Cigarette lighter backplate - how’s it anchored?

[tvmaster]

1974, may be different after ‘79 - behind the cigarette lighter on the center console, a steel plate is somehow anchored to the back of the console, likely by two, small plastic tabs eminating from the backside of the console.

I’m assuming since the lighter generates a load of heat, this stops the plastic from melting.

Two questions: could the plate also be used for grounding, as the lighter’s light bulb lights when attached to ground?
And the tabs which apparently hold the backplate in place (circled in one photo) - do they break if you try to remove the plate, or can they be squeezed to remove the plate so’s to re-attach the plate later…

 

[kmead]

The plate is held on by melting the cylindrical shaped studs from the plastic part over the face of the steel part. A heat staked rivet if you will.

The plate is not touching any other other metallic part of the car and as a result is not grounded and thus cannot be a ground for another part.

The plate is there to distribute the load from the way a user will apply load to the cigarette lighter housing during normal use. Given the plastic is thin it will crack from the cyclic loading of a user inserting and removing the lighter (or in your case the always frustrating USB end three times until you get it right) the lighter. The plastic is quite thin and Fiat would not have added the plate if it wasn’t needed.

Unfortunately the melting of the studs cannot be undone. You need to take a sharp chisel and shear off the melted plastic ’rivet‘ head. This will hopefully leave a vestige of a locating stud for the plate when you glue the plate back on later.

 

[tvmaster]

The plate is held on by melting the cylindrical shaped studs from the plastic part over the face of the steel part. A heat staked rivet if you will.

The plate is not touching any other other metallic part of the car and as a result is not grounded and thus cannot be a ground for another part.

The plate is there to distribute the load from the way a user will apply load to the cigarette lighter housing during normal use. Given the plastic is thin it will crack from the cyclic loading of a user inserting and removing the lighter (or in your case the always frustrating USB end three times until you get it right) the lighter. The plastic is quite thin and Fiat would not have added the plate if it wasn’t needed.

Unfortunately the melting of the studs cannot be undone. You need to take a sharp chisel and shear off the melted plastic ’rivet‘ head. This will hopefully leave a vestige of a locating stud for the plate when you glue the plate back on later.

“The plate is not touching any other other metallic part of the car and as a result is not grounded and thus cannot be a ground for another part.”

I thought of this after I wrote it and went “doh”.

So the rivets can’t be reheated and squeezed with pliers for example? I may just bore out the hole a little larger then, leaving the plate attached. If the original lighter ever goes back in, I’ll just insert a smaller-holed piece of sheet metal between the plastic and original plate for gripping the back of the lighter.