Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

[Roger D.]

Continuing the restoration of my 1972 Coupe.... There are carpet fasteners along the top side of the carpet underneath the dash. Mine appear to be original. I was wondering if there is a way to remove those so that they can be reused?

Thanks in advance.

Roger

[Mike F.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

Yes it can be done, but care must be taken as 43 year old rubber can be brittle.

First I put some Vaseline on the rubber tits that are on the front side of the firewall. This is where it got tricky, then from the inside of the car I used a drift/dial rod that was the approximate size of the hole in the grommet to push it forward (to lengthen the entire grommet, which also makes it skinnier) and at the same time as pushing forward, pulling the grommet aft and out of the hole. It can be done with some practice.
Make sure the drift/dial rod is blunt or you can poke a hole through the grommet. Even if you poke a hole, sometimes they can be re-used.

To re-install, lube up the tip, use the drift/dial rod to lengthen and push back in.

[Bill L.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

You can also get EXACT replacements from AMK Fasteners. The carpet fasteners exposed to the engine compartment can be very brittle.

Yes they can be removed intact.


Bill

[Monte M.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

As Mike suggested, pushing to make them as thin as possible works well, but I took it one step further.
As you push with a drift from the inside I used a small piece of brass tubing to slide over the outside of the plug. If you use the correct size piece of tubing you can slide it right back through the hole.

After I had the first fastener out is when I found a thin walled tube that would barley slide through the opening. I happen to have brass. Truth is it was a bit soft, but it did the trick. I could not find anything else that was the correct size. With two of us doing it, as soon as I got the tubing over the first 1/2" or so, where the little tit is, I would push it through the firewall and my son would pop it out of the tubing.

Again, if you focus on just getting that tit in the tube, it is fairly easy. I did try pushing the whole thing in the tube at first. This was just frustrating as the further you push it into the tube, the more difficult it got and the harder it was to get out. Doing just the end, using about a 1/2" of tubing turned out to be the best overall result for us.

Best of luck,

[Mark E.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

I'm just very impressed with the level of detail and care you guys exhibit with your work! I recently had to remove a couple of these fasteners, and when they broke as I pulled them out (as I expected they would) I just replaced them.

But if I had a rare car in need of restoration, I'd want someone like Mike or Monte to work on it.

[Roger D.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

Thanks folks for the great suggestions and info! I'll give 'er a try.....

Roger

[Gary H.]

Re: Can Original Carpet Fasteners Be Removed and Reused?

I had very good luck using a 10 or 12 inch long threaded bolt a little smaller that the opening on the visible end.

I threaded a nut on and slid a thick 1 1/2 or 2 inch washer with small opening over the end and positioned the nut so that the end of the bolt fit perfectly into the carpet plus pushing all the way to the end without tearing the plug.

I used some dish soap, coated the plug heavily and push all the way into place. It also was easy to grab the other side of the plug with pliers once it was pushed into place to snug it onto the carpet.