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Last year the piece of trim on the b pillar fell off. This is part of the tinfoil with stripes; the piece that goes between the doors. Got an NOS piece of trim, but the clips have been an ongoing issue impossible to find.

Last week I got a couple from one of our vendors. At first glance they look like a nut, but they really are clips. A friend dropped by to install them today and doesn't think they are the right clip. He thinks they should be a barrel clip.

They fit the hole in the panel; the issue for him is the size of the shaft on the trim, which he thinks is too big for the clip.

1. Are these correct clips?
2. Got any pointers for installing?

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What is the Packard part number on the clips you ordered? If the number matches the number in the parts book, press them into the hole on the car body. Then press the moulding studs into the clip. If these are not Packard clips then we would have no way of knowing if they are correct.

deerborn,,,i know who this is,,,how are you doing...i found this site the other day,,and wow! what people have done...good info...

rik henneberg

How about a pic of the flip side of the 'clips'. Based on the pics those are not 'clips' but rather sheet metal speed nut that rewuires a sheet metal SCRE W and how big is the hole in the body pillar.

I am not familiar with this particular trim piece. Show us a pic of the "shaft on the trim piece" and the flip side of the 'clip' u bought from vendor.

Look up DESCRIPTION of 'clip' in parts book for this piece and tell us what it says.

Based on your description thus far it probably does thake a barrel clip as your mechanic described. Most body trim clips/speednuts etc are fairly commonplace standard items and usualy NOT marque specific. So u mite find them at an autoparts store or body shop or local supply house.

I mite add that Packards1 is also a parts dealer. IIRC he is mostly 55 and 56 parts. I've orderd several parts from him over the years with excellnt consistant results. He seems to ship pretty fast too. Try him. He's in Dearbern not far from Chicago land. Not sure that he carries every part for the 55-56's but i always try him FIRST before going to other vendors.

IIRC he is Joel@Patricianindustries.com or maybe he can give us a better contact info. I just don;t have the contact info readily available at this location where i am now.

Dulinski in Mn seems to be another good parts supplier but i think he has mostly used parts. Al K in Alabama is also good for used parts. I've bought from Al K several times over the years including a complete parts car (56 Packard Exec) he delivered to me.

Packards1, Al K both post aat this forum and along with Dulinski seem to be excellent suppliers in every way especialy for 55/56 parts.

THERE IS A BETTER SOLUTION:
I know this works because I have done it on both of our Patricians. Go to a good hardware store. Bring the trim pieces with you. The studs on the back are barrels with no threads. Find rubber grommets that tightly fit the barrel. Bring them back and drill the right size hole that is right for the grommet(the hardware guy can tell you the right size drill). Put the grommet in the holes. Now comes the tricky part. Put vaseline, white lithium grease or some other lubricant on the barrel. If you want to be sure put some gorilla glue at the base of the barrel. Then very carefully, and slowly work both barrels into the grommet. DO NOT push to hard as the grommet may push all the way into the b-pillar and you will have to take the interior upholstery strip off to expose the hollowed out b-pillar to extract the grommet unless of course you bought extras(which I highly recommend). Once you have completed this operation they will be installed and you should be good to go. I did this on my Patrician 17 years ago and they have not come out yet. If you have to take them out to replace them with NOS pieces they can be pulled out and you don't have to be as carefull pulling them out as you were putting them in.

ALK

In no particular order:

How about a pic of the flip side of the 'clips'.

Am I missing something here? The photo shows two clips, one right side up and one right side down.....

the part number that came with the clips is 437158

To be clearer, the clips appear correct to me; the issue is pushing the posts of the trim through them. It doesn't want to go and we dont want to break the posts.....

I haven't named the vendor because he is on my reliable list....and I'm nmot sure he is wrong about these....

Mike Dulinsky does not have these, though normally he has most everything....

Going back to a previous post, they appear correct

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... orum=8&post_id=86024#forumpost86024

now the issue is correct installation....

ok. Thanks for the clarification on the clips. But what happened to the OLD clips that WAS holding it on???? Compare the new clips (hole size) to the old clips. Are we to assume that u have the INTERIOR fabric trim removed from the INside of the b-pillar?????

Let me put it a different way:

The clips press over the pin from INside of the car??? THerefore there should be OLD clips laying somewhere at the bottom of the b-pillar. USe OLD clips for comaprison. No??

I have no old clips. When I got the car this piece was glued on with a tarry substance which dissolves easily in gas. No idea this was going on till the piece fell off and was lost, after which I cleaned the tar off, got a new piece (but no clips) and here I am.

The clips are supposedly useable from outside the car. Push in loosely; when the trim is pushed in in spreads the clip for a tight fit all around and everyone is happy.

The problem is that we placed the clips in the car then tried to install the trim by pushing it into place. After a number of pushes that would have blown the Wisconsin D-line into the secondary the trim was right where it was when we started, so the project was temporarily abandoned pending a better answer.

Grease? Chicken fat? Anything with Silicones in it? Steroids?