Description
Above the door panels, there are upholstered wooden door top rails, running the length of the doors. These rails are attached to the inside door facing with chrome end finishers. The vinyl coverings on these rails deteriorate. Believe it or not, the left had top rail gets worn away where the drivers left arm tends to rest! The vinyl coverings age and crack with exposure to sun and weather.
New door rails are available or you can purchase just the vinyl covering material.
The door rails are machined from hardwood. They are fairly complex pieces, not something that you could easily whittle up on your workbench! Not surprisingly, they suffer from dry rot, particularly on the ends where mounting screws attach the chrome end finishers. Cars that have sat outside for a long time in the wet usually are more prone to this. If the door rails are loose or partially fallen off of the doors, chances are that the wood “cores” have rotted away. In that case, we recommend new door top rails. If only the vinyl covering is deteriorated, we offer a vinyl recovering kit for a lot less money!
The chrome end finishers that attach the door rails to the doors are usually pretty ugly! Often, the chrome is peeled away, resulting in an unsightly mess. New end finishers are easy to install and we always recommend them. Please be aware-new door top rails do NOT include the chrome finishers and they will be needed to complete the installation
