458 Italia - rear side trim interior panel

Hi everyone, I had to pull rear side trim panel shown below in my 2011 458 Italia.

I am having trouble with the top edge sticking up from the rest of the rear trim after I reinstall it.

You can see in the 2nd interior photo circled in blue. Of course, you can see this sticking up from outside through the rear side glass and it is driving me nuts.

As far as I know, there are only 2 clips to hold the trim on place and they are in.

Anyone have any idea what the problem may be?

Thanks.
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Hard to see with the reflection, but do you mean this piece sticking up? I tried to push it into place but obviously wasn’t successful…
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Hi Bob in Texas, yes, that is the piece. Did you have to remove yours and that's what it looks like after reinstalling it or was it already that way?

Thanks

 

The trim piece has been that way since I bought the car (2nd owner). I tried pushing it down but it refuses to cooperate. I’ve learned to live with it. Maybe an auto interior shop might be able to put it back in place.

 

Yeah, it sucks. I may have to do the same.

 

This will be hard to explain but, I fixed my panels so they fit flush. I cut the plastic on the bend not all the way through but about 2/3 so I could ‘bend’ the piece down enough for it to fit flush, maybe a 1/4 of an inch or so. One side needed a little more ‘bend’ to it; I used wire to adjust and hold the ‘bend’. A little trial and error might be needed to get the appropriate angle/bend; after angle/bend is set then I applied fiber glass cloth and resin to the area (should sand the area under the FG) to hold the ‘bend’, after the FG is set up remove wire holding the bend. Has worked so far after ten years.

Another possible way would be to apply some heat to the plastic and bend it down to desired position. This way seemed a little risky on the leather but if you are careful this might work also.

Hope that explanation is understandable and helps. good luck.

 

Thanks for the great feedback. I actually thought about the heat method which I agree is probably more risky. I will consider both methods you shared. Thanks.

Do you know if these were known to not fit flush from the factory? Maybe I just never paid real attention but seem they were flush before I had to remove them.

 

I think this is a common problem I have seen others this way. And I don’t think they were intended to be misaligned. Good luck on the fix and be careful as you probably know the parts are probably hard to source if you mess up, haha