I guess when it's 20 below, I'll drive into an icy snow bank this winter and pull out really fast I'll get the same result. After that I'll get a skid plat installed.

 

I'll be honest, this is what I expected to see when I opened the post. But only because that's how I (unintentionally) removed the air dam on my Jeep Grand Cherokee when I had that.


I just dedicated an hour to take the air dam off correctly on my Collie.

 

Yes and rip the entire bumper off !!

 

i dont see how this is " the easy way" unless you cut the thing off its the only way to get to all the bolts

 

This is the same way I did mine and it took about 45 minutes. the torx bit in a short socket make it pretty easy

 

Some of us tend to prefer to take the least destructive manner to work on things. About the only time I resort to destructive techniques to disassemble an item I plan on keeping, like my truck, is to drill out rivets.

Patience is a virtue that we all seem to be short of these days.

 

Patience , oh ya I remember that. Perfect .

 

YAY !!!!!! ANOTHER AIR DAM THREAD !!!:shock:

 

Meh...to be expected. Go to chevy.com and they show a Camaro and Colorado next to each other as car/truck of the year. The Camaro has a better approach angle/clearance than the 'truck'....

 

the easy way was a zip disk, no one would ever put it back on once removed

 

I drove my truck up on my ramps and did it similar to OP. I loosened the screws holding part of the wheel liners and from there I was able to access the side mounts of the air dam. The middle ones are fairly easy, although two of them are behind something. I don't remember exactly. But overall with some patience you can get it.

 

Lifting? An hour? WTF trucks are you guys getting? It took me 20 minutes with a ratcheting offset screwdriver, with the truck sitting on the ground... I had to remove 4 screws to lower the mounting piece to get access to a couple screws, and that was the only "difficult" part. Then I spent about 2.5 minutes reversing the nut clips so if I ever want to put the air dam back on, it'll be 2 minutes with a drill.

 

Photos and a step-by-step would be greatly appreciated, especially a photo of the "mounting piece".

 

If I ever get a couple of hours of time on a weekend where I can do this, I think I am going to remove it, flip the clips, and remount, just so I can see what all this fuss is about.

 

I'll second that. I'll just try it BEFORE I trim it, a tad.:wink2:

 

Removing it was a pain in the derrière and no way in heck will I re-install it.

 

If I flip the clips, I should be able to make it a simple job.

My driving is 99% highway/city. Would be nice if I think I am going to go offroad to remove it. Typically if I am going to an environment that might be a bit out of the way, I will be carrying tools to do a removal, but spending an hour crawling under my truck on a dusty or muddy road to remove is not my idea of fun.

 

Sorry to hear about your wifes diagnosis.

 

Easy removal

I took mine off as soon as I realized a small curb could take it out. I did it in about 45 minutes with just two pairs of pliers and zero damage.

 

I took mine off as soon as I realized a small curb could take it out. I did it in about 45 minutes with just two pairs of pliers and zero damage.

Less than 30 minutes here with a pair of those tiny vise grips and a skinny hemostat roach clip. I tried the #15 torx small bit in a ratchet wrench and it was only successful for the several couple screws in the middle. So since the tip of the screws do not have threads I could clamp straight onto the tip of each screw with the tiny vise grips. I could turn the screws in all the way in until I ran out of screw to hold with the vise grip. Now the roach clips will fit between the air dam & loose bumper to grab and rotate the screw about a 3rd of a turn each time a few times till the screw is out. Do the vise grip procedure 1st to all screws then go back and do the roach clip procedure while the air dam is hanging loose. Do the center screw last so the thing hangs even till the last screw is out. TA-DA

 

Two pairs of pliers lol?
Wow.

 

^^Could you take a pic of a vise grip and roach clips, I'm sure I have then but I'm oblivious. Thanks, your method seems perfect. Also how many total screws did you unscrew?

 

If you aren't sure what vice grips are, not sure you are qualified to remove your air dam.:grin2:

Needle nose vice grips - I love the pair of these i have, don't use often, but invaluable when you need them.

10 Ways To Lighten Your Motorcycle Tool Roll - Page 11 of 11 - ADV Pulse

Regular vice grips

Robot Check


Roach clips, old school we called them alligator clips

Robot Check

Interestingly, when I looked up Alligator Clips, I also got links to roach clip (expected that, I will let the readers search for roach clip & urban dictionary for the history of this, I was always worried some over zealous cop would bust me for the stash of alligator clips I kept for electrical projects) and to CROCODILE CLIPS. Have to assume the croc reference is an Aussie thing.

 

Haha I know I know. I can work on human bodies not car bodies, but I'm learning. Thanks for the help, hopefully I can get the air dam off in less than 2 hours and without having to take my anger out on my barbell

 

Get mad:
Use the barbell combined with anger and wack the air dam...it will fall off. Problem solved.

 

Once the airdam is removed, can a tow strap be attached that will not cause damage? I don't have tow hooks ,but may need pulling out of a mud hole someday.

 

Haha that I could do

 

Thanks for the write-up Bill. One thing that may not be obvious to some is that you will need to reinstall the waffle pattern plastic pieces after you remove the dam with the 6 torx bolts and 1 7mm bolt for each side. Additionally, there's a couple of torx bolts on each side near where the tow hooks are; you will also need to temporarily remove those 4 (two on each side) bolts so you can pull the dam down far enough to get your ratchet in around the tow hook area. Reinstall those 4 after dam is removed.

 

I did this project to my new canyon tonight and I've read that the air dam has 13 screws, but mine only had 11. There were 2 blanks on it which would be the 4th hole in on each side. Also, around the same area there was a screw on each side facing down that holds the bumper on. When I removed the air dam I had to take those 2 screws out and flip the clip from the bumper up to the black plastic underneath the bumper and reinstall the screw up through so I didn't have a screw sticking out on each side. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere unless I missed it. Oh and it took me about 1.5 hours in my cramped garage with hardly any room and I left the truck on the ground. It was still a pain in the ass and I'm glad it's done.

 

I finally took mine off a couple days ago. I wasn't committed until I went to a store and got hung up on a dann curb...

I used this guy's technique and even purchased the micro ratchet he recommended.

Air Dam Removal[/ame]

Took me about a half an hour, maybe 45 mins. This was the best instructional in my opinion... Not quite sure what made me wait, but, so glad I finally did it.

 

Took me longer to gather up the tools to do it than doing it, i masked a line from side to side then cut it with a cut off wheel on my grinder. I left maybe 2 inches on the ends and under a inch in the middle section can't remember but I had no intentions of needing to save it.

 

That actually looks really good like that. It looks like there's just a small piece on each side to make the whole bumper look even. Is the bottom edge super sharp now?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

Not sharp at all, the cutoff wheel will slightly melt the plastic and leave a little stuble that I just used a rasp to go over the edge to smooth it out.

 

Has anyone been successful at selling the removed air dam to a junk yard?.... if so how much did you get!

 

Premo;3880105]Not sharp at all, the cutoff wheel will slightly melt the plastic and leave a little stuble that I just used a rasp to go over the edge to smooth it out.[[/B]/QUOTE]

Premo -- thanks! That looks really fantastic. If you don't mind, what cutting wheel did you use in your grinder? I have an old DeWalt hand-held that I think uses 4" discs. Never cut with it though, so I'm not sure what type of disc is best for the air dam? Many Thanks! (PS - I'm guessing some decent masking tape would be good enough to ensure the cutting line is accurate and symmetric?)