A Pillar Trim Removal

[marky9074]

Looking at it again, I suspect with some skill you could use a trim tool to slide the first clip (only) up and out of the enlarged slot (and by the same token out of the slot on the trim itself).

[marky9074]

It might be that if you can release at least the topmost clip completely you can push the trim downward and the other metal clips may then slide out of their pedestals..

I think you are right there, to be honest. It seems with some skill that you can release the top clip, and therefore theoretically you could slide them all out of their pedestals (in the video the clips are all still attached to the car)....

[veteran]

I recall removing the passenger-side A-pillar trim on a Golf of mine some years ago, and what I described in this thread is the technique I found I had to use to remove the Golf's A trim. Like most people, I started off, with the Golf, thinking that I'd need to use a lot of force and bending and twisting but in the end, after a lot of unnecessary puffing-and-blowing and explitives, the Golf's trim came away leaving all but the topmost clip in situ, the rest still held in the pillar. I'm not saying that the same technique will work here, on a modern Polo, but I just offered it as a possibility. I think that, in fact, you could use either technique - lots of twisting and pulling and using a plasticised or wooden tool around the region of each clip in turn, or tackling just the topmost clip with the tool and then pushing/pulling the trim downward so as to try to slide the remaining clips out of their 'pedestals'.

[RUM4MO]

Typically I'd expect that the fact that you can slide these plastic trim panels off their steel sprung retaining clips is more down to how that trim panel is assembled and the slots allow for the clips to move in one direction to assist when you are fitting it into place.

I have removed the C or D pillar trim from my 2011 S4, and the general advice backed up by VW Group manuals, it seems, was to always release it from the top first, that C or D pillar trim disappears downwards slightly out of sight, like the Polo A pillar trim does, so releasing the top can be the only correct way to remove it, obviously you will probably need to retrieve some clips that have stayed with the car's bodywork.

Buying new trim panels should not be too expensive, I had taken the rear side lower trim off my 2011 S4 twice now and each time broken a bit more, so I just ordered in a new one for roughly £35 - which was okay, though I'd rather have not needed to do that!

I suppose the worse issue with A pillar trims is that they tend to be quite narrow at the top, working at the top of either the A or C/D pillar is not easy!

[marky9074]

Just to follow up. I glued up the broken pedestal, then glue gunned around it too, and it all seems to have held....

Seems quite a few on eBay, so like stated, easy to change out if worst comes to the worst.