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Originally Posted by H2Much
Do you happen to have pictures of the tear down in the back or manual pics? I need to pull my back end apart but I am a little worried about breaking pieces as I do it. Those panels are a ripoff beyond words to buy them new...
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Unfortunately no. But I can give you some guidance by memory...
To take out the cargo area interior pieces I find it's best to:
- Pull up the plastic door sill from both the rear passenger doors (3 clips...the one toward the rear is a little tricky because the sill locks into the rear side trim where the rear seat belts retract)
- Firmly grab the rear side trim which hide the seat belt mechanism and pull (these should pop off with no problem). You can pull the weather stripping away from the door jam to give you room for a better grip on the pieces too. NOTE: If you need to completely remove them you'll need a torx wrench to disconnect the seat belt from the body of the truck.
- Remove the speaker trim from the rear of the cargo area (pulls right off) and disconnect the speaker wires
- Remove the trim from above the rear side windows (again, pretty easy)
- Remove the sill from the rear hatch door (2 screws and some clips...easy)
- Pop the storage trays out of the big pieces covering the wheel wells; this requires a little gentle prying with a flat edge. The trays have little molded clips all the way around; once you get a few of them up it's a piece of cake to pull them free with your hands. This will let you get your hands inside the interior trim to find the clips on the big piece and better support the sections of these pieces as you tug the clips free.
- Remove the trim over the top of the rear hatch way and you're done.
The trim on the rear hatch itself is a bit trickier. I would recommend having a trim-clip removal tool for that.
Start by removing the interior handle strap; then I believe there's two 'plugs' on the bottom of the door that you need to remove first. You'll then be able to pry the trim down enough to see the other clips inside the door. Use the tool and pop one clip at a time...and take your time; maybe even have someone assist. It's all one piece and becomes a little unwieldy when trying to support the whole thing while carefully searching for clips.
All in all, everything comes off with a nice sturdy tug. I've had mine out on several occasions to run wires, have them sprayed, etc. and have never broken even one of the clips; but get that tool!
NOTE: It basically goes back together in reverse order, BUT I would highly recommend putting the storage trays back in the wheel-well pieces prior to installing them. To get the trays back in nice and snug all the way around you really need to have a hand on both sides of the trim or those last few clips will be a b!tch.
Hope this helps...let me know if you have any questions.