How to shave headliner tabs on C pillar?

risk

Looking for some help shaving the headliner tabs off the C pillars.. wanting to go with a custom headliner, and body color pillars.. like a standard bug.

The strip above the door, and tabs along the B pillar were easy enough to shave, but the C pillar tabs are proving to be a bit more difficult. I'm thinking about hammering them down, tack welding, and then a skim coat of bondo..

Has anyone done this and how did you do it?

This is where i'm at...

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

And this is the look i'm going for...

AndrewB · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:43 am Post subject:

I have been thinking about shaving mine too...
Havnt looked at the c pillars yet though.
Looking foward to the replys.

risk · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:55 am Post subject:

The strip above the door is just spot welded on.. i used a spot weld cutter, putty knife and hammer to remove the strip, and then ground the excess material off. The B pillar tabs were super easy, i just ground the edge down until they fell off... The factory standard bug had a tan plastic edge guard over this.. I plan on using some black door edge guard on mine. Then i used the spot weld cutter again on the assist strap bracket, came off easy. The C pillar tabs are going to be a lot more work.. if you just cut them off it leaves a hole behind them. I considered cutting that area out and welding in a strip of sheet metal.. but there is foam insulation inside the pillar so thats gonna be a mess.

This pic shows some of the tabs ground off.

AndrewB · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:12 am Post subject:

Most people want to get all that foam out of there anyway dont they??

Making an assumption in regards to the c pillars, without going out and looking at my 58...
I would probably just grab a length of mild steel tube, thin walled, cut it in quaters and weld that in,
curved look would be more attractive than a straight strip...

Halorok · Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject:

I'm doing the same thing and I plan to hammer them straight ,weld and grind smooth.
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JinxedSydney · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:02 pm Post subject:

I did this last year!

Took off the tabs with a dremel. Used a skim coat of bondo and it turned out fabulous.
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Mike Fisher · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject:

A Girl from Redding (my home town!) showing you Guys how it's done! Laughing

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risk · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:53 am Post subject:

I ended up hammering the tabs down, welding them up and grinding the welds down.. Then I taped a hard edge and layed down a skim coat of bondo. I'm gonna put a bead of seam sealer in the corner before paint.

AndrewB · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:11 pm Post subject:

i just ended up popping the spot welds and pulling the whole strip off,
probably do a couple of spot welds along the seam and clean it up when it comes time for primer

Wired1 · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:23 pm Post subject:

Mine is in for paint at the mo. Took all the gripper strips off, mostly just ground them down thin then "rolled" them off ie start at one end with long nose pliers and grab the end then roll it up like a sardine tin. The ones above the door proved the hardest and left visible bumps where the spot welds were so I'm not sure how well they will come up after paint. I skimmed all the seams with body filler to get that clean look.

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AndrewB · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:45 pm Post subject:

thats wierd, the ones above the door were the easist for me, grabbed one end with a pair of pliers and pulled the strips off, ground down the little lumps of remaining spot weld....
all the strips i pulled off are more or less complete, so i can keep them all for future restos haha

Wired1 · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:58 pm Post subject:

I guess I might have been a bit timid about grinding them down. This is the look I'm going for in my '63 - this head liner was done by a mate of mine who will be doing mine soon but without the door top strips. I'm going red & cream so the head liner will be in cream.

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AndrewB · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:15 pm Post subject:

thats an awesome headliner!
looks like a quilt Laughing

Wired1 · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:53 pm Post subject:

Got my beetle back from the trimmer today - just what I was looking for...

Haven't got the front windscreen in yet Smile

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AndrewB · Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:33 am Post subject:

Holy crap that looks sweet!
Im going to have to look into something like that!
Nice work man Very Happy

Livin'LaVdubLoca · Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:25 am Post subject:

juniorvick · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:51 pm Post subject:

thoose pics look awesome.. i wish i knew what you guys were talking about.. im a rookie just checking out posts to "try" and learn as much as i can so when i get my bug.. ill have an idea what im looking for

AZ65CalBug · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:45 am Post subject:

That is a great idea. I may have to do this to my car now since it's at that point..

Does anyone have a picture of this done with a complete interior? I'm curious to see what it looks like with all the interior in it.
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cutter8174 · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:50 am Post subject:

Where did you get that headliner it looks really cool.
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