Steve_T

Hi all!

Quick question relating to my car:

Y'know when you take your front wheel off and you wanna remove the splash guard inside the wheel arch (eg. the way you'd get to the charcoal canister) - How do you remove those damn plastic rivits holding the guard in place?

They are so tight I can't see how to remove 'em without damaging the plastic they plug into (eg. the front spoiler). Are you supposed to just cut the heads off and then replace 'em with new ones each time? Either way, I think I'll replace 'em with screws or something. Any thoughts??

Thanks.

Steve.

TopGhia

I think they are a barbed plastic, so I assume it is a use once fitting. Screws sounds a better idea.

Someone who has actually taken them off would probably have a better idea.


cheers

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"I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always."

Fairlane Boy

ive taken them out on my nf, i dont know if they are the same on the au, but anyway

they are of 2 peice construction, the centre peice is like a screw with a philips head, it screws into the actual plastic rivet to make it expand in the hole.

if the plastic strew is stripped, just turn it while prising a small screw driver under the screw (not the rivet) and it comes out easily.

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Best wishes

FalKeen

these are easily one of the stupidist fasteners known to man kind

I HATE THEM!

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Steve_T

Thanks guys.

FalKeen, I really couldn't have said it better ;-) - would it be that much costlier when producing a car to use screws like they do to hold the front air deflector on under the car?

Anyway... Fairlane Boy, I know of the fasteners you mean (called scrivits) - had many an argument with them on the Telstar when even the trick you mentioned is difficult on some of 'em - of interest though, I have seen some you can get in parts stores which are usually slightly bigger and have a much coarser and stronger thread which doesn't strip like the fine ones - those ones are actually ok.

Unfortunatly mine aren't scrivits though - they are barbed like TopGhia said (Ford call 'em Christmas Tree clips I think) and the bards are closley spaced and a damn sight bigger than the holes, which appear to be round (unlike the ones holding the carpet to the 'back wall' in my interior, which go into oval holes, meaning with a bit a side-to-side wriggling you can get 'em out). This is what led me to the same assumption as TopGhia, only the workshop manual doesn't confirm this, it only says to remove them, but goes into no more detail.

I think I'll have a look for some 8g self-tappers or something today and see how it goes :-)