removing trim and boot snaps

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burdar

burdar

Owen's Dad
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How does the trim on the top of the doors and below the quarter windows come off? I tried removing the small piece below the quarter window but can't figure it out. There is a metal clip on the front and in the middle of the trim piece but there is something different on the back. Looking at the bottom side with a mirror, I can see threads from a screw sticking down. The front convertible molding also slides under that trim piece. I don't want to break anything.

Also, the convert boot snaps need to be unscrewed so I can removed the trim around the base of the top. The screws just spin and don't come out. Is there any way of getting inside the area to hold the clips from spinning...or do I need to start drilling out all the screws? Thanks
 
You can try gripping the boot snaps with a padded pliers and hold upward pressure as you turn the screw. It worked for me on my '64, and I replaced the snaps with some that had bigger screws.
 
This is on a 68 by the way.

The pliers trick was my only thought. It doesn't matter if I ruin the snaps...I just don't want to damage the trim. I thought I could feel something spinning on the inside. There is a retainer back there that the screws go into right? They don't just screw into the metal of the body?
 
On my '64. there are no retainers; they screw into the sheet metal.
 
I managed to drill and dremel grind the screws heads away. I still have a few old clips with the shank of the screw still in them. You will need snaps with screws and new trim clips. Good luck
 
I don't know why some of my posts never show up as having been replied to. I'm just seeing the last few replies now.

I got the trim off finally. I ended up having to drill 8 of the screw heads off. For the rest of them I was able to get a small screw driver under the snap, and apply upward pressure to get the screws to back out.

The clips have some surface rust on them but are in perfect shape otherwise. The slots in the clips are fine. The problem was that the screw threads were stripped. There were no threads to grab the slot in the clip. Now I have to cut the remaining screw bits out of 8 clips before they will come off the body. I should be able to clean the clips and have them re-plated with the rest of the hardware.

I got the small piece of trim below the quarter window off too. I was afraid I was going to put a crease in that piece. I had to lift the front up high enough to get the two trim clips out of their holes...then slide the stainless off the transition molding. It would have been better if a stud was used on the transition molding with a nut on the bottom side.

Thanks
 
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