rear quarter window trim fuzzy removal?

[Lord Warlock]

I'm looking to remove the rear quarter window trim, when i painted the car i couldn't remove this piece so masked it off but now can see paint buildup under the edge of the trim and its bothering me, so I decided to remove it. I also bought new window fuzzies for front and rear glass, the fronts came off and went on easy enough, but the rears seem to be held on alot stronger than the fronts. 

From doing some searching, I know the rear quarter trim is screwed in place behind the fuzzies, how  are the fuzzy pieces removed?  short of strong arming it and just ripping them off, is there a better way?  what holds them on? clips? or screws somewhere i can't see.  And the rear corners, there is a round stud looking thing in the corner, does this stud connect to anything? I don't see any nut on the backside,  I've already taken off the upper inside door panels, I do NOT want to remove the glass for this piece I think i can remove the chrome without breaking glass, especially if i don't strong arm and force it. 

The old fuzzy is very brittle and is breaking in pieces as i try to move it, but it does cover the screws that hold on the exterior chrome.  The corner isn't in that good of shape but the flat chrome is in very good condition as is, so don't want to tear it up.

[b5blue]

  The weatherstrip is held by clips that slide trough slots in the trim and body steel. The trim is held by odd shaped J clips only used in that area with screws that have undersize heads to seat flush.
  So the weatherstrip needs to be pried away some so it can be pulled up and out. The inside trim needs to be removed to get to the screw heads and great care must be taken as A: rust may be an issue and B: the J clips are NOT available.
  The entire trim, curl to door end comes out as one set.

[Lord Warlock]

Jeezus,  can't anything be easy on this car? With some care, a flat blade screwdriver, and holding the glass out of the way, I was able to get the fuzzy off to get to the screws,  only to find out that the two front screws holding the trim piece in question are below the top edge of the rear window glass and will be very difficult to get out, the rear screw and j-clip I can get to, but the heads are a bit rusted/filled with dirt and started to strip the head of the screw, so I stopped to reassess the situation.  At this stage, its just a little more trouble than its worth to get the trim piece off.  Guess i can live with a little paint buildup along the bottom edge of the trim, but now I get to fight with the new fuzzy pieces as well as try to figure out a problem i've found with the body panel itself.

The skin of the panel along the door jamb has separated along the top corner from the trim piece to about 2 inches outward about half way across the flat section of the upper fender (caused a crack in the paint when wiggling the trim around) I'll have to figure out how to join the metal without burning the exterior paint, maybe some JB weld will work, or something else.  touching up the paint shouldn't be an issue once i get it secured, as it would only show inside the door jamb, welding it for real would definitely mess the paint up enough to need to repaint a large section.  Thought i had fixed this before i painted it, guess i forgot and the primer covered the crack. 

[bill440rt]

The quarter window itself is only held in by two bolts. Remove the bolts & take the glass out. It will be much easier to remove the quarter trim that way.

The fuzzy attaches just like on the doors, a little tab that locks it into place in a slot on the quarter. Just like on the doors.
If they are completely shot & you are replacing them anyway, then just pry it off. Or, as you found out get behind it with a little flat screwdriver & gently pry it up & out.
Soak the backsides of the trim screws with a little penetrating oil overnight, it will come apart much easier.

[b5blue]

Removing my trim exposed lots of badly rusted steel underneath. Most screws and J clips were shot and I messed up the holes in that trim drilling out the screw heads. The factory did not paint behind/ inside that area much if at all. With the drip edge running back the roof line and no seal at the curl on that trim it channeled water into the gap and under the trim. I had to section off a 3" run down the quarter and replace with patches from other cars. I'm sealing the crap out of that whole area.