Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 This evening I made some significant progress on my efforts to prepare my 1956 Plymouth Belvedere for rust repairs and new paint. I know this may sound insignificant, but I successfully removed the trim from both front fenders last night, and then today I removed all the trim on the driver's door. The driver's door trim couldn't be accessed until the inner door panel was removed, which also required figuring out how to use the special tool that allows you to remove the interior window crank and door handle. Back in those days, Plymouth HAD to be unique -- the couldn't use the same system as GM and Ford had for attaching door handle hardware -- the ubiquitous "C" clip. No, Plymouth created their door handle shafts square instead of round, and came up with this Rube Goldberg method to lock them on the shafts. From what I've read, they were used from the early 50s to early 1960s. Some other makes, like Packard, used the same technology. Its interesting to note that the original instructions for the tool firmly say you should never try to PRY the door handle off. I can attest to that, you'll bend your prying tool before it will come off! Accessing the rear of the trim clips required a little flexibility and the ability for you hands to work sight unseen. Three clips used 3/8 inch nuts, the rest work spring loaded. On the front fender, I had used a pair of pliers or dykes to squeeze the clips in order to release the trim. That was more complicated on the door ... you couldn't see what you were doing. You also couldn't pull on the trim whenever the clip was released ... hell, you couldn't actually tell when the clip released the trim! I had all the bolted on clips loosened, but had what looked like a dozen spring clips left holding all the trim tight. I tried several ways to get the clips to release, but the one method that worked best was to find the clip along the length of the trim. Slide a metal putty knife behind the trip and place it with the flat edge against the side of the clip. Hold the putty knife tight, then give it a couple of gentle raps with a claw hammer. Nothing to hard, just jar it enough to free the clip from the mounting hole. Sometimes you have to do it on both sides, but this method was the easiest way for me to release the clips. Now I had to pull on a loose end of the trim to "encourage" the clip to pop lose, but it worked and did no damage to the trim. I don't have a photo yet, but its interesting to study the rust patterns under the trim along the side of the car. The spring clips, which were probably coated with a thin paint or primer, today are complete coated with rust. And in several spots, the rust from the clip creeped out from behind the trim. Its all looking really nice and I'm anxious to finish removing the quarter panel trim so I can get started with rust repairs on the that side. -30-
Progress on the Plymouth — trim 2/3 removed on driver’s side!