stupid me
 

i just did something really stupid about 5 minutes ago. I just leaned down on my side molding on my car and it popped out. the bad part is the red retaining clips wont go back in and they are brittle. While this isn't going to cost me much to repair, it will make me make me look stupid driving down the road with missing molding. I have a question though what is the proper name of these red retaining clips that hold the exterior molding on called?

http://dieselgiant.com/mercedes_paint_preparation.htm
more work than I wanna tackle any time soon, but he calls them inserts... try trim inserts.
I think they have a nickname that is used on this site often, but I do not know what it is... sorry

did you take the clips off the trim and put them in by themselves, then put the trim on?

yah i tried that but they are to brittle and they break.

I think the name of them are red button clips but can someone please verify that for me.

I think the ******** site in arizona has those clips....I needed the white ones for the lower trim, but I got those....
Search for clips in body trim.

I believe they are called trim/molding clip red berries. They usually don't do well as being reused.

I got some off ebay for 0.10 ea.

I wouldn't call that stupid, it's just part of the fun of owning an older car. An accepted risk you take.
You'd never survive in my DD ride. The rust got to the LF fender so bad that when I tried to change the bumper end rubber it tore a 4" hole in the fender where that bolt goes thru. It now has a dark maroon fender from the wrecking yard on a beige car, spent 6 hours wrestling off the fender since they don't let you use a heat gun or the like out there for that seam glue, caused the paint to chip in a few spots, so to top it off the fender has white primer spots on it.
Some gal in a newer convertible MB pulled up on that side the other day at a 4 way stop, she smirked and tipped her tennis visor hat at me as she drove off....lol. I'm not wearing out my nice Benz commuting, getting twice the mileage my truck did, and got the car for a good price, so ask me if it really bothers me...lol.

interweb
 

I found some on Ebay I believe, and they were called red berries, or something similar. I think the company was called Florida Auto Fasteners, or something. Very cheap and you get plenty to do several sections. My problem is the hole in the body has deteriorated and is bigger than the insert now in some places.

I bought from these folks several years ago and it is good to have spares laying around.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/240-250-280-300-420-450-Mercedes-side-trim-clips-85pc_W0QQitemZ190208516112QQihZ009QQcategoryZ33654QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem