Not sure what this item is called, see pics.

I noticed after getting my car back from the hose repair that the headliner had a large gap on the driver's side, between the headliner and the metal part of the windscreen. After removing the visors, I noticed that the center panel was loose at the back. After removing it, I found that it has 3 metal clips which are to fit into rectangular holes in the sheet metal, and apparently the clip in the rear was not fully inserted, allowing the headliner to drop, and causing that gap mentioned earlier.

The problem is I can't seem to get the rear clip to fasten correctly. I've pressed as hard as I dare to, already having deformed the screen covering.

Is there some trick to getting this thing reinstalled correctly? I'm concerned that if I apply much more pressure I'm going to break something.

 

hi, it looks to me that the actual metal retaining clip is stuck on the upper console plastic tab.
Try to remove the metal clip from the piece of plastic and install it in the frame hole above it, then push the center console piece back up to engage the retaining clip.
When the plastic piece is already in the metal retainer clip, the clip (like your picture shows) that hold it in place, the metal clip is expanded to it's max and will not fit back into it's original hole. the metal clip needs to be in place and then the pastic piece inserts and the metal clip expands and hold the plastic clip in place.
Hope this helps.

Happy Motoring...