does anyone have any tricks to remove the hood trim piece?

i can't seem to get the clip out from the middle part of the trim

 

Hood trim? as in the black felt on the underside of the hood?

honestly, I pulled lightly on all the clips and they came right out.

 

hood trim is the plastic grey piece that sits infront of the hood.

there's 4 screws and 1 clip where you reach in through a drain hole.

 

Snap a picture of it.

 

I know of no other way then to just break the middle clip. Once it's off you will see that that was about the only option.

Sucks but it serves no real purpose anyways.

 

I believe I ended up breaking mine. It's more of a sliding clip, than just a straight push clip, so just pull on it, it will break the clip, but since there are 4 bolts holding it in, it doesn't effect it.

 

thanks, yeah, i don't see a purpose of the clip in the middle...

Another question,

do i need to take the bumper off to take the front grille part off? i'm painting it metalic black to go with my AM.

 

No no no no no no no no no, dont break it, go into the garage and find my how to on how to do this, i pryed and it side to side will it popped, now its easy to take on and off, dont break it.

 

so you're saying i need to rotate the clip and push it from the sides rather than push it up? the hole is really small to be working from.

 

I still dont know what a hood trim is??

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/how-remove-hood-grill-trim-pics-764481/

yeah, i don't think i want to grab the trim and "grip and rip" it out.

 

Breaking the middle push clip will NOT harm anything. Don't just rip it out though.

The 4 studs/nuts securely fasten the trim piece to the hood.

 

i ended up breaking the clip. probably the most wierdest clipping i've ever seen. We stuck a screw driver in there and broke it off. The trim came out nicely.

 

Yes. I had my bumper off for another mod, and while I was at it I did my grille. There are many screws, maybe 12?, that in total keep the grille together. I DOUBT they can be reached any other way, or if it's even possible to take the grille out if you were able to unscrew them all.

Taking off the bumper is a breeze though.