I’ve owned my DB9 from new and I remember the first time I removed the lower drivers side panel - a clip had already been broken and was missing! Over the years I have removed the panel numerous times, as carefully as I could, but eventually five of the seven ‘hopelessly fragile’ clips had broken. I followed advice from Steve’s excellent YouTube video on Aston1936 on how to repair the clips by gluing but no matter what glue, including Gorilla, or epoxy I tried the clips just failed again. I eventually resorted to Velcro which worked really well except I was left with some small gaps at the top edge which became very annoying.
Deciding to resolve the problem once and for all I had to get rid of the plastic!
Using my miniature high speed drill, I cut away the broken posts down to the black of the panel, I was very pleased to find that this left me with a perfect alignment guide for the new clip, see pictures.
Bearing in mind that this guide would be covered in glue I extended it with markings further out. I also keyed this surface for better gluing.
A pack of ten new spring clips was purchased on eBay (search for ASTON MARTIN CAR DASHBOARD CARPET RIVET RETAINER METAL TRIM PANEL CLIPS) and I used a piece of 15x15mm aluminium angle which I folded and flattened to a strip which was then cut into 35mm pieces (= 15x35mm). I then ground away the fold on 15mm so that I could separate two legs, see photos).
The upright on to which the clip would be pushed had to be 19mm from the bottom of the base so a little further grinding down achieved this. I found that the clips on aluminium weren’t quite as secure as I wished so glued and shrank on some electrical heat shrink first to give extra grip. The base of the legs was roughened for better gluing.
Once all was dust free and ready, I used ‘J-B Weld, Original Cold-Weld Epoxy’ which is the strongest I know and have ever used. Following my extended markings each new post was glues into its exact position and left for 24 hours.
I am so pleased with my FINAL solution, the panel clips perfectly and securely into place with no gaps and can be easily removed with no fear of breakage!
Peter
Deciding to resolve the problem once and for all I had to get rid of the plastic!
Using my miniature high speed drill, I cut away the broken posts down to the black of the panel, I was very pleased to find that this left me with a perfect alignment guide for the new clip, see pictures.
Bearing in mind that this guide would be covered in glue I extended it with markings further out. I also keyed this surface for better gluing.
A pack of ten new spring clips was purchased on eBay (search for ASTON MARTIN CAR DASHBOARD CARPET RIVET RETAINER METAL TRIM PANEL CLIPS) and I used a piece of 15x15mm aluminium angle which I folded and flattened to a strip which was then cut into 35mm pieces (= 15x35mm). I then ground away the fold on 15mm so that I could separate two legs, see photos).
The upright on to which the clip would be pushed had to be 19mm from the bottom of the base so a little further grinding down achieved this. I found that the clips on aluminium weren’t quite as secure as I wished so glued and shrank on some electrical heat shrink first to give extra grip. The base of the legs was roughened for better gluing.
Once all was dust free and ready, I used ‘J-B Weld, Original Cold-Weld Epoxy’ which is the strongest I know and have ever used. Following my extended markings each new post was glues into its exact position and left for 24 hours.
I am so pleased with my FINAL solution, the panel clips perfectly and securely into place with no gaps and can be easily removed with no fear of breakage!
Peter
