Roberts track

Picked up the pedals from VBC this afternoon.
I'm still missing the nuts n bolts to attach the toe clips, and at some point I'd like to get hold of some NOS dust caps to finish them off...
In the meantime, I'm having a lot of trouble getting these double-thickness Cinelli straps through the tiny slots in the pedals.
I guess it's easier if you have regular thickness straps.

Is there a trick I'm missing?

Just realised no one's going to see my question^ on the new page... answers on a postcard, please.

Oh, and let me know if you have any fixings / dust caps going.