That would keep me awake at night...

 

You have to remove both upper bolts and both door jamb bolts (the ones you see when you open the door)
Then you can pull the wing out far enough to get to the clips

 

Yes, this seemed to be the best way to me. I also removed the third bolt on the top of the fender (the horizontal one near the front of the panel) to have the most room possible. I still found that the clips were pretty difficult in some cases and needed a surprising amount of force but I got both vents off without breaking any clips which made me happy.

One thing that wasn't clear to me from previous posts is that the rubber weather seal at the bottom of the windscreen pillar (the one held on with one star pattern fastener and a plastic screw) does need to be removed as it is hiding one of the fender bolts that need to be removed. Don't be surprised if the plastic screw at the top just turns and turns; it's one of those lousy plastic retainers that strip thread easily. You can either pry it out or just leave it in and rotate the rubber seal around it and out of the way.


This is the bit you want to remove from the bottom of the windscreen frame


It covers this fastener that you want to remove to get good access to the vent clips

Once all the bolts were removed I found it easiest to start at the door end of the vent, pull the fender panel out so it clears the door pillar and do the vertical clip first. Then I did each of the lower clips using my fingers rather than any tool as they can clearly be seen and were easily accessed. I then used a plastic pry tool to fight the top clips starting from the door end working back.

Removing the fasteners in the door jamb presented a pretty clear risk to my paintwork. I was using a 10mm ring wrench with an offset - if you have one of those with a ratchet ring you'll have a better time than I did - and it was very easy to hit the door or the lower part of the fender panel while working the bolt out or in. I taped a couple of towels wrapped around the edge of the door and the edge of the fender panel which took the stress away. I'm sure I'd have damaged the paint a few times if I hadn't.

For re-assembly I found the voids in the paint to be very helpful - just line everything up so that the painted sections all match and you should be back in the position you were before you started.

Thanks to all who have posted on this subject over many threads. I'd have given up on the first attempt if it wasn't for the guidance I found here. Also IMHO for the benefit of anyone else who wants to attempt this I'd not try the 'just yank it off and it'll be OK' approach that appears to have worked for some folks. If you don't break clips on the old vents that way then that is sheer luck and even if you don't care about the parts you are removing the fender panel is only thin sheet metal and I'd not be surprised if you could damage the panel itself.

Thanks all


Quite pleased. Just hood vents to go and they look easy to do in comparison

 

Yes, the hood vents are much easier to remove and replace.
11 plastic clips on each one, 3 on each side, 2 at the front and 3 at the back.
Pry the 6 side clips and 4 of the 5 end clips off with a screwdriver then the last two (one on each end) are mainly locating pegs and should come out easily.
Tip - don't complete the job from underneath the hood otherwise you risk the vent suddenly popping right off and sliding down the hood, instead pull the last one or two pegs out from the top while holding the vent.

 

That's great advice - I'm pretty sure I'd have walked right into that one if you hadn't mentioned it. I think I'll tape the vents as well as I remove them just in case.

Thanks!

 

Greetings All
I replaced the lunar grey side louvres (vertical louvres) on my 2011 XK with chrome. I found this, and other threads, extremely useful in anticipating what I would need to do. Its actually turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. I had masking tape, prying tools, etc all ready on hand for the task and ended up not using them. I thought I'd test the "resistance" of the old louvres with my hand and, finding that they flexed a fair amount at the base simply added more pressure and they popped out. Yes the upper clips broke as expected with the clip for the piece inscribed with "Jaguar" breaking off in the panel work; here I used a set of pliers to snap it so that it liberated the space in the body work for the new louvre. I simply popped in the new louvres following a clean up of the area.
Here are some photos.

Now I need to give the beast a good wash!

regards
Cleve

 

I'm reviving this this thread as I plan on doing the same for my 2021 F-type. Once you unscrew the painted bolts as shown here, would there be any rust concerns for both the bolts and fender sheetmetal?