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the local trim clip shop near me only had a couple of the clips that matched. the short fat one and the super tall one that goes along the bottom of the constellation only trim were not to be found.

I can't find it anywhere in any catalogs. I made a very poor attempt at making one from bare wire. it actually worked and held the trim on, but I need to perfect it a bit better.

I may need to hit a few of you guys up for some originals. some of mine may clean up enough to paint and still be usable, but some have considerable rot.

I called restoration specialties and will be sending them a sample to see what they have to help. I wont hold my breath though.

also got back the powder coated pieces.

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making those wire clips from bare wire is proving to be futile, so I gave up on that. I have feelers out to a couple of suppliers and will know something soon. I do have one more idea on how to make the 1.5" wire clip that I'm fairly sure will work, but I want to exhaust all leads first.

I did find the 1" tall beltline molding clip on eBay that I'm pretty sure would be perfect. its either that or since I can get to the holes from the inside of the door, etc...I'll just put studded spring clips on it and a nut from the inside. I'll just hope I never have to remove a trim piece, cause that would require removal of a door panel, etc. for the ones behind the rear panels, I 'll get my wife to reach in with her dainty hands to put the nuts on.

the lower 1.5" wire clips at the bottom would be hard to replace with spring clips as I can't reach the back side to put the nut on the stud unless I drilled holes in the inner rocker panel. which I don't want to do.

the best news though.....wait for it....wait for it.......

I'M FINISHED WITH THE PAINT!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO YAAAAAAAA

now I can take the front fenders off and mount all the pieces to the firewall and to the fenders....mount the radiator, etc. etc.

I also tested the new rubber metal roofing washer and 10-24 locking nut on the trunk emblem. works great as a replacement.

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I must say the shine is impressive.

For the clips, if the other sources don't work out, in all but a few places I believe you can resort to the nut and stud universal type. On those you break off the tangs to fit the chrome width. If you can use some of those you can save the usable wire clips for those places you just cannot get rear access to install the nut on the universals. The ones on the bottom I can't say for sure if there is an option using smaller available clips. I can think of one possible way to do it but haven't tried it so can't say for sure it would work.

I hope so after living through hell to get it there....180,360,500,1000,2000,3000,4000, heavy polish, medium polish, nu finish final polish, 10 different times over the whole car. it sucked. its not perfect, but I saved a ton of money and it looks great for the theme.

on the bottom trim clips, my idea was to take a piece of flat sheet metal of appropriate thickness and cut to size (1.5" tall by whatever)....drill a hole in it to fit the clip portion of a small wire clip such as pictured through the back side and then weld the clip to the sheet metal on the back side. basically making a universal stud type like you describe, only with a wire clip instead of stud.

I am familiar with the universal ones you speak of and may go that route just for the fact that I can seal the hole better from the inside with the metal roofing rubber washer/nut combo. I don't plan on having to take any trim off in the future....knock on wood. the only place I don't think I can reach would be the rear seat area behind the metal panels...but I think either my wife or kid can reach.

the other thing I don't know if I'll beable to find is the windshield retainer pieces.

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I was thinking of virtually the same thing with the sheet metal with hole except for the welding. Instead of welding which might damage the clip I would make the sheet metal in sort of a cross shape. One dimension to fit the chrome and the other dimension to fit the clip width plus approx a quarter to half inch extra on each side. Fold that extra over the sides of the clip to retain it in the metal.

well....way to make it simple! geesh! I was trying to make it hard on myself! GAH!

I like your idea better. LOL!

Take a look at my blog, I have some different options that I found for the clips.

Also, did you try Gerry? He may have coffee cans full of them laying around somewhere.

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Probably a hare brained idea but if you try it let us know how it worked.

A lot might depend on the size of the clip. Can't be too tall or thick or its thickness plus sheet metal wouldn't fit the slot. A too small clip or at least one much smaller in height that doesn't touch chrome might need some kind of pad behind between the chrome and the wire clip to keep the sheet metal from flexing as you push the thing into the hole.

Gerry is one of my feelers. if he or restoration specialties doesn't have them, i'll be trying HH idea.

found this on ebay for the 1" tall beltline clips, but I still like the idea of sealing from the inside with rubber washer nut combo, since I have to put sealer on the wire clips (rtv) and it may not be as good as the rubber washer that I can tighten down.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140503294399?_trksid=p2050890.m570.l4456&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI140503294399.N8.S1.M1442.R1.TR3