This may sound like a dumb question. Is there any way to remove the clips found in our cars that have the plastic stick/pin in the middle and not lose the pin? Removing it seems rather obvious, use a small punch to push the pin through and pull the clip out. However one is left to find the pin as it falls out and usually disappears forever. I am tempted to replace all of mine with the small nail head style clips, that way you pull the pin up and remove the clip. Any guidance here is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to say the only way is to push the pin in and remove the plug. You can get lucky and find a few of the pins but not all. I just changed my panels and tried to find the pins but for some reason the car just didn't want to let some go of them and hid them forever. You can buy the pins from many places and the new ones seem to hold better than the ones I tried to reuse.

They run about 1.00 each. I bought mine from MSA.

Mike

I do not believe they were intended to be reused. I have hunted many a pin as you have described and only missed a few. Back in the day, I got good enough to judge how far to push the pin in so it wouldn't drop out. I think it would be slick to have a little tool that on one end was long enough to push the pin in just so - then on the other end had a claw (like a hammer) to remove the rivet without damaging it. Seriously though, the rivets are relatively cheap and you should not have to disturb them very often - just get youself a couple of bags of spares off eBay. I like your idea of the nail style clips, I use a GM style from DORMAN for the rear finishers that hold the tail lamps in.

There is a thread floating around here about the panel rivets/pins/whatever they are called for a Ford. I bought a box of 50 on eBay for less than what it cost for 10 Datsun rivets. The only problem was that I needed to ream out the holes slightly for the rivets. It was worth the extra effort, though.

Here's the eBay link.

Those pins are like socks in a clothes dryer - some just disappear forever. I replaced my missing ones with Cotter pins of appropriate size in places where they didn't show. The "eye" head of the small Cotter pin was easy to grab and pull out of the rivet on subsequent removals.

Dennis

Edited April 3, 201212 yr by psdenno

Thanks for the info guys and the link SteveJ. I will continue to investigate my options but all of this is good to know.

In regards to the clothes dryer eating socks, my uncle always says, how do you know you did not gain one? :0)

SteveJ, thanks for the link. I just jumped on a set!

Those pins are like socks in a clothes dryer - some just disappear forever. I replaced my missing ones with Cotter pins of appropriate size in places where they didn't show. The "eye" head of the small Cotter pin was easy to grab and pull out of the rivet on subsequent removals.

Dennis

What a fantastic idea! You could even paint the cotter black. Nice.

What a fantastic idea! You could even paint the cotter black. Nice.

Thanks. At the time I came up with that 35 years ago, I didn't have a very large budget for maintaining the Z. A low bank balance is often the mother of invention. Didn't think of painting them black - good idea!

Dennis

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?1631-An-Ounce-of-Prevention!

FWIW

E

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?1631-An-Ounce-of-Prevention!

FWIW

E

EScanlon - You get the Awesome award for best the "Two for One" post! I am impressed that you pulled a 10 year old post out of your hat like that!

You can purchase black plastic rod from McMaster Carr and make your own pins for next to nothing.