The driver side front door headliner bezel looks like it has provisions for a grab handle. Is there a trick to get the trim pieces off.

 

I believe that top trim piece is held on with metal spring clips, you remove the two vertical trim pieces on either end of it first, there might be a couple screws.. its quite easy to crack or break when you try and remove it. my wagon, a previous owner's mechanic was very liberal with butyl 'tape' to de-rattle things :-/ its nasty black sticky goo, but luckily, a bit of odorless paint thinner takes that stuff off your fingers and the trim like hot water on sugar.

 

thanks...
a little paint and it will be good

 

Thanks for posting the "after" pictures. I created a thread asking a question similar to yours a couple weeks back. I never got to see the entirety of the white clips. It almost looks like there's tracks and you slide the cover off. Did you break them off or is there a way to separate them while keeping them intact? I resorted to taping mine down but I wouldn't mind securing the torx screws again.

 

No spring clips. The caps snap on the white plastic bases which are attached to the molding with torx head screws. They get loose over time. To get the caps off, use a flat head screw driver at the very edge of the cap to pop it off--it is really simple! No glue, no paint, no clips! Always wondered why all the cars I see have those things loose and rattly...

 

ahhh, THATS how those attach, ok.

my driver side caps have been loose and rattly for ages, seeing those pics, I just went out with a small screwdriver and popped off the caps, a T-25 driver tightened things right up, caps snapped back on, yaay.

the caps snap along the top and bottom edge, so levering it out from the bottom corner while applying pressure 'down' made it come off easy.


p.s. the spring clips I was referring to are the ones that hold the whole large trim piece to the chassis.