On 2/19/2015 9:59 AM, Scott wrote:
> Oh--seeing that reminded me of the other thing I saw online--wire
> cutters (dykes?). The guy forced the 'blades' under the head of the
> retainer, closed slightly, and pulled it out that way.
That's mostly how I do it.
There's also the ones that have the push-stud with no head in the
middle, and the only way to remove them is to push the stud through the
fastener and hope you can find it on the other side when it falls out.
When I'm doing a job that involves these things I try to have a few
spare fasteners around...
> (I have a new Nissan, Cadillac, Volkswagen(s), and older Mazdas and
> Toyotas that are *loaded* with these things. After I destroyed the ones
> holding the Cadillac's front valance on a while back I finally started
> looking around on how to get them off in the least-destructive way
> possible.
From an assembly perspective they hold the parts together fairly snugly
but not TOO tight, if you're talking about something like a plastic
underbody cover or a bumper cap, something that hits the panel and
displaces it will tear the panel if it's held in with a screw, the
plastic fastener will let the panel shift.
There are places that stuff like this just doesn't work, though. Have a
look under the last decade's Honda Odysseys sometime, half the ones
going down the road have the front pan hanging down.
My nomination for pure silliness goes to the spring clips that hold the
front half of the fender liner to the bottom of the bumper cap on '97-00
BMW E39 5-series. Even a slight curb/parking block tap on the bottom of
the fender liner will pull it loose from the bumper and it'll blow back
and chew itself up on the tire.
John.
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