Interior Cloth Fix or Remove?

[Dathaeus]

All the loose cloth actually pulled out very easily... only in the pillar area I had to cut around the screw with a razor... I could have unscrewed the screws and taken that part of the pinched cloth but why bother all that and possibly cause some more weirdness (the pillar cover strip already cracked and lost a couple of pegs, but not enough to not be able to snap them back in thank god) when it will be covered anyways.

The blackish surface underneath actually looks totally clean and fine to me, not sure why anyone would need to cover that part up with more work and other cloth, thats just me.

[///Mark_D]

The thin layer you removed is only the outer part of the fabric. The "blackish surface" below, as you described it, is the felt backing of the fabric that is still firmly attached to the plastic pillar trims. What failed was the bond between the layer of fabric and backing, and not the bond between the backing and the plastic trim.

If you are fine with just leaving the pillars as-is and looking at the felt backing, that is your choice.

If you have any plans to recover the pillars though, you need to remove the felt backing to get back down to the bare plastic before applying new material. If you don't remove the backing your new material will not adhere properly, and it will also be doubled up with two layers of backing and won't lay down the way it should, especially on the A pillars where the bolt covers clip in.

For the cars that have gray or beige interior, the felt backing for those fabrics is white so it's not really an option to just leave them when the outer layer of fabric peels.

[Will]

New OEM style anthracite cloth is available for the pillars from Veteran Company in CA. BM3109 is the correct 1/16" felt backed fabric for the pillars and BM134 is 1/8" foam backed fabric for the headliner.

To install the new fabric you'll first need to remove the black felt backing that is remaining on your pillar trims. Regular isopropyl alcohol is good at dissolving the old adhesive and allow you to peel off the felt while not eating away the underlying plastic like brake cleaner, acetone, or other strong solvents will.

Here's a photo comparison of the fabrics against some new/used pillar trims.



More photos here as well
https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/...#post-18933640

Thanks for posting that, Mark. This thread is good timing for me as my pillars are falling apart again and my headliner over the rear seats is now sagging. The steamer is a good idea, I'll have to give that a try.