Plastic Bumper: Need carrier off to remove trim, need trim off to remove carrier

[BaltimoreBimmer]

Picked up a set of plastic bumpers recently. I am trying to remove the carrier and trim off of the bumper so I can have it painted, but I am running into issues....

The 3 13mm nuts that hold the carrier onto the inside of the bumper... well they will just spin in place unless you have a T-40 torx to hold the bolt from the other side.

Here's the kicker.... the trim has to be off to do this. Well, in every thread I have read, people say you will break the clips on the trim it you try and remove it from the front. I have managed to get most of the side trim clips off because there are slots on the inside that allow you to de tension the clips and push them out with a screw driver. This only works on the sides as the carrier covers all of the ones for the front.

I have gotten almost all the clips off but if I apply any more force, they will snap. Only 1 of the 3 torx bolts is exposed for me to remove. The other 2 seem to be under neat another piece of plastic trim that is bolted down with push-to-spread style pins. and I cannot remove that piece until the trim is off. and I cant remove the trim until the carrier from the inside is off. And I cant remove the carrier unless the trim is off. So what gives. How the hell am I supposed to remove this?


any tips?

edit: The bolt and nut I can't access are parts 9 and 30: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=51_0646

[NYCDelphin]

:popcorn:

[AudioNToxication]

did you remove 13?
you need to do that to get the whole bumper off the car.
once you do that things should be much easier.

[The Real e30]

Ran into the same problem as well. If you have the bumper off the car I think its possible to remove the outside trim even with the carrier on. There should be holes in the carrier for each of the corresponding trim clips. The holes in the carrier are small and hard to deal with but once you get a screwdriver in there you should be able to get the trim clips out. Atleast thats how I did it if I recall correctly.

[AndrewBird]

To remove the trim, just slide a putty knife in between the trim and the bumper top and bottom while pulling on it. The putty knife will push in the tabs that hold the trim on and release it.