ThatsMyDawg

Guys,
I have started my interior trim project officially. Refinishing some items and doing the cloth in suede.

Due to some prior idiot putting cig burn holes/marks all around the fabric around the post trim (a guess looks like they flicked the cigs ashes through a partially cracked window). There were ugly burn marks up and down the trim a long the window. Besides that, the fabric was just worn dirty and loose in many spots and was starting to peel away at the edges in the rear so I knew it was on my interior list of things to fix as were many others including redoing the wood trim (cracked) and making an iPod solution I can live with so I can keep the factory Nav(no I do not have the port in my glove box even though I have the cd changer in the trunk and the Nav. W208

So Last night I purchased all the material, etc and tore apart the interior headliner, post trim, etc. I have to admit, it all came out pretty easily. When I got the trim out and looked at it in the sun it looked even more discussing then I thought. I guess the car hid some of it. First problem I have ran into is the two c pillars in the back has the seat belt going through them and I looked for over 2 hours at it and online and I see no way to remove the seat belt from the middle of the pillars. There is no slit in the pillar as I hoped. I even lifted up the rear seat thinking it must a place hidden to remove the seat belt.

I found a bolt anchor of sorts that the seat belt was anchored to, the belt goes through it. It also attaches to the back panel that I don't need to remove for this project. Unscrewing that bolt does nothing for the seatbelt, just anchors the panel to this bolt. Looks like I can cut the seat belt where it is threaded, pull it through, re thread it back through when I'm finished the upholstery but I would have to have it sewn again. Not sure how anyone can sew that while it's in the car. Front seatbelt just unbolted in like 15 secs.

It looks like the seat belt post (for lack of a better term) has the seatbelt threaded through it in the corner, under the rear seat and seems to be welded to the car. I see the seatbelt sew marks so I know it was sewn at the factory. I'm going to call my dealer to ask how to remove the pillar from the seatbelt because there has to be a way because pillars get damaged, cracked, what ever and they do sell the pillars so there has to be a way to replace them.

So I'm just going to start doing all the other pieces I have out until I figure out the c pillars, they are just hanging there via the seatbelt. Also do yourself a favor, make sure the sun roof is closed when starting this if you do. It was getting dark so I opened the sunroof to let more light through to the inside before i pulled in the garage. Since I removed all the switches, buttons, etc naturally I can't close the sunroof now. I can simply snap the controls back up when I need to close it but since it's in the garage it doesn't matter at this point and I not working on the roof slide yet.

So any idea of how to remove the c pillars from the seatbelt?
Also any ideas on how to remove the sunroof slide cover? I have not yet searched that part online yet. I didn't remember the slide because the sunroof was open.

I have no way to post pics yet being a new member and not having a picture host yet. I searched for an hour today and two hours last night on the forums but found no answers on the c pillars

Sorry post is so long.

VIPclk320

I know exactly what part your talking about. Remove the button part of the rer seats, you push on the seat near the edges on each side and push down and pup up and the lower portion of the seats come out, now you will see that there is a gold color bucket that is held in by one bolt under the seat part area close to the panel, remove that bolt and the bottom part of your seat belt wil come loose. Then remove the little oval plastic Piece that's on the C pillar that the seat belt goes through and then pull the seat belt out and guide that gold color bracket that you just removed through that slit. It very easy once you remove the button part of your rear seats. Good luck.

ThatsMyDawg

Thanks for the reply. I just got home from work and have not looked at what you speak of but I could swear you are talking about what I already checked. After some quick dinner I'm out to the garage to inspect. If you noticed I mentioned in the first post I already had the seat up and was messing with a bolt/screw. I used a wratchet to take it off ( it's in the left corner) but afterwards the seat belt remained. I will admit I did not try to pull at the area I thought was welded but if we are talking about the same spot it looked like it was solid. I will feel pretty silly if I pull at it and it moves.

I will update later tonight. I surely hope you are right my friend.

VIPclk320

the reason why it remains in is because there is a small philips screw on that gold bracket which holds those cushins on the side of the rear seat top pieces in place. just unscrew that screw and it will come out.

ThatsMyDawg

I will check this tomorrow when I get back out to the garage. After dinner yesterday I started working on the headliner, etc which I had already taken out. Because it was 100 degrees the last few days I have been working in the air of the dinning room.

All weekend I plan to finish up the interior so I can drive the coupe again next week. I still haven't found a host site for my pics so you guys will have to wait to see my progress.

I will say this, after completing most of the headliner (just need to do the trimming) It is at least 100 times harder than I expected. Suede does not stretch or give at all so it's a pita to get it on. Being my first time doing this I'm pleased with it so far and I'm glad I started this but in all honesty 5 minutes after I started trying to get the material glued on the liner I thought I made a very bad decision lol. After I stopped panicking and calmed down I started to get a kinda flo to what I was doing. When I started getting a glimps of the material on the liner and knew then it would all work out.

I'm gonna try very hard to get everything covered Sat So I can start to figure out how I can get my sunroof slider out to cover that.

Thanks for your input and to all for reading.

VIPclk320

end results is worthed, i did my complete headliner and pillars in alcantera black and did all the color change on all the plastic parts and it looks great.

ThatsMyDawg

Remembered I had flikr from years ago and it looks like its still active so I'll start posting with that. FYI you were correct vipclk320! The c pillars came right out and we were talking about the same buckle thing. When I originally took out the bolt I didn't realize there were two other bolts out of site holding it. Thanks very much.

Pulling material
http://flic.kr/p/cogZg9
Stripping
http://flic.kr/p/coh8of
Ready
http://flic.kr/p/coh87E
Supplies
http://flic.kr/p/coh6uh
Seat up
http://flic.kr/p/cohfyY
Pita bolt
http://flic.kr/p/coherq
How you do it
http://flic.kr/p/coheGU
Presto
http://flic.kr/p/coheWW
Cpillars
http://flic.kr/p/coh8Cd
Old headliner,cleaning off old glue
http://flic.kr/p/coh6WN
Progress
http://flic.kr/p/coh7bS
Done
http://flic.kr/p/coh7sw
Suede
http://flic.kr/p/coh7DL
Glued ready for trimming
http://flic.kr/p/coh7UA
Pulling off c pillar material
http://flic.kr/p/cojDeL


Ok guys, gotta get back to work on it now. Now you have examples of my progress. I don't know how to post pics without the link so they just show in the thread but if anyone wants to re-do them feel free.

Still waiting on feedback on how to remove the sliding panel on the sunroof.

Check in later

VIPclk320

Let me know if you need help taking any other parts off, the rest is Rey straight forward, for the sun roof sliding cover piece just on bot the two acres on the rail toward the end of the car on the roof and it sliding piece will slide right out.

ThatsMyDawg

I'll try that with the slider. I already have all the other pieces out, just putting the new material on and getting ready for paint later after I get the slider out.

VIPclk320

here is a couple of tips on painting the plastic parts:
1. buy the Duplicolor vinyl spray paint, the flat black one is identical to factory benz black interrior color
2. buy the plastic adhesive promotoer called BullDog

take all the of them apart and clean the parts with water and dishwashing soap and dry them

then in a warm day spray about 3 coats of bulldogg, do light coats try not to cover the full surface at once, waite about 5 minutes between each coat

then after waiting about 10 to 15 minutes after the last coat of buldogg do the same with the vinyl spray about 5 to six light coats and let it dry over night.

this process is bullet proof, no chipping, pealing off and even if you scratch them with your nails the color will not come off. the reason for lights coats is because all the plastic parts have texture and if you spray heavy coats the texture gets covered and everything looks smooth, it wont look bad but just wont look oem.

NO SANDING NEEDED!

ThatsMyDawg

Well, of the hundreds that dropped by this thread Im glad you were the one that decided to comment and offer up something. If it had to be anyone I'm glad it was you!

It's 9:30am now, worked until 2:00am. Trim is all done, gonna paint now. Realized this morning that I never considered my sun-visors so I gotta do them today. I know they are going to be a PITA. I ran out of material so I have to grab more to do the sunroof slider and visors later, gonna deal with paint now.

I also never considered my rear deck but I really, really don't feel like trying to figure out how to get that out today. Should I even do that area? If so I might do that next weekend I guess, I just want to get the car put back together. I also really wanted to try and buff the car out today but we will see what I got left in the tank after I start putting everything back together.

Check in later.

Teaser pic below.

http://flic.kr/p/coT23J

IBelieve

My thanks to both of you.
I've looked my interior over and could not muster up the courage to start the unknown. But you've taken away the unknown part and inspired me to go for it.
Also, I could not seem to find the correct color C-pillars. No, I think I'll get what I can find and redo it to my color.
Thanks again guys.