Old timer told me to use a heat gun on trim clips instead of prying them off

Spent half a day replacing broken clips on a 2018 Ford F-150 in Phoenix last summer after snapping nearly every one prying them off, and the next job I tried his advice and only broke two out of thirty, so has anyone else had better luck with heat vs brute force on these things?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade_butler5d ago

Wait, you only broke TWO out of thirty after using the heat gun? That's insane. I would've bet money that heat would just melt the clips and make them even more of a headache to get out. Seriously, I've been doing this stuff for years and I always figured heat was for rusted bolts, not plastic trim. Phoenix heat probably doesn't help either, everything's already brittle as hell out there. I've got a buddy who swears by using a hair dryer before he even touches any interior trim, but I never thought it'd make that big of a difference.

the_emery5d ago

And honestly the trick is you don't want to get it HOT hot, just warm enough to make the plastic more flexible instead of rigid. I crank mine to like a medium setting and keep it moving so I'm not melting anything, just softening the clip a little. The Phoenix sun has already cooked my trim to the point where it's basically crumbling if I look at it wrong, so even a slight warmup seems to change the whole game. Your buddy is onto something with the hair dryer, I'd say if you don't have a heat gun just use a blow dryer on high and it still helps a ton. I also go in from the side with a trim tool rather than prying straight up, that alone saved me from snapping another three or four of them.