Last Call: Are you sure that's the right clip?

 

Got a bin full of these, but they are never the right size when I break one. #clips #bodywork #mechanic #wrenching #gearhead #garage #projectcar #racecar #lovecars #amazingcars247

A post shared by DIY Auto (@diyautoftw) on


We need to bring back Last Call. This is the end-cap post to wrap up our day, and it serves as a sort of virtual hangout for those with something on their mind. The comments are your place to talk about whatever you’d like.
With each Last Call post, at least when I write them, I’m going to find something interesting/funny/eye-catching/etc on social media and then use that to kick off Last Call.
Instragram user diyautoftw posted this picture of clips. If this isn’t a nightmare to you, I’m not sure why. Bodywork is terrible. The mechanical stuff is like cooking whereas bodywork is like baking… it’s easy to fuck it all up.
Last Call indicates the end of the Hooniverse broadcast day.  It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.

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15 responses to “Last Call: Are you sure that's the right clip?”

  1. Tank Avatar
    Tank

    Agreed! Last Call was one of my favorite parts of this site

  2. nanoop Avatar

    Cooking is like botching along with car repairs, whereas baking is like a space mission: you prepare and test beforehand, but once you are past t0 you can only watch and maybe shut off the burning. When the initial thrust was to weak, you won’t make it, and there is no way of fixing consistency 20min in.

    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      I like this analogy…

  3. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    Hooray for last call ! In my younger days I repaired wrecks and dealt with every one of those clips. The worst part was trying to remove them in one piece .

  4. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Plastic plugs and fasteners are one of those things that should be standardized across the industry. Sure, you may need a few different sizes, but the current variety is just ridiculous.

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      Ooo! And they could be threaded! And made of metal! And compatible with existing hand tools! Brilliant!

      1. Tiller188 Avatar
        Tiller188

        Hang on now, let’s not get crazy…

      2. Vairship Avatar
        Vairship

        Now now, that’s like asking for a gift card that’s accepted everywhere. You know, cash!

  5. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    I’m pretty sure that I saw 3147 in the last Thanksgiving turkey.

  6. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    Yep, one of the worst aspects of modern cars is all of the plastic pieces that get brittle and snap when you touch them. Too many have to flex some in order to be properly placed, and can’t take the stress. Anything you might find in a junkyard is as bad or worse. Slightly better plastic or a bit of UV stabilizer would solve a lot of that.

  7. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    My Honda is puzzling me. The Holy Trinity of disappearing coolant: Check for leaks, check for brown oil, check for white smoke. I find none of it, even going to the extraordinary step to clean my filthy engine bay. What next? I only fill about 1-1.5 liter/2000km, but still…it must exit somewhere.

    1. Fuhrman16 Avatar
      Fuhrman16

      Hmm, my guess would possibly be either you have a heater core that could have a small leak, and the carpet and sound deadening is soaking up the coolant, making it difficult to find. Or it could possibly be a bad radiator cap that’s letting coolant weep out, that’s getting burnt off by the heat of the engine. I’ve also have heard of leaks into the combustion chamber that are small enough that it doesn’t show up as smoke and actually help the engine run a little better.

      1. Sjalabais Avatar
        Sjalabais

        I will have a touching session under the rubber mats, however inappropriate that sounds. The AC radiator has a leak I am aware of, but that’s obviously a whole different circle.

  8. Scoutdude Avatar
    Scoutdude

    For those in need of one of those infernal clips or specific rivet check your local Napa. They have a good selection available to them and if they don’t have a big selection out front they may have one of the big binders that as an example of each, with the brand(s) of cars that they are used on.

  9. salguod Avatar

    https://www.clipsandfasteners.com/
    I discovered this site when trying to find clips for the interior we were designing for our kit cars at work. Hundreds and hundreds of them, sorted by make, many times with the model and application noted. Oh, and each one has a picture, which may or may not help considering how similar many are.
    Interestingly, we bought a couple of sample packs and some are a matched male and female set which come assembled with no clear way of separating them. We never did figure out how.