Front / rear window chrome trim......straighten or replace?

[Tinker]

Both sides of the chrome trim for my rear glass were bent in the lower corners as a result of an accident. It's a long story.

Has anyone had any luck attempting to straighten these trim pieces or am I better of spending the $80 for new?

If you have had success, is there a secret? I tried to gently play with it, but it appears I may be doing more harm than good. Would heating it help?

Thanks all.

Tinker

[the]

The chrome trim can be straightened out from minor bending, it's pretty soft and bends by hand. As you've found out, though, it's easy for an inexperienced person to do more harm than good! Seems to be an art to straightening it out.

Can you reuse it? It's really up to you, if you can get it to sit right in the rubber moulding, and it looks acceptable to you.

[Walt Fricke]

Tinker - as the (thee?) said, it is soft and easily enough bent by hand. It is normal for it to get bent some removing it when replacing the glass, so it is normal to have to work on it some for the reinstall. Put the glass with the rubber in it on a table or over a couple of sawhorses or something. Lay the trim on top of its groove in the rubber and see where it is flush and where it is not. Work it with your hands until it all lays flush. Then you can install it into the rubber and and reinstall the glass. Or at least have a good shot at it - I failed last go around with my rear window glass - one corner of the trim just would not lay down properly.

You do have the glass out, don't you? You can't really install this trim with the glass in the car (at least I sure couldn't, and naturally I was sure I could before I tried it).

If by bent you mean damaged like, say, a dent in a fender that deforms its cross section, as from a heavy weight falling on that part of the car, then I'd be looking to replace it.

Walt Fricke