cladding removal?

[zadam123]

Does anyone know if it is easy to remove the cladding. I would like to replace my front and rear bumper and front wheel well and rear quarter pannel, due to a recent accident. Anyone know if it is just taking out the screws or is it more complicated than that? any step-by-step guides out there? I would like to try myself since bodyshop wants to charge me about $80 for each one installed and then he also is charging me about $ 40 more for each peice of cladding than the price i can get.

Please help


adam

[Moncha]

The cladding pieces are held in place with the "Torx" screws as well as double faced tape, some have a couple pop rivets (eg. rear quater panels). They are not very hard to remove and or install.. The labor costs you were quoted are a litttle steep.

[TimG]

Front Piece:
You will need to remove the grill first (the piece with the fangs on it) There are 4 bolts on top of it pointed towards the ground (can't miss them with the hood open), and 3 screws pointed toward the back of the vehicle. The screws connect the grill to the cladding. Sitting down in front of the vehicle, there is one on the right and two on the left. They are inside the grill itself, not on the edges or anything.

After removing the grill, remove all the torx screws from the front piece of cladding except the two that are closest to the grill, they are just for looks.
There is one bolt on each side in the front fender holding the front piece on. Sitting beside your front tire looking toward the front of the vehicle, it is the one on the bottom.
There are also two hidden bolts. There is one behind each turn signal (The orange light in the front cladding). Remove the turn signals (two screws holding each one on) and disconnect the wires from the turn signal. There is a plastic piece that you have to push down on to remove the wires from the turn signals. After removing the turn signals, you should be able to see the bolts. They are a real pain to put back in, and I know several people (myself included) that don't bother to put them back in because it's such a hassle.

There may be two more bolts on top, I can't remember. If there are, they are pretty obvious, so you shouldn'at have a problem finding them. All bolts are 10 millimeter.

Front Fender:
I don't really remember this one that well (I've only done it once, but I've done the front bumper 5 or 6 times)
Remove all the torx screws. You are going to have to drill out some of the rivets inside the fender. Basically you just remove all the bolts and screws holding it on. They are all in obvious places. The confusing part about this one to me was the fact that it was held on with double sided tape, and that stuff is STRONG. I kept thinking that there had to be more bolts or something, but it was just the double sided tape holding it on.

Rear Bumper:
Didn't you do this when you got Tone's hitch? What, you haven't gotten Tone's hitch! What's wroing with you?
Remove all the obvious bolts & screws. You may have to open the back door to get to some of them. After you've done that. It still isn't going to come off.
There are two torx screws on each side that are hidden behind the rear quarterpanel plastic. You will need to remove the screws and bolts at the back of the side piece so that you can pull it out far enough to get a rachet with a torx head bit in there. I usually have someone pulling out on the plastic while I'm unscrewing the screws with the rachet. Note, you do NOT have to drill any rivets to do this. There is this piece (I wish I knew what to call it) that snaps into place on the rear side piece, so you have to pull hard to get it loose. After that, just have someone hold it out and you can see the screws.

Rear Side Plastic:
I've never done this, but I imagine it's similar to the front piece with lots of double sided tape holding it on.

Feel free to correct me if I left anything out.

[zadam123]

thanks, Just one question now, Im not to familiar with rivits? Can you tell me what they look like and whats how would i drill them out.

[Moncha]

Originally posted by zadam123
Im not to familiar with rivits? Can you tell me what they look like and whats how would i drill them out.

They are the little silver discs that are on the upper part of the wheel well. The ones with small holes in them. To drill them you need to select a bit that is just a little larger than the center hole, then drill away. You don't want to go to big on the bit though to keep from damaging the original holes in the material that is riveted...

[Cobrajet]

I just had the pleasure of replacing my front cladding ($349 from Merlin at St. Charles Isuzu.) I followed the above procedures and had it off in about fifteen minutes. Installation took a little longer since I had to attempt to straighten the center bracket. I wasn't able to get it return to its original shape, so the two center bolts behind the license plate were left off. The bumper bar is also tweaked a little. Should I bother to replace it?

Replacing the two bolts behind the turn signals was easy using this little trick – I placed a couple tiny nuts inside the socket to keep the cladding bolt from backing into the socket. This allowed me to apply enough pressure on the bolt to get it started. You definitely don't want to use a deep socket.

What was the hardest part of the whole job? Actually, it should have been the easiest -- replacing the rear license plate!! Yeah, Murphy's Law applied itself as I tried to remove the LAST BOLT holding the rear license plate on. It snapped off! No biggee, I have a brand new set if Craftsman bolt extractors. Yeah, right! Has anybody every gotten a bolt out with one of those? So I spent the next hour or more drilling and redrilling until I got the hole big enough to tap a set of 1/4-20 threads. Why is it always the little things??

I hate Murphy!