started at the door and worked back. really not noticable difference.

 

[Chick Chandler]

That's really incredible. Why should that stuff shrink when it is removed from the car but not while it is glued to the car? I have looked at a few '92 RML's on the internet and from what I can tell from the photos, it seems that the plastic length is pretty much the same as the length of the chrome to which it is attached on all of them.