secondshot

Ok, I ordered the Rennline bumper grill covers for the side and center areas -- thinking i would have the bumber off to repaint the bumper underneath area at some point and it would be "easy" to do. It took me a while to get to the project. I was bored so i jumped in yesterday. I researched and read several DIY threads and I can say, it was a bitch. Now, i have never taken the engine apart, and never will, but seven times yesterday my wife was saying, "shouldn't you be having a professional do that?" There were several times i was thinking the same thing.

My car is a fairly low mileage car and i had a pretty good number of dings in the radiators...so i was glad i did it in the end.

Observations:

1) Getting bumper off requires a couple of tricks...and once you figure them out, it would go a lot faster the second time.
2) It was a slow process to get everything disconnected and screws out. Kudos to the guys that first figured it all out. (the screw behind the sidemarker is a good example).
3) For my car, i have the center grill diffuser that redirects airflow to the two radiators...getting this piece off and apart to install the Rennline grill cover took a long patient time to get it apart. Once it was apart, which I am unsure if i could figure it out again, it went fast.

So, HERE IS THE OPINION QUESTION: In the picture, do you like the silver, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, what do you think about the black vertical pieces in each side opening. My son likes them, but if i am going to remove them, now is the time. What do you guys think? See below:





BEFORE PIC

AFTER- Do you like the Silver and more importantly are the black support pieces unattractive and should be removed?





AFTER PIC

DB's997

looks great!
loose the black strips

gr1275

Very nice...I would suggest painting the verticals to match the screens. Could you take a minute to share the "tricks" you learned taking off the cover?

Gary

997_Toronto

Looks great.

Safety note: Put your front wheels under the chassis of the car behind the stands, in case the stands fail, you have a backup and the car won't slam down to the ground.

secondshot

Sure Gary...there a couple of really good posts that explain the basics. You will find them here:
http://www.renntrack.com/forums/show...Bumper-Removal

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-gt2-...r-removal.html

Keys for me:
0) Disconnected Battery - neg terminal and propped open frunk
1) The screws behind the sidemarkers are a great find and a key to getting the bumper off
2) I did remove the wheels as you can see and that made getting access to the electrical connections behind the well liner easier after removing wheel well liners completely. If I had to do it again, I don't know that i would need to do that...since in know how the connections work now.
2a) Drivers side wheel well houses the supply line for the headlight washers. It is easy to remove the blue clip that releases both hoses. I didn't have a good grip on it and it shot up into the cavity. My son then suggested removing the headlights because it looked like the right angle of deflection. Sure enough, it was sitting up under the light. I suggest being careful not to let that happen. Once the clip is off, the top slides up and off and the bottom hose slides straight back out of the fitting -pull directly back towards rear of car and it will slide out.
3) The screw at 12 oclock inside wheel well next to sidemarker was also a great find. It is straight up and connects inner fender to bumper.
4) Having removed the headlights allowed me to see what was going on with the connector clip at the fender to bumper. The headlight removal was an interesting process but uneventful if you follow the instructions in the owners manual. You need to make the tool that is in the second post to remove the fender to bumper connection at the frunk opening. YOU NEED TO PULL REALLY HARD and remove them completely. I did this several times as i was OCD about installation of the screen.
5) Removal of the front center diffuser was an excersize in patience. The german engineers are ingenius on the fasteners ... everything "pops" in but you have to study the connector types to get the off/open.

I have some pictures and if i can get around to it tomorrow, i will post them up. What i have noticed now after removing the rear bumper for the exhaust refit and now the front bumper is that these cars are engineered very well-ingenius in some cases and are very logical. If you get stuck the best advice is to be patient and think like an engineer--which i am not so that was my personal challenge. Thanks to the internet, and the threads and manuals, you can figure it out.

One final note: When I went to start the car, I had a PSM failure on the dash. None of the lights on the Sport/Sport Plus would light either. I disconnected the battery and reconnected. No fix there. So, I took the car for a drive around the block and within 100yds it reset and all was good.