I picked up a 72 Cutlass Supreme recently. The previous owner got a nicer trunk lid at a swap meet and had it on the car when I bought it. It is currently in primer and we had planned to paint it tomorrow. My question is.. How in the world do you get those darn "OLDSMOBILE" letters off? From reading up, the little green things are called barrel nuts but I'd hardly consider them nuts... they look more like some sort of locking sleeve. There's gotta be a trick somehow because they had them off when they shot the primer on the lid because there's no paint on them and primer behind them. I hope they didn't just shove them back in the holes and use super glue. I don't think anyone would be that dumb knowing the trunk would be painted eventually and they'd have to come back off, but I don't put anything past anyone anymore.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

They may not be barrel nuts but something I've heard called speed nuts. It still should take a 6 point socket to remove. I've got some in the garage, I'll try to take a photo of what I'm thinking it might be. John

 

OK, if they don't look like barrel nuts do they look like this? That's the two kinds of fasteners I'm used to on emblems and trim. John

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...2/P1010734.jpg

 

Barrel "nuts" are simply small sleeves made of spring steel and are designed for use in blind installations where it isn't possible to get to the backside to install a speed nut:

http://www.oemhardware.ca/oempdf/BSS.pdf

There are barbs on the outside that snap into the hole in the sheet metal and barbs on the inside that grip the post on the trim.

Barrel nuts are designed to be replaced. Gently pry under the trim to remove it. Pull the old barrel nuts out of the holes. Buy new ones to reinstall the trim.

Most automotive body and paint stores sell these items.

 

Turns out Dorman Products sells a range of barrel nuts - also called tubular nuts:

https://www.dormanproducts.com/cgi-b...58330&item_no=

 

good info Joe, as usual.

 

Those are the ones, Joe! I pried on the letters gently and they slid right out. Thanks again and I'm so thankful I found such a great forum. This is my first resto project and I'm sure I will learn a lot from this group.

 

I found some for 1/8" studs (for trunk letters) at the local Pep Boys. Called tubular nuts (package said Body-Tite , Dorman on back), found em' in the "Help" section. They have a bunch of other sizes too. Only thing that sucks is they only came in a package of 3 so I cleaned them out of course. Hope they order more.