How do you remove beltline trim?
 

Hello everyone, Im needing to know how to remove the beltline trim specifically the piece on the rear hatch. Ive searched and searched and wasnt able to find any detailed info on how these come off. Unfortunetly this piece was damaged while my stripes were being installed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Merry Christmas,
Rob

Ive seen pictures where it is held on by snaps and it just pulls away from the car. You just need to be careful not to damage it while pulling if off (sounds like you may not need to worry about this).

If someone else could chime into to confirm for me. Thanks!

Thanks for the quick reply. The parts guy at mini showed me a diagram of how it fits on, it looks just to snap on as you say. I hope there is a trick to taking it off because I realy dont want to just muscle it and risk damaging something else.

Might be self explanatory if you have the new piece that you're going to put on.

Thats what I thought when I bought the new trim. There just doesnt seem to be a way to get behind it to pop it off without doing other damage which is exactly what happened when the stripe installer tried to remove it.

Could be the installer didnt know where the clips were so he didnt know where to pry ?

Can it be slid off the center clips to one side or the other instead of prying it off ?

I decided to bring the car to the dealer to have them remove the trim piece. For whatever reason the trim would not come off the car the way it was supposed to so they had to slide it off of the tracks it was clipped on to. They charged me a half hour labor which i was more than happy to pay being that I wasnt able to remove it myself.

How bout making the installer pay for the professional repair of the trim?! It's totally unacceptable that they didn't offer to do this for you already!:mad:

They denied doing the damage. The trim was the easiest part to repair, the rear glass was also scratched all to hell from them trying to pry the trim off. Ive ordered a glass scratch removal kit to fix the back glass, I hope it works. The car had 840 miles on it when I dropped it off and I had just detailed it so it would be clean for the stripe install. If that damage had been there prior to me bringing it to the shop I wouldve noticed it. Ive used this shop for a couple of my other cars and never had a problem, infact they have done excellent work and was completely comfortable with them working on my car. I was upset that the car was damaged but was realy upset when they denied doing it, it was blatantly obvious what had happened.

Gilboyto,

Do you remember where you saw the pictures? I need to remove the trim on top of the hood and cant find info anywhere.

Thanks,

hood belt line, door belt line, and the little bit inbetween just pulls off, its held on by very plyable metal piece suronded in rubber all the way along the part that acts like a clamp, you just lift. back panels and boot belt line are a littel different tho. they are cliped onto a rail not shure of the details of removing them yet.

Thanks Lovemonkey, appreciate you help.

Damn - would love to see a video clip of this removal. How you grasp the trim piece to pull it off kinda has me concerned. There is a lot a damage that can be done if this "prying and pulling" is done incorrectly. Perhaps some confident member can make a short instuctional clip? Pleeeaaassseeee?:popcorn:

Anyone figure this out yet? lol :popcorn:

still a mystery?
 

attempting this now. hope i don't break anything.

On the back windows and hatch, I pushed down on the trim while sliding a small putty knife along the under side lightly prying it out. Alot of dirt and gunk builds up behind it tho so be careful and clean the prying device often. After the bottom is loose you just need to push up on it to pop the top edge. It takes a few tries to get exactly what you need to do down, but after you get a feel for it it's easy. The rear hatch was the worst because of the curve.

Anyone know how to remove / replace the clips? Do you have to remove the glass?

Side note: The Haynes Manual for the Mini SUCKS!

The clips that mount to the car, do you have to remove the glass to replace those?

The ones under the window? No, just push in the center pin and pull them out.

Does anyone know how to remove the chrome trim at the base of the window outside? Is it just like the trim under the window and behind (r53) - sort of serrated plastic jaws and a thinner pieces slides in between?

Maybe next time you take a picture of all corners, this way there is no denying they did the damage.
Ben