I'm replacing the center air conditioning vent and in order to remove it you have to remove the pushnut retainers that hold onto the plastic studs. Does anyone know where I can get the proper size replacements. I will need quite a few because I also plan on reconditioning the wood on another car. Below is a picture of a similar style retainer.

 

I usually go to one of the big box auto parts stores or even the hardware section in a big box hardware and find a close match. The auto parts stores usually sell a package of assorted sizes.

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Our local True Value Hardware store has the best hardware section in town and they carry those pushnuts in various sizes. They had the sizes I needed when I replaced the veneer on some of the trim in our '93. To press them on I used a small-diameter (6mm or 7mm) deep-well socket.

Cheers,

Don

 

+1 on using a socket to push them on.

 

Does anyone know the proper size. It seems these things have 100 different sizes in thousands of an inch increments.Guess I might have to bring a vent with me to test them out and see which one fits.

 

I think you will have to take the vent or at least one of the old pushnuts to match up the size. I found that there were at least two different sizes used to secure wood veneer panels. The original pushnuts are probably metric, so you'll have to find the closest inch-fractional size.

Cheers,

Don

 

That's what I figured. Why can't all these manufacturers either go SAE or Metric instead of a mix between the two. I know they get many parts from outside suppliers but it just makes things difficult for the people who have to work on these things. It would be nice to just go over to the tool box and grab my metric set of tools and have everything nearby rather than have to go back and forth ( and we've all had to do this) because some designer thought it would be a good idea to throw in a different style bolt,nut,or connector. Just food for thought....

 

Please post the sizes if you ever get it sorted...

 

I think the SAE fasteners were long-term carryovers that dated back to the XJ6/XJ12 Series cars. I'm trying to think of how many SAE fasteners there are on an X300 and can only think of a handful. Differential output shaft flange-to-axle nuts, lower ball joint mounting screws... On the XJ40s the air conditioning compressor mounting bolts and nuts were SAE, but weren't they finally changed to metric on the X300? What else? Isn't the entire rest of the car metric? Sorry for the diversion and possible hijack of your thread, but I like knowing these kinds of things!

Cheers,

Don