interior painting

I want to paint the plastic around the air vents and radio. How do I get them off to do so? They do come off right.

you have to take off dash, then take the clips off from behind. its easy to take off the dash, its just time consuming! very very hard to take off the clips though!

How do i take off the dash?

start with taking off the glove box, fuse cover, stereo console,speedo cover and speedo, steering wheel and all the parts in between steering wheel and dash!!! Do That And A Few Bolts And You Will Be All Set!! I'm Sure You Can Get By With Taking Only A Few Of Those Things I Listed Off But If You Do All That Your Job Will Be Much Easier!! Theres Also A Lot Of Wire's But Luckily Honda Color Coded Almost Everything, And The Wires That Arent Colored Coded, Either Will Only Fit, Or Reach To Certain Places!!! The Truth Is If YOu Only Plan On Painting The Vents I Say Its Not Worth It, I Would Do More Than Just The Vents!!! I Have Pics Of My Dash, And Its Not All Put Together (but is painted) So I Could Post Some If Anybodys Interested!!

umm, you do NOT need to take off the entire dash just to paint those pieces. You take off the screws that hold on the plastic shit around the radio, then use a screwdriver underneath to get the side vents out.

Then to get the middle vents out (by the clock) use a coat hanger which is bent a tad and shove it in behind and pull that out.

Hope this helps

If Thats What You Did MELT It Was Luck!!! YOu Need TO Take The Dash Apart TO Get To Them!!! TRUST ME, If You Want To Take The Chance TO Break The Vents Do It The Way MELT Said, But Keep In Mind If YOu Do Break, Scratch Them They Are Very Hard And Expensive TO REPLACE!

hope everything works out

You dont need to take out your dash...Ive removed hundreds of these vents and Ive never had to remove the dash...you just have to be carefull. All you need is a flat head screw driver with a fairly sharp tip. For the side vents gently pry them with the screw driver...a little on each side at a time, the bottom will pop out and then carefully pull them down and out. Sometimes the trim peice will seperate from the vent...just push it back in and try again...
The center vent is really easy, just pry it alittle on each side with the screw driver and it will pop right out.
Ive done this many times and never had a problem...why turn a 5 minute job into 2 hours by removing your dash?

i have had 3 4th gens now and never had to take the dash out to paint the vents... idcivic gave the exact same process that i would give u.. its simple to do... what ever u do... do not take ur dash out

i used to have a 4 door, and melt is right, you can pry them off.....BUT ONLY ON THE 4 DOOR, i tried it on my hatch and it just broke, they are very brittle and easy to break

Yea, i have had two 4th gens and i have taken out the dashvents on both of them without taking out the whole dash, just take it out with a screw driver and then reach in and take off the clips and then put the clips back on and pop it right back in. Just make sure you sand down the plastic on the vents so you dont get fisheye marks on them with the paint.

According to my exp (cause I just reassembled my dash) and to my helms manual, each of the vents has a metal spring clip on the sides towards the bottom. you need to squeeze the clips to get the vent out. The middle one I was able to put paperclips in and get it out, however the driverside one I had to remove from behind, the passenger one I had to break because it was sealed from behind. I broke the front ring off and then fixed it before putting it back in.

LOL... No dash removal is required hahaha... I got my vents out by prying them out with a flat-head screw-driver. Make sure to do this towards the bottom of the vent housings so as not to break them, and be gentle about it. If this doesn't seem to work, you can take a coat-hanger and make 2 hooks out of it. Then insert the hooks through the vent louvers, and hook around the back of the vent housing, and just pull gently on them.

In order to seperate the louvers from the housing when you paint them, there are several plastic-welds holding the housing clips to the louver housing. The only effective way I found of getting the clips off was to cut through them with a dremel tool with a cutting disc. Also, on the center-vents, there are several of the plastic welds on the bottom of the housing, but they are hidden by some foam tape.

Hope that helps, make sure to take your time when you paint them so you don't get sags, runs, or fisheye...