Removing Headrests

[Fitz@CFB]

First let me add my voice to those who have praised these forums for their wealth of useful information. The generosity of so many of you who take the time to advise those of us who have recently entered this amazing world of the California never ceases to amaze me.
I, like many others, find the headrests a problem - affecting rear visibility and access over the back seat when up and restricting storage space when lowered. I read several of the threads dealing with this and decided to have a go. At first very frustrating - I started with a punch and despite the restricted working room I did manage to move the C pins in some way at first. Then despite repeated hammering I couldn’t get them any further than about half way (about 10-12 mm in and it needs to be a good 25mm to clear the post). The hammering has to be very carefully done and cant be too hard or I thought I might cause damage.
I then tried drilling but without a specialist right angle chuck you just cant get a drill in line with the pin - and the pin is so hard it makes no progress. After giving up at first thinking this was beyond me I realised that my punch was a bit too small (about 3.5mm across) and my repeated blows might just be spreading the pin and thus jamming it in. £10 for a decent 5mm long punch and a long slow repeat effort requiring patience and I finally prevailed. The worst one took a good 30 minutes to drive through but I think I had made the job harder by my previous attempt.
Summary - if you want to do this make sure you have the right tool and a lot of perseverance. Now I need to keep the removed headrests close at hand as they must be replaced if we ever have rear seat passengers - and they must go back for service and MOTs. Replacing is easy if you make sure the plastic locking mechanism is in line for the headrest posts to pass through which is easy with a screwdriver.
I hope this may be of help to others who want to remove these. Felt like I should start to try to pass on some tips rather than just being a ‘consumer’.

 

[Brownbetty]

First let me add my voice to those who have praised these forums for their wealth of useful information. The generosity of so many of you who take the time to advise those of us who have recently entered this amazing world of the California never ceases to amaze me.
I, like many others, find the headrests a problem - affecting rear visibility and access over the back seat when up and restricting storage space when lowered. I read several of the threads dealing with this and decided to have a go. At first very frustrating - I started with a punch and despite the restricted working room I did manage to move the C pins in some way at first. Then despite repeated hammering I couldn’t get them any further than about half way (about 10-12 mm in and it needs to be a good 25mm to clear the post). The hammering has to be very carefully done and cant be too hard or I thought I might cause damage.
I then tried drilling but without a specialist right angle chuck you just cant get a drill in line with the pin - and the pin is so hard it makes no progress. After giving up at first thinking this was beyond me I realised that my punch was a bit too small (about 3.5mm across) and my repeated blows might just be spreading the pin and thus jamming it in. £10 for a decent 5mm long punch and a long slow repeat effort requiring patience and I finally prevailed. The worst one took a good 30 minutes to drive through but I think I had made the job harder by my previous attempt.
Summary - if you want to do this make sure you have the right tool and a lot of perseverance. Now I need to keep the removed headrests close at hand as they must be replaced if we ever have rear seat passengers - and they must go back for service and MOTs. Replacing is easy if you make sure the plastic locking mechanism is in line for the headrest posts to pass through which is easy with a screwdriver.
I hope this may be of help to others who want to remove these. Felt like I should start to try to pass on some tips rather than just being a ‘consumer’.

I've just removed my for the same reason.
This is what I done.
First remove the plastic covers on the sides, to do this you have to gently open from the bottom the top will not be able to come right out you have to cut the plastic flaps off with a Sharp knife, when they are off you can now swing them up out the way.
The nxt part there are two pins to knock out, I used a punch but found the tapered end only went so far, so looked around & found a metal tent peg the same diameter, I hacksawed it to abt 5inches in length & it was spot on and done the job, I use plenty WD-40 while knock it through, once these are out the headrests just pull out and store away for when needed.
Last put the plastic cover back on the sides, the holes where the rest were can be plug with a black grommet cover or I used a strip off silver gaffer tape which matched in well.

 

[JunglieD]

I didn’t have much trouble following @Brownbetty’s method. I used the 4.5mm punch from this set:

Blue Spot 22443 Parallel Pin Punch, Black, Set of 6 Pieces https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0751HCHDB/?tag=eliteelect-21

And was able to achieve a factory-look finish using 4 grey plastic hole plugs from the bay. 15mm hole diameter have a firm fit that will stay in place when seat is in bed-mode:

Hole Plugs Plastic Blanking Masking Finishing Inserts /Various Sizes/ GREY | eBay

These plugs can have many uses such as covering and masking technical holes, protecting and sealing production access holes and finishing products or furniture. PLASTIC HOLE PLUGS. grey colour finish.

www.ebay.co.uk