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Hey Ive searched and cannot find this on the forum..anyways I have a 02 LE with the key thingie you know push to open trunk anyways I want to clean up the back end and would like to remove that key hole thing cause its useless!! so how do i remove it and do i just put like some body fill over the hole??? Also how hard is it to black out my head liner Im thinking about buying some fabric and doing that and then just spray panting the plastic pieces on the pillars...

you need to weld metal for suport behind the key hole and bend it to the surface, the rule of thumb is to never apply more than 1/8 of an inch of body filler. as for the headliner, you would pull it would and recover it with black fabric of your liking.

Ah excellent thank you. how do you do the fabric just glue it on wait i totally know how to do it im a idiot...just to confirm its like spray glue right.

My trunk was completely shaved except the 3rd brake light, it is not exactly and easy noob thing to do. It took me about 30 - 45 min and I do this for a living. A lot can go wrong if you have never used a welder before or used body filler. Mine had hardly any body filler. Take your time and it will come out right. With your headliner use 3M upholestry adhesive. spray it on and let it get tacky before applying the new material/ Good luck!

Cool Yeah Ive never worked with bodyfiller personaly But My Grandad has been welding for 30+ years soo I should be good on that end.

If you want to paint your A,B, and C pillars you need to scuff them/sand them first before applying.

Also, the A and C pillars pop off. The B pillars will pop off but the seatbelts will be in the way. You have to remove your seatbelts. I forget the size of the bolt...

i believe it is a T55 or T50..i just finished painting all of my pillars and now i need to do the headliner. any suggestions for fabric on the headliner?

It's a T55. For the key cylinder on the trunk, I cut out the metal and welded a new piece in. Was quicker than smoothing out the lip it had...

There's a How to in the interior section on doing the headliner and the pillars for the interior.

as for trunk, i did both, third light and key, along with pvo spoiler molded in .... here is a pic of two....

primer


paint

Well if you really didn't want to weld it, not that it matters from a small amount of warpage POV, the backing metal could be attched via 3M Structural Adhesive. It cost about $20 for the kit. It's a two part adhesive, remains slightly flexable, but not so much it would cause any issues with body filler. It is the same stuff that holds most of todays major body panels on. Believe me that piece of backing will never come loose. Check the body section of a FSM if you don't believe me. I prefer it to welding, especially where really don't see the need to screw up perfectly good paint. (Not that this mod applies) But if you want to glue something to the interior side sheet metal...

I have used it to glue mounting plates to the interior roof of my SUV for rear speakers. Those speakers haven't fallen off after a few years of wheelin'. There is a lot more stress there, than the keyhole will see under normal conditions. Not even a welded piece will pevent damage from an accident.

we used the glue on my trunk lid, it worked great, from gluing the lip to the trunk, to the third brake light... we used mystry glue though (i think it is called) just make sure the surface is scuffed to get the glue to adhere to the panels....