I want to remove the brake ducts from the front bumper and get them painted. How difficult is it to remove them. Seems like they may just pop out. Can any one tell me how to get them out?
Thanks guys.

 

It's not that difficult, but you do have to take the bumper off.

 

What color you going?

 

Going red to match the roof and mirrors. That is when I get around to taking the bumper off, since apparently that's what needs to be done.

 

You going wait until you have another need before removing that? FMIC?

 

So did you ever get this done? I've been mulling over doing the same thing and was hoping for an easy route to pulling that front piece of the duct off. If it ends up being to involved I'll just mask it and go.

 

Not yet, bumper has to come off. Have vacation coming up so put it on the back burner for now. But was thinking about it again today coincidently. So in a couple months it will be done. Let me know what you end up doing. Noticed today the new JCW GP has them as well.

 

The bumper is really quite easy to pull off now that I've done it a couple of times. Worst part is breaking all of those fasteners on the fenders. You dont have to take the fenders off but it's safer to.

 

I was able to take mine off without removing the bumper .you have to go easy though or you could break one of the tabs.
I did them in chili red to match the rest

 

i want to remove mine for painting also

are the tabs to the front of the car or back or both?

scott

 

I'd like to know this as well! I can see that the initial part of the duct (that you see) looks to be a seperate part but it's hard to tell where the tabs are.

 

Yes seeing the GP is what reminded me that I had wanted to do it at one time. I've got so many mods in my head I never can decide which to do next. This one, overall, is inexpensive which is right up my alley at the moment. My wallet is anorexic.

 

Ha, I just told the Mrs. I wanted to do this too...me and "tabs" uh not so much.

If there's a tab to break, I'll break it

 

There are 3 tabs on the curved part.if you put something to protect the surrounding plastic from gouging it then you can carefully pry the tabs. Once the curved part comes loose you should be able to gently pop outthe other side. Note: I had to paint them twice. The first time i painted them and sprayed clear coat on them but ended up with a lot of rock chips.Second time i painted them j tried something different. I went to home depot and got a can of spray eurothane.sprayed half dozen coats .looks nice and holding up good so far.

 

Mymojomini

Thanks for the help. Just to be sure I understand here is the piece I'm talking about (which, by your pic, I assume is what your talking about).



By "curved part" you mean the area on the right of the pic correct? Are the tabs on the lip of the piece are further back? ie. will I need to pry at the lip or do I need to get way back behind it.

Sorry for the hassle/confusion. I'm being lazy, lol, and also trying to avoid snapping any tabs. I've been lucky to this day in avoiding that in all the parts I've removed. Don't wanna start now.

Edit to add: Mine is a 2012 and slightly different front end aero than yours. I'm gonna go with the idea that they havent changed the way they mount the duct kit too much. We'll see.

thanks again

 

Mine is a 2011 Clubman S. Yes that is the correct part. tabs are on the right side. 3 of them.
Just behind the lip,carefully pry on top middle and bottom or right side to remove.Make sure to put something hard behind what your prying with. I used a credit card. Good luck !

 

Just fyi... almost any spray paint on the front of the car will eventually chip. I've tried this on many front grills in the past, with many different methods and different types of paint (enamels, acrylics, etc). The one that lasted the longest was primer, 6 light base coats, and 6 coats of clear. However, even this over time (6 months) started getting chips. Once a rock is able to chip it past the clear, the wind, in combination with rain and dirt overtime getes under the layers and eventually it starts coming off in chunks.

The only thing I've seen work thats actually lasted years is plastidip, and professional painting.

Not trying to tell people not to do it, but, just warning you since you have to take off the bumper to get to them, it may be worth it to do it once and do it right.

I have a pre-11 and have the JCW brake ducts with exposed FMIC, so the ducts come off without the bumper coming off, but I have left them stock anyways.

 

I wanted to use 3m clear film but they could not do it because of the shape
That probably would have worked good

 

when i bought my 1997 GMC Sonoma P/U, i ordered the SLS trim because EVERYTHING was "body color", (black of course),

everything EXCEPT THE FRONT LICENSE PLATE MOUNT!

all 1997 plate mounts were light gray .... for years it bugged me, a couple different GM forums all said no paint would stay on long so i lived with it, but it annoyed me every time i looked at it

about 8 years ago, in Menards h/w store, i saw the then new spray paint for plastic, that boldly proclaimed

"no priming, this paint "bonds to the plastic" for permanent coverage".

i sceptically bought a can, followed the directions and ...

8 years and about 180,000 miles on, not a chip, no peeling or fading ...

i live in the north chicago burbs, work in se wisconsin, about an 80 mile daily R/T in winter salt and summer construction (seems to be the only seasons we have)

i am going to use the same paint on the brake ducts

there are now several brands of plastic paint, i have used them all, can see no difference between them, other than color choice varies by brand, so buy a can of whichever brand has the color you want, follow the directions and enjoy

the only time i have seen this paint fail, is not getting wax/silicon plastic treatments completely off the surface, and now i have noticed they have a "surface prep/primer" available tho i have not used it myself

a good wash, followed by alcohol as the directions state is all i have done

scott

 

Plastidip them with the red spray. If you don't end up liking it, peel it off.

 

I took a stab at it today but it was late so I didn't get much time to work on it. Honestly, I had no luck. I could pry on the (straight/flat) side and managed to see a few small tabs that came away from the grill easily. The curved side however was a different story and of course thats the part you said to tackle. If I pried far enough I could somewhat see what I think are the tabs your talking about but I can't tell which way to pry so they let loose of the outer edge of the lower grill rim. With that uncertainty I wasn't willing to keep digging away at it. Bummer!

When prying at the curved area with the 3 tabs you mention should I pry toward the center of the duct? That seems the most logical but I just couldn't see enough to tell if I was heading in the right direction. Thanks again for your help.

 

the tabs snap into a rectangular hole.the hook part of the tab faces out so when prying push inward gently

 

i got a brake duct off of my CMS All4 last night

there are 6 tabs, 2 ea on top/bottom, about equally spaced across and 1 each on right/left centered vertically

used my drivers license (thinner than a credit card) as a tool

now off to the hardware store with my white mirror cap to color match some plastic paint

scott

 

Exactly what I needed to know, Thanks!

 

bump- Anymore advice on this? Trying to remove the ducts on my 2012 and they don't want to budge at all. I have plastic removal tools but I am not seeing it want to come out in any way. Can I remove the entire grill instead?