Bit late to the party. But if it were me, I would have to disassemble parts (discussed already I believe) to get to the damaged area. As for needles, if I didn't have any and couldn't fenangle a needle through, I would try cutting them down to a suitable size and polish the tips up on some sand paper or something, pliers would probably need to be used also to grab the shorter needles. Just my 2 cents here haha I hope you get it figured out