Interior A Post trim removal

[Compo1]

Hi,

Anyone removed the interior A post trim ? Drivers side.

If so does it give access to the outer skin ?

I've had a flying motorway rock hit it leaving a pea sized dent with a nick in the paint to the metal. A dent man has said glue pull may make more paint come away so is risky.

He is not sure if there is access with the trim removed.

Any info would be great if anyone has removed the trim..

 

[SRGTD]

I‘ve just had a quick Look on YouTube in the hope that there was a video of someone removing the A pillar trim in a mk3 Leon. Sadly I couldn’t find one. However, I did find a few videos of the A pillar trim being removed in various VW’s (including an mk7 Golf which is essentially a mk3 Leon under the skin) and I dare say they’ll be representative of the Leon’s A pillar construction.

From what I found, it doesn’t look as if there’s access to the outer skin of the A pillar. There’s an inner metal section (I think it’s an integral part of the car’s overall side panel metal pressing) that provides the necessary structural rigidity to the A pillar to minimise the risk of the roof collapsing in the event of the car rolling over in an accident. It also has the location points clips for such things as the A pillar trim, airbag attachment, wiring loom etc.).

You can see the exposed A pillar in the screenshot below that I took from a YouTube video of a VW Polo. Assuming the A pillar construction in your Leon is the same, it would probably only be possible for a dent man to push the dent out from the inside if the dent was in line with one of the clip location points.

 

[Compo1]

I‘ve just had a quick Look on YouTube in the hope that there was a video of someone removing the A pillar trim in a mk3 Leon. Sadly I couldn’t find one. However, I did find a few videos of the A pillar trim being removed in various VW’s (including an mk7 Golf which is essentially a mk3 Leon under the skin) and I dare say they’ll be representative of the Leon’s A pillar construction.

From what I found, it doesn’t look as if there’s access to the outer skin of the A pillar. There’s an inner metal section (I think it’s an integral part of the car’s overall side panel metal pressing) that provides the necessary structural rigidity to the A pillar to minimise the risk of the roof collapsing in the event of the car rolling over in an accident. It also has the location points clips for such things as the A pillar trim, airbag attachment, wiring loom etc.).

You can see the exposed A pillar in the screenshot below that I took from a YouTube video of a VW Polo. Assuming the A pillar construction in your Leon is the same, it would probably only be possible for a dent man to push the dent out from the inside if the dent was in line with one of the clip location points.

View attachment 50501

Thank mate.

That was what i was looking for really if the clip or any other slots gave a way through to the outer skin.

Guess to be sure its coming off tomorrow.

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Just pulls straight off, starting from the top, then lifting the last bit up out of the slot between pillar and the dashboard. Refits in reverse order.
Here's a couple of screenshots from ELSAWIN.

 

[Decimator]

Thank mate.

That was what i was looking for really if the clip or any other slots gave a way through to the outer skin.

Guess to be sure its coming off tomorrow.

Yeah it's fairly easy to take off just pull it in the direction towards the other pillar start at the top and when you get down to the dash pulls up away just watch the headliner when refitting it it the trim can kind of stab the headliner and get caught

 

[Mr Pig]

Other thing to watch is the cable for the speaker in the lower part of the trim. When you pull the trim away at the top, tilt out outwards without pulling it upwards. Reach behind the trim and unplug the speaker before pulling the bottom of the trim free from the top of the dash.