How easy is it to take off the chrome trim part off the front of the bonnet,I want to remove the chrome and have it either painted or powder coated black.

I suspect it will be cheaper and easier to get it wrapped.

Like this you mean...

 

From this:

 

To this:

 

I'll be honest - it's a complete and utter pain in the ar$e. Or at least it is on the facelift model - not sure if it's the same on the pre-facelift.

 

You have to remove the old grill completely from the car which is a few screws (which are easy) and about 8-10 press-in clips along the sides & base of the frame of the grill - which are a real game to remove. They were clearly designed to make the grill easy to press into place, not designed for the grill to ever be removed again. I broke one or two getting them out - it's a lot of messing about with flat screwdrivers & knifes.

 

Once you finally wrestle the grill from the car (that took me about 20 mins), the next stage is to separate the chrome frame from the base grill itself. If you think the first stage was hard (getting the grill off the car), this stage is about 3x harder. There are about 20 press-in clips. The chrome frame is brittle and doesn't bend easily so getting the press in clips to release is a real game. And because there are so many of them, you can't release them one at a time as they will simply pull back into place again due to the tension of the surrounding clips - no you have to tackle them 3 or 4 at a time. Again flat blade screwdrivers, knifes, fingers - whatever you can get to release them. And be careful as the chrome frame WILL snap if you put too much force on it or bend it.

 

This particular stage took me about 40 mins - to finally free the chrome from the grill. Sadly in the process the chrome snapped and is now fit for the bin.

 

Fortunately the black grill I had bought (the Monte Carlo version) just replaced the chrome grill so it wasn't the end of the world for me - though I had hoped to keep the chrome to sell. Never mind.

 

So, about 60 mins to actually remove the chrome - then pop the new black frame into place - snaps straight in. Offer the grill up to the car - snaps straight in.

Pop the screws back in and you're done. The reassembly process takes 5 mins at most.

 

I do like the finished effect, but I probably would not do this mod again given all the work it entails.

Many moons have passed over the Himalayas since a post was made about removing the grille top to change the Skoda badge for the new style....

 

The trick given was to slide a small socket over the plastic studs, that pushes in the clips and hey presto, the stud passes through the bonnet. Works a treat!  

Yes I read that but he lost refers to the pre-FL grille and there is no way to get a socket over the clips on the FL model. They are completely different.

I have the pre face lift model,might have a go at getting it off,just in case,are they available from Skoda new????

I hadn't looked that closely at the grille on (FL) TIBET III to see if the attachment differed from the pre-FL.

 

I'm sure Skoda will be able to sell you spares if needed!