How the heck do I remove the headrests?

 

I heard it's a PITA. Hopefully someone chimes in for you.

 

It's not bad once you understand what you need to do to release the headrests. Once you suss it out, it's dead easy and pretty quick.

I'll try to explain here but I will also take some photos tomorrow as my parcel shelf is currently off.

- Remove the back seat.
- Raise the headrests up (manually). This is the working position to get them off.
- At the bottom of the headrest, where the arms pierce the parcel shelf, there's a plastic surround for each arm. Gently pry that plastic surround which is pressed onto the shelf off. Silde it up towards the hearest's leather part and secure with a masking tape.
- Get above the parcel shelf and look through the hole where the plastic surround was. There will be a black plastic pin pointing at you. Depending on the headrest, you may be able to see it from the backseat position. Basically, it's pointing towards the back of the car.
- Grab the headrest and wiggle it while carefully pushing that pin down (not in, not up but down). Be careful as the pin will flex and if you force it, it might break. If you're pushing it and nothing happens, you're doing it wrong. Let go off the parts and start again.

3 headrests, 6 pins to push down. Some cooperate, others are a royal pain. Wiggling the headrests does help but as with everything, try to be careful and don't break things.

I'll get some pics tomorrow to show the area around the pin.

Edit. Couple of thoughts on the pin itself. It is about 1/2" long and if we were to imagine that it points at 3 o'clock, when pushing on it, it will only move to about 5 o'clock. There will be no click or anything noticeable at all. The headrests will get released, that's all. So having one hand on a headrest and wiggling or gently pulling it away from the mechanism while pushing the pin down is essential.

 

Check out the pics in this thread. With the help of those pics it took me a couple of minutes to remove all of the headrests.

 

Thanks; I'll give it a shot after work today;

The rear shelf has turned purple, on the flipside I don't have a rear sunshade to also deal with to remove so less things to deal with...

Do you suggest VHT, SEM, or Plasticolor Vinyl paint?
I've had good luck with SEM before while dying an E30M's interior black for NLA pieces that they make.. and was a near perfect OEM match.

 

Mine is purple as well. I was thinking of doing the same thing.

 

I used a SEM landau black interior spray I had in the garage. Looks good but it's a really deep black compared to the rest of the interior. You will see the difference between the charcoal and the shelf.

 

You first remove the rear headrest, it's a pita but now I'm good at it. What you do is you put the them in the upright position and you take off the covers around the headrest chrome hooks. There are little levers that sit on the inside of the hole, toward the front or the car not rear, you won't be able to see them while sitting on the back seat facing the rear.

Get a mirror, use that to see them and use a flashlight too. They're black levers that have to be pushed DOWN, toward the bottom of the car, it's quite tricky but a small Flathead screw driver does the job. While pushing them down, use your face (not kidding) to push the headrest back on the one side slightly to keep it unclipped after you're successful. Always keep slight tension on the headrest and do the other side, it should slide out.

You also need to take off the C pillars and I think the rear seats too actually. The c pillar is taken out by first unclipping a nut from the chassis. The nut is at the front of the c pillar, where it is thinnest. You'll see it after removing the door rubber edging. You need to unclip it with something, like a strong interior trim tool with a fork split or even something metal but be careful. Remember, don't try to slide the C pillar off the nut, upclip the nut from the body, it's easier, won't break the c pillar and that nut is reusable when out by spreading the sides out again with something thin.

Do not pull the c pillar from the middle outward, actually don't allow the c pillar to fly out toward the middle of the car when that nut pops off because there's a rail inside the c pillar, in the middle of it, which can break. It needs to be slid forward sort of. You need to really play with it and massage it and riggle it but not pull toward the middle of the car hard or the rail with break. It's no big deal, the c pillar will still sit flush but you might need to put some blutac where the rail is to dampen any rattle that might occur from it and also hold it but trust me it's not the end of the world.

Now the seats are removed with the bottom coming out first. Look at where the carpet meets the bottom of the seat and there should be 2 holes on either side. There are metal "buttons" that you push and pull the seat up, you cannot miss them. Then when the bottom is out there are 2 nuts and one bolt I think, whatever they are there 3 of them holding the seat back in place, also cannot miss them. when they're out just lift the back of the seat off the lip on the rear deck and take out. You won't be able to fully take out the seat without removing the seat belt connection to the bottom but all you want is the rear shelf so just take off of the lip and bring a little forward so the rear deck can come out freely.

The rear deck is only held on by a few plastic rivets. Don't undo those bolts you see, they're for the headrest mechanism, not the rear deck. The plastic rivets come off the the rear shelf just comes out.

By the way that paint you're talking about will work but change the feel of the fabric, it will be slightly hard. It's really not good for carpets and fabric, it's OK for NON-seat or steering wheel leather or vinyl, anything you don't actually touch because it will degrade in heavy use areas.

 

Just got back from SEMA and started hammering this out.