Grey/black ''finisher'' trim strip on Duetto

My T reg Duetto recently lost half of the offside fibreglass trim that covers the hightop/vanside gutter, while being driven by a mechanic along the motorway, (and I do trust his version, it must have been a bit loose as something had been whistling for a while!) Does anyone have any idea either where to get a replacement or who might make one or what solution might be appropriate? Autosleepers don't make them.

If it's the same type as the one on my Flair of the same age (the Flair really being just a SWB version of the Duetto) it's probably made of vacuum-formed plastic.

Whatever it's made from, it was custom made for A-S, so if they don't stock a replacement there is nowhere else that is likely to. The only likely solution that I can think of is to find a Duetto being broken somewhere and have one off that.

Mmmmm, my thoughts exactly, thanks mojo, but where IS said broken Duetto, or that person who specialises in just those sort of things that AS don't make any more?

They do appear occasionally on Ebay and elsewhere - for example there is a Duetto on Ebay at the moment in Norwich - but it's a 2004, and I guess yours would be a Mk5 Transit? Parts like that also tend to be very expensive for what you are getting!

As a matter of interest, is yours bolted on to stainless steel stand-offs? If so (and it's like my old van) the stand-offs probably parted from the van - I had to bond several of mine back on - fortunately before the whole thing ripped off on the motorway in my case...

Yep, mark 5. I'll keep looking. And thanks for the tip off, I'll check what's left and make sure it's not about to part company as well.

Brian Emrys wrote:My T reg Duetto recently lost half of the offside fibreglass trim that covers the hightop/vanside gutter, while being driven by a mechanic along the motorway, (and I do trust his version, it must have been a bit loose as something had been whistling for a while!) Does anyone have any idea either where to get a replacement or who might make one or what solution might be appropriate? Autosleepers don't make them.

Assuming you contacted A/S i'm not sure why they told you this as i only spoke with them last month about how the plastic trim is fastened to the guttering and Alans parting words were, "be careful on removing because a new side section is £400.....each!" 

Phone them again and ask to speak with Alan because one of my side sections has to be removed shortly as the gutter corner needs bodyshop attention. Seems odd that he'd mention the price in case of breakage if they don't stock them. 

Bulletguy wrote:Alans parting words were, "be careful on removing because a new side section is £400.....each!" 

I don't want to put words into anyone else's mouth, but I suspect what he meant was "when we last stocked them they were £400". In my experience it would be very rare for A/S to still have in stock a part like that for a 15 year old van. I know that a few people have enquired about the bigger vacuum-formed side panels, but they haven't been stocked for years...

As a matter of interest (again) how are yours held on? Bonded in place or bolted onto the metal stand-offs? IIRC it is something that changed during production - I think it changed at least once during the life of the Mk5 Transit based Duetto...

Interesting! Thanks Bulletguy, I'll maybe try AS again and try and speak to Alan. It was email I used and tbh can't remember who answered but the gist of it definitely was 'we don't make those any more' and no clue if anyone else did. That was probably about three months ago. Maybe they had a spate of enquiries since and thought it might be worthwhile dusting down the mould again. Maybe, like you say, they were £400 back in the day ........ arm and a leg for what it is!

I think mine are bolted onto something, I haven't checked closely. There are certainly fastener heads visible of some sort. If I can't get a replacement I might have to take the whole of the broken side off and tidy up what's left. Looks bad the way it is. Either that or trim it to a decent edge with plastic padding/filler and then paint it up. We'll see.

There are a pair of Duetto rear doors on Ebay. May be worth contacting seller, you never know, he may have scrapped the whole vehicle.

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When I enquired at AS for a new bumper ( after van got knocked in a car park driver drove off ) they could still make me one but A good classic car restorer has done a brilliant job so that saved me £300, probably they did the side panels also that are on your van.

They are still trading and the phone number.........01452 713098

Good luck, the panel on my Topaz split luckily I found it and fixed it with silkaflex.

Thanks Paulmold and Daisymae, both good pointers, I'll give them a whirl and see what gives. Well spotted.

-mojo- wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:Alans parting words were, "be careful on removing because a new side section is £400.....each!" 

I don't want to put words into anyone else's mouth, but I suspect what he meant was "when we last stocked them they were £400". In my experience it would be very rare for A/S to still have in stock a part like that for a 15 year old van. I know that a few people have enquired about the bigger vacuum-formed side panels, but they haven't been stocked for years...

As a matter of interest (again) how are yours held on? Bonded in place or bolted onto the metal stand-offs? IIRC it is something that changed during production - I think it changed at least once during the life of the Mk5 Transit based Duetto...

I did wonder after speaking with Alan but never questioned as Alan is pretty much A/S's "walking history book" on all models. As for fitting he told me they are simply held on by screws. 

Only one side has to come off for a bit of bodywork around the o/s rear corner so i'm trusting removal and refitting to the bodyshop guy i use. Whilst it "looks pretty" in my opinion AS would have been better avoiding fitting stuff like that as it covers a multitude of sins plus makes it extremely difficult to clear any crud out properly.

Brian Emrys wrote:Interesting! Thanks Bulletguy, I'll maybe try AS again and try and speak to Alan. 

Has to be worth a call but ask specifically to speak to Alan. Also while you are on the phone to him, clarify precisely how the plastic trim is removed (mine also appear to have bolts/screws though the heads match the colour of the plastic).

Haven't had the time to speak to Alan yet but from what I can see behind the bit that's left, back from where the strip has broken off, it is fastened with a 'male'  screw into a steel   'female' tube which sticks out from a metal bracket, (the metal standoff) which is glued to the plastic roof. Where my bit of strip  has come off, all the steel bits are missing along with the broken strip, so the bracket/standoff must have become unglued from the roof. I'm guessing either the 'male' screw is plastic, or steel with a plastic cover.
I agree life would be easier without these strips, but I guess AS were covering the joins where they stuck their plastic roofs on. Who knows how much faster they might have worn without them?.

Brian Emrys wrote:Where my bit of strip  has come off, all the steel bits are missing along with the broken strip, so the bracket/standoff must have become unglued from the roof.

That was the problem with mine. As best I could establish, the stainless steel stand-offs where fixed in place with double-sided adhesive pads, and the adhesive deteriorates with time. When I refitted mine I used 2-part epoxy designed for use on plastics - which IMO is what A/S should have done in the first place, but of course it would have been more time-consuming during production. On mine the bolts appeared to be made of black nylon.

Brian Emrys wrote:Haven't had the time to speak to Alan yet but from what I can see behind the bit that's left, back from where the strip has broken off, it is fastened with a 'male'  screw into a steel   'female' tube which sticks out from a metal bracket, (the metal standoff) which is glued to the plastic roof. Where my bit of strip  has come off, all the steel bits are missing along with the broken strip, so the bracket/standoff must have become unglued from the roof. I'm guessing either the 'male' screw is plastic, or steel with a plastic cover.
I agree life would be easier without these strips, but I guess AS were covering the joins where they stuck their plastic roofs on. Who knows how much faster they might have worn without them?.

Some detailed photos would be useful if you can get some shots?

Rightly or wrongly i assumed the strips covered the existing metal gutter? Have you undone any of those screws (which look plastic)?

The gutter on mine was made from fibreglass and plywood (well rotted).
It was fixed with sikoflex and countersunk self tappers ( the heads covered over with filler ), and 1 side took about 3-4 days to remove without breaking too much, including removing the sikoflex from the roof. Yours must have been fitted differently to just fall off , but if it was anything like mine , it would be very unlikely that you would find a intact used one.
It then took several days to clean up and replace the rotten plywood, repair the damage, paint etc. before refitting.
The reason I removed it was water ingress where the roof was sikoflexed  into the Ford original gutter , due to poor workmanship.

Bulletguy wrote:

Some detailed photos would be useful if you can get some shots?

Rightly or wrongly i assumed the strips covered the existing metal gutter? Have you undone any of those screws (which look plastic)?

I'm going to try and upload some photos which I hope will give you an idea of how it works, it's a bit tricky to get the lens and the flash in the right place but I think you'll 'get the picture'. I'll also show you the splurge of glue that's left on the roof where the bit of strip has left the premises.

The strips DO cover the existing metal gutter, but as you'll see all manner of crud builds up behind them. Haven't undone any of those screws as the van is going to the bodywork guys tomorrow so I 'm leaving it to them.

Ah, Ok - so that confirms that there were at least 2 changes - mine were not fibreglass while yours are, and earlier fibreglass ones were bonded, not bolted.

The top photo also suggests that your van may have had some bodywork repair to the front o/s of the roof - you can see that the stainless steel base ~appears~ still to be embedded in the glue "blob", the upright shaft is not present and paint has been sprayed over the top (compared to the one that you can see hidden behind the remaining section, which is bare stainless, not body-coloured). If that's correct, it looks like that stand-off was not replaced/repaired when the work was done, which would have left the strip a lot more vulnerable to detaching...

As you say, crud tends to build up behind them and I used to put a fair bit of effort into getting it out regularly - in particular sycamore seeds seemed to be the worst culprits. This was also true of the space behind the plastic finisher at the bottom of the windscreen.

Thanks Brian

Mojo mentioned in his post about a "stainless steel stand off", one of which i assume is what i'm seeing behind the rail in your bottom pic, being stuck to the roof side with "double sided adhesive pads"? The mind boggles. I'd like to believe that was not an A/S job but perhaps a previous owner as that sounds far from professional to the point of a "bodge job"!!

Mojo also mentioned "the bolts appeared to be made of nylon".....but didn't say if they were or not! That has been something which puzzled me too as mine appear to look nylon. I've just been out to take a couple of close-ups of my rail and the bolts.
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So are the bolts nylon.....or metal? 

Arts description of how his was fitted appears to be entirely different using fibreglass and.....wood! 

Once again, the mind boggles at the logic of that! Unless using well sealed high grade marine ply, i'd have thought that idea utter madness.

Incidentally, the plastic trim you mentioned below the windscreen scuttle......that's a Transit "classic" and every screen fitters worst nightmare. Though the windscreens appears to be fitted using a rubber gasket (commonplace on all old vehicles), they are bonded and the rubber strip doesn't really do anything. The plastic trim hides a multitude of sins collecting leaves and various detritus which sits there busily eating away into the metal scuttle.

The first an owner will know is when they need a screen replacement......and the entire scuttle comes away with the screen! That happened to me with my first Transit. It wont with this as i removed the plastic trim and sprayed a liberal coating of wax-oyl all over the metal scuttle.

Bulletguy wrote:
Mojo also mentioned "the bolts appeared to be made of nylon".....but didn't say if they were or not!

Apologies - I did not intend to be so ambiguous. What I was trying to convey is that I am not certain of the type of plastic they were made of - they may or may not have been made of nylon, but they were plastic, not metal. Mine, however, were cheese-headed in shape and I think yours are not? One was missing at the rear of my van, and I found that a small nylon bolt of the type sometimes used to fix number plates (before they became routinely stuck on with double-sided tape) was a near perfect replacement.

The double-sided tape on the stand-offs was, I think, original, as the van had only one previous owner and I've no evidence that they modified that part of the van. However, the adhesive pads were not of a type that I have seen before, and were not foam-cored as in the familiar "3M" type tape. This meant that they were not very "conformal", so they stuck very well on the flat sides, but not so well near the more curved corners.

Agreed - the scuttle cover is a corrosion liability, and anyone with a Mk5 Transit based van who does not regularly remove the panel should consider doing so as soon as the weather permits. On mine, the build-up of crud eventually caused a leak at the bottom of the screen due, I think, to capillary action through a pinhole in the bonding. Once I discovered the muck and cleared it out, the slight leak stopped - definitely worth a look, if only to slap on a preventative layer of Waxoyl as soon as the weather allows for it to be properly dried out beforehand...

-mojo- wrote:

The top photo also suggests that your van may have had some bodywork repair to the front o/s of the roof - you can see that the stainless steel base ~appears~ still to be embedded in the glue "blob", 

Not what it appears then mojo, what you're seeing is just a slightly flexible solidified glue blob, and what looks like the stainless steel base plate is in fact just the imprint of where, alas, it once was! My guess is the standoff left the van with the bit of strip that blew off, i.e. it was the adhesive sticking the standoff onto the roof that gave way, at the standoff end. Those spaghetti-like maggoty shapes are where the glue went through the holes in the base plate, but they obviously came back out again.

Good sleuthing though, and interesting theory!

-mojo- wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:
Mojo also mentioned "the bolts appeared to be made of nylon".....but didn't say if they were or not!

Apologies - I did not intend to be so ambiguous. What I was trying to convey is that I am not certain of the type of plastic they were made of - they may or may not have been made of nylon, but they were plastic, not metal. Mine, however, were cheese-headed in shape and I think yours are not? One was missing at the rear of my van, and I found that a small nylon bolt of the type sometimes used to fix number plates (before they became routinely stuck on with double-sided tape) was a near perfect replacement.

The double-sided tape on the stand-offs was, I think, original, as the van had only one previous owner and I've no evidence that they modified that part of the van. However, the adhesive pads were not of a type that I have seen before, and were not foam-cored as in the familiar "3M" type tape. This meant that they were not very "conformal", so they stuck very well on the flat sides, but not so well near the more curved corners.

The bolts on mine do appear nylon/plastic and dome headed. If they were simply a 'twist to unlock' style of fitting, then i could understand the use of nylon/plastic. But if an actual screw bolt......then i can't fathom out the logic as the chances of getting that out in one piece without snapping it are virtually zero! What are they screwed into?

Fortunately i won't be the person having to remove it....the van is having some bodywork done on the rear o/s corner but in order to do the job, the bodyshop guy will need to remove the plastic rail cover.

Brian Emrys wrote:

-mojo- wrote:

The top photo also suggests that your van may have had some bodywork repair to the front o/s of the roof - you can see that the stainless steel base ~appears~ still to be embedded in the glue "blob", 

Not what it appears then mojo, what you're seeing is just a slightly flexible solidified glue blob, and what looks like the stainless steel base plate is in fact just the imprint of where, alas, it once was! My guess is the standoff left the van with the bit of strip that blew off, i.e. it was the adhesive sticking the standoff onto the roof that gave way, at the standoff end. Those spaghetti-like maggoty shapes are where the glue went through the holes in the base plate, but they obviously came back out again.

Good sleuthing though, and interesting theory!

Interesting, but wrong! I'm surprised that they used a glue that remained soft enough to pull through the holes - but obviously they did... When I replaced mine I used Unibond Repair Plastic, and I made sure to squish the maggots flat onto the top of the standoff base, to make certain of a good bond.

Thorough job then. I'll speak to my guys about it tomorrow, they've got some other bits and bobs to do which weren't properly tidied up last time, so they can sort this out at the same time ....... somehow ......... with only half a strip .......... no joy anywhere with a replacement. Might have to get creative with it.;~)