Rebuilding - Recovering My Door Caps

[Philo]

I've been rebuilding my interior little by little over the years but recently have really been going after it.  I now have a space to setup all my commercial sewing machines, layout table, spray equipment, etc..  I've completed three doors, sprayed the cards, wrapped the pull handles, and covered three of the door caps with black leather and double needle M stitching.  Here's a link to my dropbox folder if you want to take a look.  All I can say is those German ladies back in the 80s were super talented.  Lots of my first attempts were thrown out for various reasons, but now I've got a pretty good handle on the process.   However I'm also attempting a leather dash and it's super stressful.  Wish me luck. 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/r9baca2wi00kqetypmcqz/AGhVF9Rk19SzPAuUI_u2udA?rlkey=qlhpw52ifqymbn2hzpni7lap1&st=yxmbi1mj&dl=0

Dash
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/k0npg5fy ... 8wkzs&dl=0

So I have a question, one of the door caps had to be purchased off ebay because the original one off my car cracked into three pieces.  The piece from ebay seems different as in it doesn't have the mounting tabs to hold it to the door.  The tabs that always break off .., I think you know what I mean.  So the one off ebay has a reinforced square plastic mount but instead of a tab that hangs down there a slot in the plastic.  It looks factory so I'm thinking BMW changed the design and there's a separate tab that slides into the slot.  But I'm not sure.    Does anyone know of this update ?  Or maybe this cap is from a different year ?   Thx for the help. 

Here's some close up pics of the mount and the slot. 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3h3vhq74 ... q3mvv&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/skhpxj2l ... thyxg&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xg8u8ykh ... 8n9ol&dl=0

[vinceg101]

Yeah, so those slot tabs are broken; there are four per cap (fronts, I can't recall how many for the rears). There is a metal 90deg angle clip that goes in one of them that you screw into the top of the door. The other 3 slots hold those piece of crap plastic panel clips.
I don't have a picture of the metal tabs, but you can see in this photo where it goes (at the end of the door). They also don't show up in the RealOEM parts diagrams either.




You know, these lousy things:

[vinceg101]

So without these mounting tabs, you are SOL as you will likely not be able to secure these caps to the door. I'd chalk it up to experience and look for an intact set.

[Philo]

An intact set, impossible !  Everything out there is 30+ years old and brittle as shit and every one I've seen has broken tabs.  No worries, I'll fab up an aluminum tab to slide in there.  

Thx !!

[MLastovo]

An intact set, impossible !  Everything out there is 30+ years old and brittle as shit and every one I've seen has broken tabs.  No worries, I'll fab up an aluminum tab to slide in there.  

Thx !!

 

 

Impossible? Nah…
Which one ya need?
D.

[Philo]

Thx guys, I'm good, three are already rebuilt and on the car.  Just had questions about the last one with the weird mount tabs.

Appreciate the help.

[4DSC]

What you've done looks great! Nice work. Wish I had the skills to do anything even remotely close to this.

[south26]

As a side note the later door caps did not have the 90 degree tabs. Instead they had plastic tabs you put a screw through. I think it it changed in late 85. Both early and later will work. 


Andy