Removing mud flaps and front and rear brake cooling vents...?

[Johnold]

i think i may know how to remove all of the mud flaps and the REAR brake cooling vent peices but i wanna know how to Remove the FRONT brake cooling vent peices. ANYONE KNOW HOW TO REMOVE THE FRONT BRAKE COOLING VENTS?.

[Nomar06]

I think it has one or two clips and the one blot right in front of it. When you take out the bolt you can wiggle the flat around to find the other clips.

[Johnold]

man,...it's hard for me to think and imagine what you're talking about without pictures. today i was messing around under there cause i took off my mudflaps and REAR brake cooling vents. but everything was fine and came right off except for those DAMN FRONT brake cooling vents!. i seen the bolt in the corner of them so i was like "ok, this will be just as easy" i took off that 1 bolt in the corner and then,.....nothing happend . i looked at it more carefully and realized it had 2 METAL black clips (they looked like black flat head screw type clips) on the cooling vent things and they are holding that sucker on there and i didn't wanna force them off or pull down at the vents too hard cause i didn't wanna break anything. so i put the screw bolts back in and left them on....for now. i'm still wanting to take them off. i just don't know how to take them off cause i can't see if those little metal clips i'm talking about are screwed in or bolted on there. you can't see ANYTHING!. i don't know how they're bolted on there to understand how to take them off. i'm HOPING TO GOD someone has the tricks on how without doing TOO MUCH. you know?

[ImTheVoiceOfGod]

I say Dremel if you cant get the clips

[Nomar06]

Why do you want to take them off? You cant see them unless your laying on the ground.

[Johnold]

I dunno why. I can see them though and i thought that it wouldn't hurt any. i'd like to have a clear and cleaner view from the front of my Si with those gone. i know that you can hardly see them but i can see them IMO and i just wanna see what the front would look like if those were to be removed. i think they're useless. and as far as them lasting,...well i don't think they'll last long. if you end up hitting something on the road and those vents catch that object!?,...you're F'ed!. cause that plastic vent peice will catch onto whatever you JUST ran over and it'll take out all that underbody plastic I.E - splash guards and all. i just need to find a way to get them off. there's gotta be something i missed or something i can't figure out.

[Johnold]

have any of you even ever removed your MUD FLAPS atleast?. how did that go?

[Johnold]

take a look at the "clip" i'm talking about here in this picture





that smoother more flatter flat headed screw clip thing thats next to the bolt at the corner. there's 2 of these clips but i was only able to take a picture of that one from that angle. but atleast now you guys know what i'm talking about.

[NIGHTHAWKSI]

it looks like some sort of plastic rivet...if that is correct you would hace to drill it out.

[Johnold]

yeah thats what i believe i wanted to call it. a "rivet". it's METAL not PLASTIC.... .....looks like i need to do something of that nature and maybe "drill" it. i REALLY hope not.

[07Sin4Door]

Drilling out a rivet is easy..If you want some practice..go buy a "hotwheel" open it and drill out the rivet and take the whole body off. Its that simple..just find a drill bit that fits the smaller part on the INSIDE of the larger round metel peice..drill that a bit and the LARGER part will fall right off..then slid the rivet up.or down..either way...up should be easier..but this is easy..and like I said if your scared get a HOTWHEEL for a buck and practice lol..I let my son do this at 6 years old..this method of practice..so if he can do it.so can anyone

[Ryd1ZZ]

You can get a tool that takes those rivet like connectors off very easily. My friend works at a Ford dealership and when we installed my CAI he whipped out this niffty tool and they came off no sweat.

[Johnold]

maybe, i hope so. i'll have to jack up the car so i could get a really good look under there. i need all the room i can get cause when i took off the rear brake cooling vents and a 4 of the mud flaps, i didn't jack the car up cause everything was EASY and came off with no problems. i had slightly a difficult time a little bit cause i didn't have the right type of screw drivers and stuff. i had those little tiny screw drivers with the little handles and it was kinda hard to get them into the screw grooves and not hit the tires cause they were in the way. but everything came off . now as far as those FRONT BRAKE COOLING VENTS go, thats another story cause they're locked in place by those "RIVETS". all the other things i took off didn't have those on them and now i guess i need a special tool to take them off. i don't just wanna pull at it and possibly break them off and destroy other things in the process. so now when you look underneath my Si, all you see left are those FRONT BCV's. everything else is off and clean as hell! . i like my car with everything out from underneath. I REALLY have to get those remaining front BCV's off to complete the cars look.

[Nomar06]

I looked at the car today from the side and yes you can see them, my bad. lol

Start with a small drill bit first then work your way up. Shouldnt mees up anything else. There is just open space on the other side. I think the wioer fluid bottle is up there but too far up to hit it with the drill.

[Johnold]

you see Nomar06?. they just look dumb!. (IMO) i don't think that there should be anything underneath the car except for the rubber strip that runs across the front bumper (under spoiler) is what i believe they call it. when i bought my Si, i told those A-holes that i didn't want ANYTHING on it!. TOTALLY CLEAN i told them and they said "we'll throw all those extra's in for FREE". i don't think they understood me. i didn't care about getting shit for free. i just didn't want the PIN STRIPES, SUNROOF VISOR, MUDFLAPS, AND I KNOW THEY COULDN'T DO MUCH ABOUT THE BRAKE COOLING VENTS (ATLEAST THATS WHAT I THINK) BUT I JUST WANTED EVERYTHING OFF.

To me, those little brake cooling vent things just look like something thats broken underneath the car. like it cought up on something while driving. you know what i mean?. sometimes you'll see people with something broken underneath their cars as if they ran over something or something just got cought up under there.....looks goofy.

I have a BRAND NEW Craftsman drill that i've never really used. i'll have to FINALLY use it. but before i go off drilling shit, i'll have to make sure that there's no other way of getting those off. i work at a harley davidson dealership and i'm betting that atleast 1 of the tech's there has something to take those off. i believe they ARE rivets, and i've seen the rivet tool in the shop before. I THINK IT'S GO TIME.

OH, and Nomar06, i seen what you've done with your mudflaps and painted them TW....NICE. but aren't you afraid that in time the MF's will ruin your paint?. thats probably the MAIN reason why i took mines off. you know that in time with those things on your car and you hitting holes and bumps and whatnot, that your MF's will start shifting and moving around slightly and start scratching the HELL outa your paint. THANK GOD i didn't notice anything bad after i removed my MF's the other day. things are .