‘61 door trim clips

[David Greenburg]

For removal of the lower front door trim on a '61, the FSM instructs one to remove the screws at the ends and then pop the trim off the clips with a flat blade.  Simple enough. But it also states that any damaged clips should be replaced, making it sound like one could expect to damage the clips in the process. My question for anyone who has removed this trim is whether, if done carefully, I should still expect to replace twine of the clips, and if so whether the clip is one that is still available from someplace like Restoration Specialties.  At least with '59 and '60's I know some of the trim clips can be unobtanium.

[Clewisiii]

Those clips are soft metal and can rust and rot. 

The new ones are plastic.

[Clewisiii]

Here is a picture of the original clip. And one of the plastic replacements.

But to be honest when I removed mine the screws were the worst part.  All the screw heads stripped.  I had to drill the heads off to remove.  There is a steel plate inside the trim that the screw goes into. This part rusts.  Attached is a picture of the back side of the trim. This cut out is needed to feed in the steel plate.

[David Greenburg]

Thanks, Carl.  I figured that you had probably been down this road.  I'm all too familiar with dealing with the  rusty screws, as I encountered a whole bunch of them when removing the trim from my '59 Fleetwood a number of years ago.  My '61 is pretty rust-free, so hopefully it will be easier to get the screws out.