Any useful tips?
I'm always having trouble with these parts...
Whenever I remove them, the trim itself loses a piece of plastic..
And when I remove the white retainers from the body, they shatter all over the place and get inside the car's body.. and there they will remain, rattling.

No matter what I do to this car, some plastic parts are always the biggest PITA.

 

The a pillar trim pieces are supposed to slide to one end a little while you pull them, but it's still nearly impossible to get them off without breaking one of the clips. Start at the easiest end to grab on to , pull lengthwise, then use a plastic pry bar to pull the clip up as close to the metal as you can. I can usually get them off while only breaking one mount. Then use plastic weld to glue the mounting tabs back together before reinstalling . Yes, they suck on these cars.

 

Hmm.. I should put my thinking cap on and invent a new way to install these pillar trims..
I just hate unintelligent design.. I'll post here if I come up with any decent solution.
It seems the previous owner tried to replace the clips with "christmas tree" type of push pins. But normally they are too big for the holes in the body which are approx. 5mm in diameter.

By the way, do you have any idea how to remove the broken pieces of plastic that shattered inside the body..?

 

This is a hardtop yes?
Might be able to fish them out from the b pillar, not sure.
If you can find exactly where they are, you can spray primer in the nearest hole to try and glue the plastic parts in place so they don't rattle.

 

I made a few quick stops while driving so the loose pieces fell down the pillar, I could actually hear it.

Do you have any idea where stuff eventually goes if they're inside the pillar and fall down?
I already checked inside the kicker panel and the scoop that's outside the car between the front wheel and the door.

It's not a big problem but for the sake of curiosity and perfection I'd like to fish them out if possible..

 

I think you mean they fell down the A pillar? then they're in there for good! The a pillar has no bottom access, have to fish them out from the trim slots or spray some glue n there.

 

Yup, that's where they are now.. all because I had no idea how to properly remove the clips.

Fishing them out is nearly impossible because there are only a few holes and they are smaller than the pieces of plastic that are stuck inside.
Gonna give it a try anyway.

 

I'm super late to the party, but I just want to offer my insight for anyone else struggling with these. I spent hours trying to install these. I ended up getting the a-pillar to stay firmly with heavy duty Velcro. The oem clips just fight you all day and it's inevitable you'll break a slot on your pillar. I included some images below to show where I placed it.




The post-it-notes are just visual, to indicate where I put the Velcro on the inside of the a-pillar (the Velcro I applied is not as big as the area of the post-it-note. It's just to indicate the general position)
I cut my Velcro strips about a 1.5 inches in length, and roughly 1in. width (Above the window you need to cut a piece slightly less than 1inch width probably)





I got these at Home Depot. They are holding the a-pillar really firmly, and it's barely noticeable on the car. Each to their own, but this to me worked really well.

 

smart. good thinking. I mgiht have to do this next time I have my A-pillar trim pieces off. many tabs are broken and more will break.

 

I can definitely recommend, and I uploaded another picture of the full a-pillar to show the end result. I can barely tell it's there.