Reversible Permanent Closing of Rear Ashtray Door

The last cosmetic annoyance left on my 456 GT was the almost omnipresent issue of the rear ashtray door staying permanently open after the failure of the spring-loaded mechanism.

There are two reasons for this to happen:
1) The spring-loaded push clip is broken or gone missing.
2) The plastic hook that goes into the push clip, part of the mold of the ashtray receptacle, has broken off.

1) has been (in)famously solved by Ratarossa with a trash can clip (at 19:09)

If that is your problem, just get the clips from Amazon and enjoy your fully-operational rear ashtray, while it lasts:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BWJ8LPC3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2) is a lot trickier to fix. If you are planning to have children or small adults smoke in the backseat of your car (as I guess Italians did in the 90s), you will need ~$400 for an ashtray assembly and a backseats-off job. Otherwise, read on, as even if 1) is your problem, I'm certain it will eventually become problem 2) as time goes by.

Obviously in my 1994 car it had to be 2), and the first picture shows the little hook that broke off the ashtray receptacle and miraculously was still in its resting place. It has to be the flimsiest thing I've ever seen in any car for the forces it has to handle. Trabant designers would have laughed it off as a joke... Grand delusions that one could epoxy it back in place, or replace it with a precisely-machined metal clone, crossed my mind, but it was clear I would have to remove the whole ashtray assembly from the rear center console to attempt those solutions with high probability of failure.

Like many, my first attempt at a fix was a carefully placed piece of velcro at the top of the ashtray cover, which worked for about a month before failing under the constant force exerted by the ashtray receptacle spring. This evening I was going to replace the velcro, when it occurred to me to hold the ashtray assembly in the closed position with a piece of wire coat hanger connecting the plastic frame where the push clip is mounted with the metal ashtray. To do this, you will need to remove the backseat arm rest compartment undertray, by undoing two center screws, as shown in the Ratarossa video above.

Ideally, the wire coat hanger should be one with the wire covered in plastic to avoid any metal-on-metal scratching of the metal ashtray, and of large enough gauge that it is hard to bend without any tools. Walmart ones should work. All you need to cut and bend the piece of wire (shown in the second picture) is a pair of pliers and some twisting action. The second picture also shows the shape and size of the wire that seemed to work best.

The third picture shows the piece of wire holding the ashtray in the closed position. You may want to adjust the size and the shape of the two hooks in the wire to ensure there is no play in the ashtray assembly, and the cover is in the most aesthetically-pleasing position. At this point, you can put back the backseat armrest compartment undertray.

The fourth picture shows the final product. I have not yet driven the car with this fix, but I am fairly confident it will hold well, given the wire strength... If you ever decide you need to have a fully-working rear ashtray door, just remove the piece of wire and start looking for the $400 replacement.