Replacing the rear wheel well plastic molding

[manoftaste]

i had gotten some deep scratches on the rear passenger side one about three years ago or so (was parked in front of a store and a teenager parked next to me scraped it as he was pulling out in reverse and turning his front wheels.) his front fender caused my plastic trim to also come off just a tiny bit so its not seated in its correct position now. no damage to the body, thank God.

now am wondering if i should have it done by the dealer or a body shop. bodyshop guys do things like this day and night versus the dealers i guess.

also, would replacing that piece with a new one stand out clearly from the rest of the trim which is old (specially the one right next to it thats attached to the rear door and finishes the other half of the wheel well.)

thoughts?

 

[drzjoint]

depends if your dealeers body shop is any good. Some are awsome some suck. I have seen alot of crummy body work out of dealerships. I only use one and have brought vehicles over 400 miles to get to mine. Find a good one and stick with him. I put myself thru college doing bodywork.

 

[nwoods]

If you are in SoCal, Tropical Autobody in Orange does a large amount of Land Rover body shop work for all the local dealers. I went direct to have some items touched up and their prices were better than some hole in the wall shops I priced in comparison.

 

[manoftaste]

thanks, i was waiting to get an idea from you guys before giving the go to the dealer (truck is in shop for other things right now), the tech did say however that its a simple thing to do, but the advisor kinda recommended the outside shop first. how far is it from west la (sorry still haven't gotten around much outside west la).

is there any wiring/electric lines i should be concerned about during replacement work?

also what about the difference between new and old trim pieces (fade, etc). i mean the rear door arch is composed of two trim pieces smack in the middle and i was thinkin of replacing only the scratched piece.

btw, dealer quoted like $310 for putting the new piece ($180 for the part and the rest is labor). its the rear-right door trim piece which is closer to the tail and its not on the door)

nwoods, how can i be on top of lr events, etc. i cant believe i have been in socal for almost three years now and not a single trip. i am a total rookie with no experience what so ever and probably need to get into like a beginners trip or something.

 

[nwoods]

Wow! We just had our semi-annual New Member Orientation run last weekend!!! We being www.SCLR.org. We have trips every month. Mojave Trail is coming up soon and that is an easy, but historic and scenic trail. I leave tommorow night for a pre-run.

I'm sure there are plenty of places for body work closer to you, such as British Car Services in Torrance. Hard to say about color matching until you see it.

 

[JackMac]

I had a front wheel arch molding replaced. It just snaps in. I think the part was under $100 (two years ago) and can probably be swapped in less than 15 minutes.

Agree with the other suggestions to work with a body shop. This is what they do.

 

[Bhill]

Wheel arch replacement

I knocked off my L/F wheel arch molding. It looks like I could snap another one right back on. Is there a place to get this part other than the dealer?