njsteve
06-22-2013, 09:55 PM
Today's question involves the factory trim clips for the body side moldings on my 1972 Firebird. These are the moldings with the rubber insert, that run along the middle of the fender, door and quarter to deflect other cars' doors.
I was lucky enough to pick up an NOS fender piece off ebay and it actually had the factory clips in the package! Now I need to find some duplicates for the rest of the car since someone, along the way replaced them with push in plastic clips that don't hold the trim securely enough against the body.
Does anyone have an idea of where I can get some more of the correct clips?
Here's some close ups of the NOS factory clip:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000692.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000692.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000691.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000691.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000690.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000690.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000688.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000688.jpg.html)
The shiny gold clip is close but not close enough to work properly. When mounted into the back of the trim piece, you can see that because the retaining wire is not mounted in the same spot, it moves the stud off of center where it needs to be to mount correctly on the car:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000702.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000702.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000695.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000695.jpg.html)
I was lucky enough to pick up an NOS fender piece off ebay and it actually had the factory clips in the package! Now I need to find some duplicates for the rest of the car since someone, along the way replaced them with push in plastic clips that don't hold the trim securely enough against the body.
Does anyone have an idea of where I can get some more of the correct clips?
Here's some close ups of the NOS factory clip:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000692.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000692.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000691.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000691.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000690.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000690.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000688.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000688.jpg.html)
The shiny gold clip is close but not close enough to work properly. When mounted into the back of the trim piece, you can see that because the retaining wire is not mounted in the same spot, it moves the stud off of center where it needs to be to mount correctly on the car:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000702.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000702.jpg.html)
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt77/nk15268c/parts/P1000695.jpg (http://s599.photobucket.com/user/nk15268c/media/parts/P1000695.jpg.html)