I'm removing the headliner now. Those pins are very difficult to remove. Should I just cut them and buy new ones?So finally got the headliner down and accessed / removed the 3rd brake light. Thanks brimflop for the tip on the plastic covers for the door latches - just had to pry a little on the front edge and they came right off. The pillar cover panels pulled off pretty easily on the sides but not sure I had to take them off. Then I removed all the rivets and the headliner came down pretty easily. There are some funky clip brackets that hold the front edge of the headliner that were kind of hard to disengage - they interface to these orange snap pins in the roof - tried to take a pic of those.
The A/C ductwork was surprisingly sloppy - the duct going across the top of the rear doors was misaligned to the other duct flanges (see pic) - will try to improve that once I re-assemble. This duct has to be removed to get to the brake light access hole in the top rear cross beam.
The 3rd brake light itself was very easy to remove through the access hole in the rear cross beam. No need for tools - just squeeze your hand into the opening and then simply press on the metal clips and the light assembly pops right out. Kinda hard to believe it actually makes a water tight seal with that installation method - the gasket didn't seem very conformal /squishy and the clips don't seem to provide much pressure... I think I may add some RTV when I re-install the light.
Below are a bunch of pics (some out of focus) - but they may help someone trying to do this in the future.
I'm not sure if they can be reused if I don't break them when removing them. Thanks!
