All,
This clip came off my door panel, anyways how to you re-tighten?? or do you replace with a different clip

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Brad

 

Righty tighty, lefty loosy.

 

you have to give me more credit !!!
there is a post in the middle of this clip and only end you can grab and turn actually goes toward the door panel, I'm sure GM makes a special tool for I'm cheap!!!

however thanks for the lesson

 

I just expanded the nose of some needle nose pliers and turned.

JamesC

 

It's a self threading nut, probably 7/16ths or 10 mm.

 

That's what it looks like to me. I don't think there are any special tricks to putting them on. Just find the stud it goes to (usually plastic) and force it one there. The nut/clip will make its own thread, and the day is done.

 

Its actually 11mm. Its upside down in the pic. They are pretty weak so dont tighten them too much. I think its what holds the door piece of the ground effects on. I hope you have an 11mm deep socket!

 

It's right side up in the pic.

It's the clip that holds the plastic piece onto the top of the door panel.

I usually use a pair of lineman's pliers to tighten them. No doubt, the "correct" tool would be an Allen driver, with a hole drilled in the middle of it.

Given that you can't buy that plastic piece any more, I'd recommend against just hammering it on; it would truly totally tubularly suck to break off those little nothings that those screw onto.

 

uh, it's upside down in the pic and it takes either a wrench or socket, no allen wrenches. If you want, I'll take a pic at how they are in my car from the factory.

 

Yeah you guys are trippin. Its just a cheapo stamped 11mm nut for plastic studs.

 

JamesC

 

It's right side up in the pic.

It screws on BACKWARDS to what a typical speed nut does. Or that is, upside down.

Take your door panels off and look. Assuming of course that they haven't been disturbed since they left the factory. But I can assure you, on Camaro doors at least, when they left the factory, they required an Allen with a hole in the center (like a "security" or "tamper-proof" design), and NOT a socket.

 

I've refurbished a couple of sets of door panels lately, so I've had a good bit of practice playing with those. All I use is a common set of pliers on the outside edges of them. Just grip it good with the pliers and press downward some while turning it clockwise. Like the others said, don't overtighten it though since you'll end up breaking off the little plastic stud that it attaches to. Also for the record, they do go on upside down (i.e. the raised part of the nut faces downwards). It also helps to push the plastic top rail inwards towards the cardboard part of the door panel while you're tightening it. Btw, you've got about 5 more of those still attaching the top rail to the panel, so unless you need to remove your door panel to fix something else, I'd just throw it in your console box and put it back on when you have a better reason to remove the door panel.