Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at a torque multiplier to bust a lug nut loose when your impact wrench won’t do the job, a drill-powered winch to help load vehicles onto trailers and torque limiting extensions to help ensure lug nuts and bolts are properly torqued. This week’s cool tool is a prybar and a tool kit for removing those pesky plastic rivets holding your interior and exterior panels on.

This suggestion comes from reader Half-track El Camino, and they say that they’re kicking themselves for not discovering it sooner than they did. They got the tool kit to help them replace an NA Miata’s convertible top and now use it frequently.

Modern cars have a bunch of plastic parts inside and out and they’re usually attached with a variety of different fasteners. Some are screws, some are clips and some are annoying push-in fasteners or rivets. Here’s one on one of my many Smart ForTwos.

When these fasteners get old or dirty, they can become extremely hard to remove.

In theory, these fasteners are removed by pulling on the pin in the center of the rivet until the fastener releases. Then you separate your panels from the fastener. In practice, it seems these things hold on for dear life and end up destroyed as you force them to let go. If you’re a savage like me, you’ll tear those fasteners apart out of spite, then replace them with zip-ties.

Suck it up Only 2.4 pounds, has a 60w motor for powerful suction, has a lithium battery that can store charge for up to 18 months, which means you can leave it in the car, and it even comes with different heads for different uses as well.

Half-track El Camino has a solution that’s a lot more civilized, a fastener remover tool!

Using it is easy. Stick it into the part that you’re supposed to pull up then let the tool do the heavy lifting. Watch the Cool Tools YouTube channel (no relation to this series) demonstrate how to use a tool like this:

The best part? A fastener remover tool is extremely cheap. The Besita 75022 model recommended by Half-track El Camino only costs about $10.

But if you want a whole suite of tools to get many kinds of plastic fasteners, our reader also bought an 88-piece interior panel removal kit that currently runs about $27.

Do you know of a weird or unique but must-have tool that every wrencher should have? Do you want to see us put a type of tool to the test and see how it performs? Shoot me an email or drop it down in the comments!