Dad's Life Hacks No. 4: Simple repairs

Things aren't always going to go perfect in your life. You might have an accident, you might run into a low wall after you underestimate the distance to your car. When that happens, don't despair; try your best to fix it. Some things are not fixable, but many things are - like this 2017 Toyota RAV4 door trim damaged by running into a low wall:

Ouch, this is a painful ding.

Try getting a quote from Auto Body shops. If the quote is too high, or they do not return your inquiries, then go online to find a replacement part. I found this one on eBay. Now, it's not an original Toyota part, but you don't really need original parts for body trim:

Look closely at the new trim, notice the screw and adhesive strip.

One thing you notice from the replacement part is that there is one (1) screw in a sea of snap-in pins. That tells you that there must be a nut to remove in order to remove the door trim. Also, you see that this trim folds like a clam-shell, so it's very likely that the inside shell is removed first to get to the screw. Finally, you notice that there is an adhesive tape at the top of the outside clam-shell - this keeps the water from getting into the trim.

Prying off the inside shell of the damaged trim, you get a sense of how it's attached and you see the cover for the screw. 

Inside shell released and there is a cover tab for the screw.

Pry off the cover tab to get to the screw. Take off the nut to release the outside clam-shell half, allowing you to remove the damaged trim from the door.

Cover tab removed to see screw/nut.

After removing the damaged trim, use Goo-be-gone to clean off the old adhesive from the door. This will allow your replacement trim adhesive to stick to the door better. Remove the red tape from the new trim to get it ready to attach.

Starting from the outside, snap the pins into the register holes in the door. The snap-in pins have to be gently pushed into the holes until you hear a "snap". I used my knees to push them in while holding onto the door, but not too forcefully to damage the new trim.

Old trim removed, door cleaned with Goo-be-gone

New trim snapped into place, screw replaced, inside clam-shell closed

After attaching the trim on the outside, replace the nut onto the screw of the new trim and tighten. Then, push the inside clam-shell snap-pins into the register holes. Again, push on the pins until you hear a "snap".

When all the pins are snapped into place, you might find that the top edge is not tight to the door body and you will need some clamping force to hold the trim tight to the door. One trick is to park close to a wall and use some scrap wood to push against the trim to hold it tight against the door.

Clamp struts placed against trim and wall.

Struts seen from the back side

Now let the adhesive set up, probably 2 to 4 hours will do, and release your wood struts afterwards. Get back on the road, you are ready to drive again!