Coupe wing/fender replacement

For anyone that's ever replaced a wing (fender) on a E46 coupe (not M3) - could you post some step by step instructions on how to do it please? Mine are both rusty so I got a pair of used OEM ones from ebay and had them painted.

I had a go at removing one of the old ones at the weekend after replacing my oil filter housing gasket, but got stuck when I came across a bolt I couldn't reach.

I really just need to know the proper order in which to remove the bolts and which other parts may also need to be removed. Pictures not necessary (but would be nice).

Any help at all would be hugely appreciated.

It's a fender...lol. Just unbolt it, pop it off, pop the new one on, align, and rebolt it.

Yeah, thanks for the quick reply and all that, but it hasn't really helped.

It's the unbolting I'm having trouble with.
There's 4 torx bolts along the top edge of the wing - those are easy.
Then there's two on the inside edge near the door hinge - the top one is easy - the bottom one has to be unbolted from the inside. How do I get to it though?
Then there's the trim panel that runs along the bottom of the headlight unit - it looks like that holds the front edge of the wing in place. How do I get that off? Do I need to remove it at all?

This is an easy job if you've done it before. I haven't.

Anyone?

I was looking for the same, I need to remove my fender and paint it as well.
I generally look at realoem pictures to get an idea what needs to be removed.
Looks like we would need to remove the wheel inner fender/lining etc.
Now, since I am in middle of bitter cold winter, I would like to wait to hear from your experiance ;-)

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...98&hg=41&fg=10

Lucky for you I have my Bentley right here (Yes I'm too lazy to walk 15 ft from my home office to the garage)... it says:

- Raise hood. Raise and safety support front of vehicle.
- Remove front wheel. Remove inner plastic liner from wheel housing.
- Remove front turn signal/lens assembly from applicable front corner. Carefully pry out side directional from fender and disconnect.
- Remove body colored trim panel underneath headlight assembly
- Working at cowl, feed corner of side trim panel cover out from side of fender. Gently lift panel cover upwards and remove retaining screw (near windshield)
- Remove lower fender attaching bolts at rear of wheel housing (in wheel well I believe)
- With door open remove upper fender to door post attaching bolt
- Remove screw at front of fender (in wheel well I believe)
- Remove bolts along top edge of fender
- Carefully remove fender from body
- Installation is reverse of removal

Thanks B. Exactly what I was looking for.

When you do your work, can you please post some pictures? I am a little hesitant to start on new work. Pictures increase my confidence :-)

FYI, I just did this last night. There's a couple steps missing from those instructions.

1. Remove plastic shield covering the engine under the car. This involves turning about six phillips head screws until they loosen. The screws are captive and spring loaded. Once you loosen them, the shield falls off onto your head. I think you'll find instructions and pictures for this step in any thread that talks about draining your radiator.

2. Loosen aluminum skid plate covering the transmission. Why? The wheel well lining extends pretty far underneath the car. You have to do this in order to get one freakin' 8mm hex head screw out of the wheel well lining. It's blocked by the skid plate and needs clearance. You don't have to remove the skid plate, just back out the eight 17mm bolts enough to get the clearance you need. If you're feeling lazy, you can probably skip step one--you only need to remove the shield so you can get at the front bolts. You may be able to just loosen the four rear ones and the bend the plate back enough to get the clearance you need.

3. Remove just ONE of the 17mm bolts from the aluminum skid plate. On whichever side you're working on, you'll need to take out one of those bolts because the plastic wheel wheel lining surrounds it.

4. The headlight is held in with four 8mm hex head screws. The two lower ones are hard to reach with the front bumper on the car. I have a damaged fender and I just yanked mine off the car without removing the headlight, but when I go to put the new fender back on the car, I'll have to remove the headlight and I'll report back here as to whether you need to remove the bumper, or if you really can get enough clearance to get a socket (maybe on a u-joint?) on those lower screws. Or maybe I'll read another thread that talks about removing the headlights to find out first.

5. There's a plastic clip assembly that holds the bumper to the fender. It is attached to the fender with two plastic rivets. It is difficult to remove this clip from the bumper intact with the fender without breaking it. Ask me how I know. I'd advise removing the rivets first and removing this plastic assembly prior to removing the fender.

6. The five screws in the engine bay that hold the top of the fender on are torx head, I forget which number right now--will report later. One is under a little rubber cap near the cowl--there's not "Pry the plastic back by the cowl" necessary to get to it.

7. Oh, there are three plastic rivets near the edge of the fender that need to be removed to get the wheel well liner off. They're not the reusable kind.

8. You'll need a very long extension to remove the 10mm bolt that holds the lower rear edge of the fender to the car.

That's all I noted last night.