9/10/17

I made a good amount of progress on the XC this week.

I installed airbags and seats belts

Took the SRS warning faults down from 13

Down to 4

I found a leather wrapped inscription dash.

And I have the paint work scheduled and the goal for the weekend was to fully strip the car for painting. Stripping the car was, I thought, going to be one of the easiest things to do. How wrong I was!

I started with the roof rails. I popped the end covers off expecting bolts like the P2 XC, but only the tops of the bolts could be seen and were not accessible. Doing some re-search I find the bolts come in from the inside and I’m more or less going to have to take the headliner out.

Everything from the belt line up comes loose or comes out completely.

A, B, and C pillar trim, parts of the seats, lights, grab handles, sun visors, and all other roof/side mounted stuff.

After much work, it was out. It wasn’t hard, just tedious.

Interesting things discovered on this job:

The rear bumper has to be taken loose to remove the rear tail lights. If it wasn’t for the tabs on the bottom of the lights, the bumper bracket wouldn’t need to be removed and life would be simpler. Not actually a big deal for me since everything was apart already, but it was a bit puzzling design choice.

And here is a how to on removing the door handles.

First you remove this little cover

You will need a long driver length T25 screw driver. The entire length of the driver needs to be thin

This is how deep it will go into the door

Once you loosen the screw, the end cover pops off.

Once that’s off, pull the door handle towards you, note the notch in the previous photo and the one here indicated with the arrow.

Then swing the door handle wide, and detach.

Now this is the part that initially had me really worried. The connector for the keyless entry button is up inside the door.

But see this little track?

The connector travels along the track for easy access. Clever.

I also removed the tail lights, door mirrors, door handles, and as much exterior trim as possible. The rocker covers were left loose so they can be more easily painted off the car for a better job.

 

I do have to say, the P3 cars have more complicated interiors to pull apart than the P2 or P1 cars. The P1 referenced in the previous post I pulled the carpet, seats, radio, and center console in less than an hour.

Oh well, I suspect the next pair of roof rails I pull, will be easier.