I just bought a 98 A4 6CYL 5SPD. The car was a little dinged up, but I got a good price on it. One of the major blemishes is that the rubber door trim is missing or hanging off on all four doors. I have two questions.

First, where do you guys get parts? I looked online for the rubber molding, but I can't find new replacement molding. Online sites all carry the same ~100 parts, but nothing else. My last car was a Honda (forgive me, I am at least moving my way up). You can buy any little stupid part you can think of for that car, so I am not used to having so much trouble finding the part I want. Any idea where I can buy new molding other than the dealer (or would it cost just as much as buying it from the dealer)?

Second, I have read on the forum about painting lowers, which I assume is the black plastic part below the door. Are people removing the rubber part first or are they painting the black plastic AND the rubber molding just above it? If they are removing the rubber molding, how do they get rid of all of the clips that hold that rubber molding on? The clips look to be attached with rivets into the door. I wouldn't think you could remove the rivets easily or without leaving blemishes or holes along the bottom of all of the doors.

I wasn't able to find answers to these questions as I was perusing the forum. I would assume I am not the only one who has run into a problem with door molding coming off.

Any help is appreciated.

 

Here is a picture of the car. You can see all of the clips along the bottom where the trim is missing.

[IMG]local://upfiles/21736/ADF794F3550C4B838EED2B963AA327C7.jpg[/IMG]

 

I found my trim at www.ecstuning.com

They seem to carry a lot more parts than most other sites. Their descriptions kinda suck, but I was able to confirm that it was the correct part by calling them.

I am still wondering about the lowers though (from my first post)