Has anyone removed the rear interior shelf by the back window?

Went to replace my 3rd brake light. Had forgotten that this one does not have the white connector to remove the bulb assembly harness -- The red and black wire from the light bar goes back behind the shelf cover. The connector is either not on mine or buried under the shelf.

The last time I replaced (used from ebay) I cut a slit in the housing and fed the wire through the bottom --- reused the red bulb holder. I'm not going to do it again as this one is new. I figured the wire would be visible form the trunk when I removed the rear trunk/gas tank cover .. nope. Looks like there may be a false bottom on the passenger side as I can't see the bolts coming through for the child seat mounts ... but, I can see the subwoofer on the driver side.

Nothing is every easy ...

 

This post was what helped me as I did it:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ar-seat-56129/

The short version, was remove the rear seat kick boards to access the lower seat bolts, in turn removing the lower part of the rear seat. Then I think there were a couple for the seat back to remove that (which has quite a yank needed to pull the clips free) and the anchors on the shelf. Some people prefer to take the C-pillars out so the panel won't have to be bent at all, but it is possible to get it in and out without causing damage but it's a lot of fiddling to do so.

 

I just did it to install the parcel shelf sun-blind couple of weeks ago.
It is pretty straight forward, as described in the above link.

- However, really take your time to remove the small plastic escutcheons, otherwise you will break them.
They need to slide straight up after un-clipping each front side (small screwdriver works fine).

- I did not remove the headrests, and I don't think it is necessary.

- To remove the back cushion, you will need to lift it up sufficiently (after unblting the bottom), then you can tilt it forward.
At that point, I removed all 3 safety belts + tensioners.
It is 5 minutes more work, but leaves you with much more space to handle the shelf.

The shelf itself came out pretty easy after removing the 2 little plastic clips, just a good tug forward.

 

-remove kick panels
-remove 1 torx screw on each side to allow for removing the rear bench bottom
-4 phillips underneath the backrest holding it in place
-remove those plastic seatbelt guides carefully, like charlzo said they break easy and often
-slam headrests
-lift backrest UP then you can pull it out once the top has cleared its lip
-2 plastic push pins, pry those out
-carefully flex the panel upwards in the middle to clear seatbelt tensioners, sound deadening, and subwoofer while pulling away from rear window - careful around C-pillars. Some people have more clearance but mine is a very tight fit

I've done it a bunch of times by now and it's mostly easy, getting the panel itself out is the worst part. Pulling the C-pillar trim seems like it'd be more effort than it saves though...