Attached is a picture looking down showing the trim around the rear vent windows on my car. They just aren't right. Not sure if they are the wrong ones, bent, or what. If I try to push one in...others pop out. Are their new/correct clips available? I can't seem to find them in my searching of FillingStation or Co40s.
I went ahead and took the whole trim piece off. It was held in by two different kind of clips. Co40s has a newer version of the one that isn't attached. Mine was badly bent and not doing anything. The other style was doing a better job, but most of the lower ones were bent badly and not holding.
78 years is an eternity for these clips. When I salvaged stainless from an old auto salvage yard of hundreds of cars I used a 4" wide putty knife and slide it behind the stainless. The clips were so rusted that they disintegrated with very little effort. I have been buying up the clips as they have been available on ebay. I would sell my new ones for $3 each so the Chevs of the 40's price is a good alternative if they work. I would give them a try, I assume they would refund your money if you were not satisfied?
My first order from them resulted in very reasonable shipping. $30 worth of clips (20 of them) and only $3.50 in shipping charges. Love vendors with fair shipping.
An update on the clips from Co40s. I put one on to try it and it worked. I then tried to take the trim back off, thinking I'd install a bunch of them. This is where I ran into problems. The clip stayed attached to the trim and not the body. When the clip came out of the whole in the body, it pulled a small chip of paint with it. I don't think it's the clip's fault. I think there was a glop of paint in that hole and the clip's firm grip made it come look. I'm going to go for the original style clips. Now I'm searching for touchup paint for my Constitution Blue
More drama on this. I got the exact duplicate clips from restoration specialties and ran into a problem. Some of the holes were not deep enough for the clip to go all the way in and open up. I used the Co40s clips and got the trim firmly seated (hope I don't need to remove). Confused why the holes weren't deep enough.
I don't think the factory clips were every designed to be reused. Their design does not lend itself to being pried off without damaging the clips. In most cases the clips are so rusted that they break when removed. I'm also not surprised that paint chipping isn't the norm if the car has been repainted, due to the paint thickness especially with a base coat clear coat paint job.
