just a thought

I was lucky to find a pair of second hand chrome strips, the pair that are for decoration that sit on the platform just in front of the boot behind the hood.
Easy enough, remove the two star bolts, take out the old plastic plates, clean the surface and fit the new chrome ones.
The bolts came out easy enough, but I couldn't believe I had to tap out the clearance holes, (M8 by 1.25mm,) with a tap and wrench.
I imagine that was down to corrosion and age.
But anyway, if anybody wants to repeat the exercise, make sure you have a tap first.
p.s. the difference in look is the business.
 

That looks very tidy. Were the clearance holes in the metal finishers noticeably smaller than those in the plastic originals ?

I don't think so, the tapped holes are at a strange angle though, a few degrees off vertical.
I just expected an easy straight swap, but the threads were very tight, until I ran a tap down them.

Made me recall the time I tried to undo the allen bolts round the gear stick gaiter DOH!

They are certainly a strange and confusing bit of styling. The ones on the fuel filler flap are arguably even odder, real allen key bolts but held by a retaining ring with no length of thread at all behind.

Those daft Allen headed “screws” are retained by spring clips, these rot & fail to hold the stainless nothings in place, they vibrate out & are lost.
This is from personal experience; I set to, stripping the filler cap down & made tapped inserts, into which I screwed real Allen screws; it was indistinguishable from original, other than a slight hight disparity, which was resolved by a bit of machining.
Once happy with the job I cleaned things up & promptly found the missing Allen “stud”.
The expression is, I think, pissed off.
M

Once I’ve written this I’ll shut up for the moment.
The 15” VVC f’s wheels had Allen headed inserts in the five spokes, these are another useless addition & attract the curious to insert a key & try & remove them.
This was the was the case when I bought my car. The previous owner didn’t satisfy himself with ruining one & realising they were plastic inserts, he had a go at most of them. I like things to be right (who noticed?); I removed the lot, ran a tap down the hole & with chemically blackened stainless Allen screws, replaced the lot.
They now look nice, but that is all they do.
M