Tailgate Blind Replacement

[Colin&Di’s_Elle]

Hi all,


Having managed to inadvertently shatter my tailgate glass (don't ask!!) then after replacement, I found that shards had entered the blind mechanism and I now have a rather tatty and wrecked blind, which whilst it now opens and retracts has cut edges. It is still functional but looks really worn, and so will need replacement in time.

I have been looking at the threads on this subject and it seems to be a pig of a job to remove the back trim and get to the cassette certainly on earlier models, but does anyone have experience doing this on the T6 California Ocean? I found one thread that suggested that the trim at the top of the panel is all that now needs to be removed, but this thread never came to any conclusion. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks, best wishes,
Colin

 

[Colin&Di’s_Elle]

Have now managed to replace tailgate blind and as I feared it was a pig of a job. Fortunately, Breeze, Portsmouth, had a blind in stock and so one problem was quickly resolved. The blind is an expensive item but is a substantial piece of kit. As I feared, the original was full of glass after the rear screen shattered and so was beyond salvage.
Removing the tailgate trim was necessary but relatively straightforward, though I do advise photographing and recording each step and keeping all fastenings separate and identified. It is of course necessary to remove the camping chairs before commencing, and visually locating all fastenings before starting, some are hidden behind automotive tape to avoid scratching the chairs, so do do buy a reel before stating so that you can re-cover these. Be aware that the plastic rim with bling installed is quite heavy and so ideally two people are necessary one to take height and the other to undo the fastenings, some being screws (torx star head) and others plastic pop in - so I suggest the use of trim removal tools also. likewise a second person is useful when putting the panel back in place. I found that working with the tailgate fully open was the only safe way of performing this task, which is of course an additional challenge.