B pillar trim - fir tree variations?

[Jonathan]

I'm curious what is out there on other's cars in terms of the B pillar trim. I am replacing mine, or repairing it, and noticed on the passenger side the existing trim piece has two fir trees only, yet the replacement piece I bought has three. The catch is, the stainless it attaches to only has two holes drilled. The middle hole, number three, is not drilled on my car.

Anyone seen something similar on their car? My originals have two fir tree connectors (and two holes) and the replacement on the driver's side has two only as well. The replacement passenger side has three. Not sure I'm too excited to drill the third hole into the stainless unless necessary.

[mluder]

Are you referring to the A pillar door piece? That's the front pillar on the door. I too ran into the same condition... Too many locations for fir trees and not enough holes in the stainless. I believe that is simple a disconnect in design between the two pieces. Could also be VIN related (early or late). I contemplated drilling the stainless and then reconsiderd thinking I might do more harm than good.

Others might weigh in...

Cheers
Steven

[Jonathan]

I hadn't looked closely at the A pillars yet, but it sounds like you've seen the same thing on those. The ones I meant are on the rear edge of the doors.

It's #3 here:

http://store.delorean.com/c-317-8-7-1-door-trim.aspx

101878 and 101879.

It sounds like the interior parts/suppliers changed while the car was in production and this could be one of those oversights.

[DMCMW Dave]

It sounds like the interior parts/suppliers changed while the car was in production and this could be one of those oversights.

Sometimes you need to remember that you are dealing with a car that, even in late production, was a low run, early build car by industry standards, and you are not dealing with something with Toyota/Honda/GM levels of refinement and manufacturing engineering. It's damn impressive for what it was, but pretty primitive compared to a modern car.

I find in it interesting to find this sort of issue, and am often amazed that they are fixed in later cars even as the company was falling apart.