Illuminated tread plates.
#21
Raising this thread from the dead.
Coz I just spent six hours installing the illuminated tread plate on one side (drivers/RHS in my case), other side will be done tomorrow.
Six hours coz I'm a feeble old bugger these days and I like to go slow and careful so as not to stuff anything up.
A lengthy job coz you have to pull the bottom sill (under the door) off to do the wiring plus various bits of door and sill trim.
As others have said it is impossible to get the OEM tread plate off without destroying it.
Got there in the end though, didn't break or lose anything and no leftover screws or bolts, looks great.
Speaking of taking the bottom sill off, my car has the common gap or misalignment where the rear half of the bottom of the door sticks out some 2 or 3 mm past the edge of the sill, so I though I would have a look at adjusting the fit of the sill, maybe via some spacers.
No go though, there is no play in the location of the bolts and scrivets (jeez I hate scrivets!) used to attach the sill and no way of getting any spacers in behind, so scotch that bright idea.
Update and correction.
Finished the job today, other side done, went without a (major) hitch, just the usual niggles with tools hiding and damnable scrivets not co-operating.
The correction concerns adjusting the fit of the lower panel (below the door) to improve/correct/fix the poor alignment with the bottom of the door.
Although I didn't need it on the other side today I reckon it can be done by adding some spacers/washers to the BACK of the panel before you bolt it back on.
I didn't spot that yesterday as I didn't take the panel right off coz it was hung up in the front corner on something that looked a bit like a zip tie.
But today the other panel came right off no sweat (so I gave it a good clean up).
There are seven pesky scrivets that hold the panel under the bottom edge and seven long and largish Torx bolts (T45 I think) that bolt the top edge of the panel on to the frame nice and firm. I reckon if you add some spacers/washers to the backs of those bolt holes on the panel itself (not all of them just in the area where the panel undercuts the edge of the door) that will do the trick to push that part of the panel out a bit so it aligns with the bottom of the door.
How thick the washers/spacers need to be is debatable but I would guess in most cases 1 or 2 mm would be enough, and how you get them to "stick" to the back of the panel in the right places I'm not sure but some bright spark out there will know.
Worth a try I reckon, not a huge amount of work, and I may have a go on the driver's side one day.
Coz I just spent six hours installing the illuminated tread plate on one side (drivers/RHS in my case), other side will be done tomorrow.
Six hours coz I'm a feeble old bugger these days and I like to go slow and careful so as not to stuff anything up.
A lengthy job coz you have to pull the bottom sill (under the door) off to do the wiring plus various bits of door and sill trim.
As others have said it is impossible to get the OEM tread plate off without destroying it.
Got there in the end though, didn't break or lose anything and no leftover screws or bolts, looks great.
Speaking of taking the bottom sill off, my car has the common gap or misalignment where the rear half of the bottom of the door sticks out some 2 or 3 mm past the edge of the sill, so I though I would have a look at adjusting the fit of the sill, maybe via some spacers.
No go though, there is no play in the location of the bolts and scrivets (jeez I hate scrivets!) used to attach the sill and no way of getting any spacers in behind, so scotch that bright idea.
Update and correction.
Finished the job today, other side done, went without a (major) hitch, just the usual niggles with tools hiding and damnable scrivets not co-operating.
The correction concerns adjusting the fit of the lower panel (below the door) to improve/correct/fix the poor alignment with the bottom of the door.
Although I didn't need it on the other side today I reckon it can be done by adding some spacers/washers to the BACK of the panel before you bolt it back on.
I didn't spot that yesterday as I didn't take the panel right off coz it was hung up in the front corner on something that looked a bit like a zip tie.
But today the other panel came right off no sweat (so I gave it a good clean up).
There are seven pesky scrivets that hold the panel under the bottom edge and seven long and largish Torx bolts (T45 I think) that bolt the top edge of the panel on to the frame nice and firm. I reckon if you add some spacers/washers to the backs of those bolt holes on the panel itself (not all of them just in the area where the panel undercuts the edge of the door) that will do the trick to push that part of the panel out a bit so it aligns with the bottom of the door.
How thick the washers/spacers need to be is debatable but I would guess in most cases 1 or 2 mm would be enough, and how you get them to "stick" to the back of the panel in the right places I'm not sure but some bright spark out there will know.
Worth a try I reckon, not a huge amount of work, and I may have a go on the driver's side one day.
Last edited by OzXFR; 07-07-2021 at 01:45 AM.
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JgaXkr (07-06-2021)
#22
I normally like to do this stuff myself but this project seems like a real PITA. I ordered a set of these a while back and was planning on doing it but an unfortunate minor accident has caused me to take my car in for some other body work that’s covered by insurance and asked if the tech if he could install these. I haven’t gotten the estimate but it’ll be worth it to not deal with it.
My buddy has illuminated sills on his 911 GTS and it looks great. Hoping to feel the same way about these. My car is completely de-badged and the wheel caps/ side vents and front emblem are blacked out so I’m not too worried about having “Jaguar” in your face.
I’ll circle back with the cost of having them installed.
My buddy has illuminated sills on his 911 GTS and it looks great. Hoping to feel the same way about these. My car is completely de-badged and the wheel caps/ side vents and front emblem are blacked out so I’m not too worried about having “Jaguar” in your face.
I’ll circle back with the cost of having them installed.
#23
I normally like to do this stuff myself but this project seems like a real PITA. I ordered a set of these a while back and was planning on doing it but an unfortunate minor accident has caused me to take my car in for some other body work that’s covered by insurance and asked if the tech if he could install these. I haven’t gotten the estimate but it’ll be worth it to not deal with it.
My buddy has illuminated sills on his 911 GTS and it looks great. Hoping to feel the same way about these. My car is completely de-badged and the wheel caps/ side vents and front emblem are blacked out so I’m not too worried about having “Jaguar” in your face.
I’ll circle back with the cost of having them installed.
My buddy has illuminated sills on his 911 GTS and it looks great. Hoping to feel the same way about these. My car is completely de-badged and the wheel caps/ side vents and front emblem are blacked out so I’m not too worried about having “Jaguar” in your face.
I’ll circle back with the cost of having them installed.
There is also the satisfaction of having done it yourself and knowing it was done right the first time whereas it's not a job many shops would have done before so you would be taking a risk with them.
Last but not least if they stuff up then you need to order and pay for a new set as the only way to get the first set off is to destroy them.
#24
It's not difficult just time consuming but as I have all the time in the world I decided to DIY rather than pay someone else to do it especially as I guestimate a shop would take at least six hours to do it at say $150/hr = $900.
There is also the satisfaction of having done it yourself and knowing it was done right the first time whereas it's not a job many shops would have done before so you would be taking a risk with them.
Last but not least if they stuff up then you need to order and pay for a new set as the only way to get the first set off is to destroy them.
There is also the satisfaction of having done it yourself and knowing it was done right the first time whereas it's not a job many shops would have done before so you would be taking a risk with them.
Last but not least if they stuff up then you need to order and pay for a new set as the only way to get the first set off is to destroy them.
And honestly, I'm more likely to muck it up than them so higher probability of not having to buy another set if the shop does the work.
Last edited by datriani; 07-09-2021 at 07:14 PM.
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