Hi guys, I guess it's apt to wish everyone Happy New Year too, at this time.

Not sure if anyone with a TJ or TL/TW which has the black rubber side window trim, has noticed the material perishing and crazing.

(I'm referring to the large piece that arches from the A-Pillar through to the C-Pillar)......the disintegration is mostly occurring on the rear of the whole thing.

As we already know, all TE/TF/TH vehicles have the half-chrome/half-rubber trim, whereas TJ onwards (except Verada) have an all-black version.

Mine is looking a bit worse for wear, so I pulled off the relevant parts off a TE (with the chrome trim) at the wreckers and retro-fitted it to my TL.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure why, the fit seems to be just marginally different and there is copious amounts of wind noise, so I have refitted my original parts back.

My questions are :

1. Has anyone tried to retro-fit the chrome window surrounds off an earlier model (TE/F/H) to a TJ/TL with success?
2. If not, does anyone know if Mitsubishi did marginally change the mounting points or positioning of the side window surrounds in TJ/TL, therefore the surrounds from earlier cars don't fit right?
3. Now my "Option B" is : How hard is it to get a panel shop just to sand back and repaint the black trim between the C-pillar and the rear window? I only need to get this part done, the rest of the rubber seems to be fine. Besides, I have weathershields that go over them anyway. Probably mask up and leave the damn trims on, I'm not keen to remove and refit them again!

Sorry if this is a bit of a negative post though.....spent 4hours + removing, refitting, trialling etc.. all to no avail and now back to square one.

And if anyone wants these TE chrome window trims they are welcome to them!:woot:

New kits are $250 odd a side or any model should fit black or chrome as far as I know as I damaged mine with roof racks & got some off a different model.

I installed some recently on my TJ.

I have a similar issue where i get the wind noise coming from the drivers side. But my bet would most likely be that its the rubber seal thats causing this to occour.

I havent gotten around to actually checking yet as ive been too lasy, but im sure if you fiddle with the seal, it may correct the noise.

Wiggles, that's exactly what I'm experiencing, the massive wind noise coming from the main part of the seal - In my case around the B-Pillar.

Further investigation yesterday revealed that there is a type of lock-in 'collar' where a metal plate mounted to the B-Pillar needs to marry up snugly with the window surrounds panel. It kind of snaps into place with a fairly big shove.

To me, this is where the parts seem to differ between the TE & TL, because the shape of the TE window surround does not allow it to snap into place comfortably into the metal plate mounted to the B-Pillar.

When I refitted my TL ones, they were able to snap in properly.

Another indication of the TE ones not fitting properly, is that there was a very large gap between the top of the window surround and the actual body of the car, and once again, this was most noticeable around the B-Pillar, as that is the place that didn't fit properly.

I hope this makes sense, I've tried to explain it as best I can.

I've since gone back to my original TL black/faded window strips.....a bit of creative armor all application will have to do for now!

Magna Diver on this forum is wrecking a TW Magna. May pay to give him a msg, see if they're still available.

Just realised, from memory of someone doing the mod plus looking at the TE that i took the surrounds off, they actualy have a double rubber seal. So the problem could be because the seal on the TJ onwards isnt large enough to suit the surrounds.

Just a thought.

Wiggles, I think you may be quite right in that! Thanks for that, it confirmed what I was suspecting.

Whilst I don't have the burning desire to pull apart half a TE to get chrome window linings, maybe anyone else who has successfully done this mod may like to post their thoughts.

Well i may just pop by the wreckers next week sometime and get the rubber seals as the front passenger seems to be leaking anyways.

If i remember to post up, ill let you know!!!