I rigged up the rings so that they can be removed, I can replace the black rings in 5 minutes. I could try white but I think I'll wait until I have something else white to paint (the smallest quantity I can buy is a whole quart... at 85 bucks!!! Catalyzed paint is outrageously expensive).

Lots of attachment points, you just need to find them.
For the front bumper, you need to peel the wheel well lining to access the six 10mm nuts (three each side) inside the fender.


Then remove the corner grills to access the long bolts on each side.

...and finally, bumper attachment to guide piece...


Here is a summary of all the front bumper attachment points (circled in the pic).

For the rear bumper, you have to remove the black bumper trim (2 nuts).

Make sure you disconnect the light before taking it off.

Then you need to peel the trunk liner.

And then you can access the 10mm nuts inside the fender on each side.

Last step before removal is to unscrew the underside of the bumper (easily seen by lying down under the rear bumper).


For the side lowers, remove the trim strip on the top side and you will see a bunch of torx screws all along the running board.

There also some torx screws underneath the running boards, and look for some more in the rear and front wheel wells (alsoin the carpet-like noise insulation).



The easiest one is the doorblade, just 2 screws per doorblade on the inside of the door.

Hope this helps!

 

Anyone have a ball park figure on how much it would cost to have it done................ THANKS!

 

I would not paint the rings white...leave as is.

 

I just talked to a good body shop that my VW dealer takes thier cars too. It was going to be about $1200

 

That sounds just about right. I don't know how much time the body shops spend in preperation (I can't blame them, their goal is production), but the prep part took me almostas long as the actual painting. Like you can see in the link I posted, painting plastic is a lot more complicated than painting metal. I repainted my license plate frames and wiper arms in DuPont jet black basecoat a few weeks ago and painting metal is so much more straightforward (primer, basecoat, clearcoat).

 

x1, I don't think your FMIC is big enough! Hella good job on the lowers, looks really good. Just goes to show that you don't need to spend the $1200 and you can do it yourself!

 

Thank you very much for the compliment. My car now has 100k miles so I am not afraid to experiment with it. Painting the lowers cost me about 800 bucks in supplies but I have enough reducer, primer, activator, flex agent, etc... to paint 10 cars!!! (all I need is different color basecoat). I figured that no body shop would spend the time I did in preperation (not to say that they are not good but their goal is production) and it gave me an excuse to setup a paint booth in my garage!

The FMIC took me about 20 hrs to process. I wasn't happy with the stock finish, the cast marks were huge. I sanded, polished and buffed it for a while and turned it from this:

to this:

 

Niiiiiiice work!

 

Hey, so Im actually having a lot of trouble finding my color match. Turns out my silver 1999 color is different from even the 2000 or 2001 silvers, or at least the name was changed.

Mine is LY7M "Aluminum Silver Metallic" whereas the 2000/2001 is LY7W "Light Silver Metallic"

Anyone have any good websites for ordering spray paint??? Or do you think Light silver metallic will look the same?

 

very nice work, but for 800$ in supplies and the labor, id rather pay the 1200$... looks really good though