Technical Plastic roof trims and headrests

[Pandani]

Thanks to Saturday's trip to Binhoker I've everything now collected for my Panda restoration after weeks of ebay and breaker's yard searching. Pitty I hadn't gone to him before ebay as he'd some good items that I ended up buying elsewhere.

Pandani is going into the bodyshop on 7th November and the question on how to remove the black plastic roof rails has been raised. I'm not talking about the sort of roof rails that are designed for strapping luggage and stuff to as seen on the newer classic Pandas but the ones that appear to cover the roof seams and have a small steel hollow pin securing them at their ends. The obvious thought is to knock out these pins but then what? Are the plastic strips glued on as I can't see those steel pins being capable by themselves? Has anyone any ideas on taking them off without damage? I really don't want to have to use masking tape.

Binhoker and I had no luck in removing the seats' headrests that I wanted off his Blue 'Lipstick'. I know that they should simply pull out of the seat's back but we tried with no success and we weren't going to tear the fabric just to get at the steel pins that I know must hold them in place.

The photo's not great to show the roof but you can see the type of roof trims I'm talking about.

 

[kolza]

Roof seem trims removal - on each side there is plastic end cap with a metal dowel going through the panel joint. Remove the dowel and gently lift the trim.


Headrest - you need to release the back rest fabric and looking inside there are two massive 'paper clip' type spring clamps.

 

[Pandani]

Cheers kolza for your reply. Always good to get info from someone with prior knowledge to avoid ballsing the whole thing up and creating damage that can't be repaired. It's a simple thing to do but they're sometimes the things that can cause hassle when it goes wrong as I'm sure we've all experienced.

 

[northernchap]

Yup, kolza is right on the roof trim (of course) - from memory I just gently tapped out the metal pins with a suitably sized allen key. Dead easy.