A-Pillar Woes...

[EmDeeAr]

Hey all,

Just before heading back to college, I redid my headliner in black suede. It's flawless… except for the A-Pillars. These pillars are covered and installed, but the airbag strips won’t clip in!

I had the airbag strips recovered in suede as well, so I thought the material is too thick to allow the strips to clip in properly. To test this, I bought a brand new airbag strip (covered in factory, anthracite cloth). However, this also won’t clip in! Now, I suppose, it’s the suede on the A-pillars that is too thick to allow the strips to clip in. I also tried to further tighten the A-pillar bolts, but they are already as tight as can be.

Suggestions? I thought about buying two new anthracite A-Pillars and another anthracite strip to see if they’d work together... but then the headliner materials won’t match, and I will have spent even more money...

This really sucks, because I put a lot of time and effort into making my headliner beautiful…. and without the airbag strips, it looks incomplete, and frankly, ugly. I'm really frustrated; it seems every project I start with this car never comes out 100%, which is not what I hoped for coming from my previous E36….

[Lanister]

I had the same issue and just ended up buying new A-Pillars. The upholstery shop warned me about this issue as well. They said it is due to the special kind of material BMW uses. The replacement material is typically too thick, which leaves no room for the strips to fit well. You can try trimming the strips or cutting away some material inside the groves but how clean it will come out is uncertain.

[EmDeeAr]

Alright, guess it is what it is.

Thanks for the response.

[ELCID86]

Thanks for the warning to the rest of us! (and sorry about your troubles)