Hey there,
Having just acquired a 2006 H3, I am going through some of the common issues, and 1 issue my H3 has is the discolored exterior A pillar holdings. I addition, a couple of tabs were broken, and it was not sitting on there correctly. A prior owner had apparently solved this by big globs of silicone applied to the backs of the trim, which did not hold up and is too crappy of a fix for me.
I have read where people are heating up the trims with heat guns to turn them black. My experience with plastics are that this is a bad thing to do. Heating to raise oils to the surface only further dries out the plastic, and over time weakens it.
So. first thing I want to do is repair the trims because I have checked on line prices for these and they are ridiculous. I am looking for clean, neat, functional, but not doing a concours restoration. I came up with this hack. It involves drilling holes where the tabs are and using push type christmas tree panel buttons to hold the trim. The overall effect is functional, doesn't look out of place, (actually looks really good) and saves a bunch of money.

Here is a picture of the finished product.


I may add a clip to the top as well in the future, but it sits no different than the other side on my H3 that had no damaged tabs.

Step one is to remove the trims. open the door and first grab the weatherstrip rubber at the bottom of the trim piece and pull off the lip of the trim. It is a pressure fit. You only have to pull off enough of the weatherstrip from the lip to expose the pillar trim side. let it hang from the upper door jamb. There are two phillips screws holding the side of the trims under where the weatherstrip was to the a pillar. remove them. Then go around the the front of the outer a pillar trim and pull out (forward) on it to pop the tabs from the plastic holders. Once the trim piece is removed, flip it over and cut off any remaining tabs from inside the trim. I used side cutters. trim as close to the base as you can, but not too critical.



next take a 1/8 drill bit and drill pilot holes entered through where the tab used to be.




next, using a " step bit", enlarge the hole from the outside of the trim piece carefully to the size that allows the clips to fit through. do not install the clips at this time though. do not make the hole any larger than you need to for the clip to fit through.



These are the clips I used, however if you size them the same you should be fine. I trimmed a little off the bottom of these clips to make sure they go in deep enough to the tab receptacles on the vehicle to hold the trim securely.




here is what the tree much clip looks like




make sure there are no bits of old tab remaining on the pillar, and clean the surface while you are there.




Next, lets fix the grey color of those faded trims. I use this product "back to black" it works great. It may take a couple of applications to get to a nice even color. just put it on, rub it in a bit and wipe off excess, let sit and re-apply. it only takes a few minutes and it comes out nice and black, and protected against the weather with no painting or heating required . I think it helps to keep plastic from getting brittle as well. I did mine inside and out, and make sure to get all the edges.

Lastly, (once you have the trim piece all black and holed up) is to install it again. Put it in to place without the push clips in the hole. get it sitting right and loosely install the two screws you took out from the side of the pillar. Come around to the front, and hold the trim where you want it and push in the christmas tree clips one at a time. Go back install the screws all the way, and clip the weatherstrip back on the edge and you are done! see the first pic for finished product!

 

Just ran across your post and wondered how your pillar trim hack has held up? Hand you had to remove and put back on again for like a windshield replacement?