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How to remove the sill step plate


First P15

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I’ve searched the archives and technical post but haven’t found the answer yet. I’ve got a 48 P15 super deluxe couple and I’m trying to remove the sill step metal plates without destroying the fasteners. Has anyone got experience with remove the pins that go through the rockers and hold the plates in place. 

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If I recall, there are pins that pop through a rubber grommet in the sill.  The grommets are usually brittle and the metal around them corroded to a marginal state.  Removal is probably a crap shoot, and getting back on in a stable position is probably a double crap shoot.

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Does your car have original looking metal step plates, or is the rubber all gone?  Mine has rubber step plates, with pins on the bottom that are about 3/4 to 1 inch long, which, as I understand, are welded to a metal plate that is molded into the rubber.  The end of the pin has a small ball-shaped tip that snaps into a rubber grommet in the floor of the sill area.  (The grommets and the pins extend into the enclosed sill area - the bottom side is not accessible unless the bottom of the car is rotten away.)

 

I can get a picture of mine later, but others will probably post photos before I get an opportunity to do it. (My car is here at the house, but the step plates are stored elsewhere.)

 

Edit:  As I recall (from more than 35 years ago), I ran a long flat screwdriver under the rubber plate, and worked it off that way.  At the time I was going to use them as they are, because back then there were no re-pop parts available for these cars at all.

 

Edited by Eneto-55
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   You can get to the five inner pins from under the car. Wire brush and lube the tip of the pin, cut a vertical slot next to the pin, on the grommet so it will go through. Or heat a nail held with vise grips and make the hole bigger. The outer pins, if you can get the sill lifted enough to get to the grommet,  I would drive the grommet inward and pull it up and out with a wonder bar nail puller. I used lots of air and wd40 for lube and dirt removal. I saved all 20 pins on my sill mats. I bought new grommets, because the original are too hard to be usable. Anyway, waste the grommets and save what is left of the pins on the mat, by not trying to pull the nub though hard rubber.

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This is one of the things I really like about this forum. Lots of hands on experience and great people willing to share it. Thanks to all who replied. I’ll be pulling them out this weekend and will post pictures of the results. Maybe the thread will help the next guy trying to get them out. 

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