So I just purchased a 2004 heavy modified RX8 about a week ago, so far (knock on wood) it has run like a champ bu there are some things I definitely want to get taken care of , on of the main tings that is bugging the heck out of me is the vents/louvers/gratings etc whatever you would like to call them, I assume they are supposed to be black, however silverish white is what I am really dealing with, currently the car is black with gold rims, in the long run I would like to remove the gloss, and run flat black rims, along with flat black paint with the slightest bit of red acent and I wish there was a was to make the glass flat as well, making the car truly have no reflection at all, that however is in the long run, short term just trying to make it look right. Step 1 is getting rig of that silverish whitish vent behind the front wheel.

Now for the real question

how does one remove those vent things so I can clean, refinish then paint them

Just so you are guessing what I am talking aboiut

http://imageshack.us/a/img211/5773/imag0447y.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img696/5664/imag0445u.jpg (this is the one focused on the item in question)
http://imageshack.us/a/img94/283/imag0444w.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img811/6544/imag0443jp.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img28/3443/imag0442s.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img812/9917/imag0441o.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img812/9917/imag0441o.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img694/1261/imag0440i.jpg

 

Wrong forum.

You have to get at them from the wheel well, remove the fender liner. Or just break them out and get RFX ones like mine:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/8133310034/

 

just out of curiosity, what would be the correct forum

 

Yeah, remove at least the back portion of the wheel well liner, then you can reach in there. Feel along both long sides of the vents(on the inside) and you should be able to feel where they sort of csnap in. Just press on the little snasp with you finger towards the center of the vent while lightly pushing outward. Once you feel one of them and get it, your golden. Think there is either 2 or 3 on a side.
If you can feel one on each side of the vent directly across from each other, just squeeze towrds each other while lightly pushing outward.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/do-yourself-...-forum-163653/

Just the general tech section would be fine. Also use the search function, both the basic and advanced, this has been covered before.

 

I moved it to tech. If you are going to post pictures, resize them down. Don't post them so big in the first place. Nothing to do with 56k, everything to do with being twice the width of a 1600 pixel width monitor screen, which is still wider than you should be expecting.


9k might not notice on his 90" TV he uses, but the rest of us have issues finding buttons that get resized along with the screen.

 

Attaching picture that might help; you can see the 6 clips.

For painting, not sure what kind of success you'll have "refinishing". Might be ok if the existing paint has a good bond. The vents themselves aren't very expensive. I got a pair when I painted mine, in case things went badly.

To paint, I did the following and never had any problems with the paint in several years that I had the car

- scrub with nylon brush, warm water and Dawn dishwashing liquid, rinse thoroughly, final rinse with distilled water, dry thoroughly

- apply primer coat of Krylon Fusion for plastic adhesion

- Color coat from PaintScratch.com, got the bumper paint with plasticizer for flexibility.

- clear coat also from Paintscratch. I imagine they have a matte version?


https://www.rx8club.com/exterior-app...w-vents-63884/

 

Read above.