A pillar exterior trim
Hi all...I have typical weak clips on the a-pillar exterior trim against my windshield that lifts considerably at highway speeds on my 07 RRSC. Gonna get fresh clips from the dealer but I'm wondering if I can just pull the trim piece straight up and off from the outside or do I really need to dismantle the dash ends to remove the interior A pillar cover to get at the clips from the inside as the workshop manual procedure dictates.

Seems like it should pull right off but the top and bottom clips seem on there real good and if it was really as easy as pulling it off the shop manual should just say as much over so much work to get it from the inside.

I've found many threads here and around the web regarding the the 03-05 trucks for this problem but few on the 06-09's and for some reason I remember the fastening mechanics being slightly different between the two.

Thanks,

-John
'07 RRSC

Pretty sure the trim is fastened on using the same method throughout the model years. Four white nylon push fit clips under the front of the trim, four black nylon expanding rivets up the inside edge in the door reveal. Can't see why you would need to remove any internal trim at all, the piece fits on the outside of the rubber seal that runs around the door frame. Get an A pillar fitting kit - 4x white nylon push fit clips, four expanding rivets and four of the little sealing caps that fit into the metal of the pillar, the expanding rivets are pushed into these.

super helpful..thank you! I think maybe the manual's intent was to push the white nylon clips out from the inside versus just pulling them out. Glad to know it's as easy as that.

Do the expanding rivets sacrifice themselves in coming out? I assume the pin in the center expands a flange on the other side but I don't see how to extract the now flush center rivet pins. Maybe that's why you might need access to the inside of the pillar...to push out the center pins.

Again, thanks for the guidance

-John
'07 RRSC

The easiest way is to push the centre pin right through the expander. I have heard somebody who drilled a fine hole through the pin for a screw to pull the pin back out, but it's not worth the bother- as then you have a hole in the pin. That's why you need four new seals for the expanding rivets - the action of pushing the pins through destroys the little seal- it looks like a little top hat.

Makes sense...thank you!!