Haynes is no help and the (usually excellent) 7zap doesn't give much idea of how this all bolts together.

 

I've got a donor slam panel (i assume thats the piece - the bolted section that contains the headlights) with lights that this afternoon I thought would be a nice little job in the sun to swap out on my polo. Not sure why I've never learned this lesson yet but i got absolutely nowhere...

 

I found all the bolts i could, using the donor panel as a means of finding where fasteners could attach to. But it looks like the section needs lifting out rather than sliding forward which would mean the wings need to come off first. Does this sound right?

 

I did actually have a stab at removing one wing (four screws on top, one around the bumper and one down on the sill) but it wouldn't budge - after removing the arch liner i could see two screws right at the back of the arch covered in white gunk. I'm assuming these are the last two wing fasteners but would rather not have to dig them out of that muck...

 

Any pointers would be really welcome. So far I'm assuming the fasteners for the panel are the last two top arch screws, two pozi screws underneath them near the bumper, one big 13mm machine screw in the centre by the horn and 3 socket head screws along the bottom underneath the grille.

there will be about 6/8 hidden stop welds on other side where the panel mates to the body by the wings which will need to be drilled out 

 

The slam panel is welded in. Be very careful removing it as 2f's have virtually no strength in the front end apart from it and the bumper iron, so you'll need the car properly supported and the inner wings braced. Remember these cars don't have a subframe or a front engine mount so every bit of bodyshell at the front it structure. 

Thanks for the pointers guys - really appreciate it. I had a feeling there would be the odd weld but couldn't see any through the grime. I'll leave it for now while its not essential, sounds like a bit of a pain!