Plastic Panel around Rear Wheel Well
 

I find the Fit is a little noisy on the highway. I am thinking to do some sound deadening. I am planning to do the rear end of the car first. How do I take off those plastic cover panel off around the wheel well? Are there any screws or just snap-on pins as door panel? Is the rear hatch panel similar? I am just afraid to break something. Any help would be appreciated

Don't do any sound deadening on the exterior of the car. It may trap water and cause early rust. If you want to do it right, you will want to remove the interior and apply something like dynamat on the interior body. Lining the metal part of the trunk and the doors would be the easiest.

May be I was not clear in my first post. I was thinking of the interior trim panel at the wheel well area.

This may help: A few members have reported excellent results after installing dynomat under the carpet throughout the vehicle (the largest improvement seemed to come from the hatchback area), and also rubber undercoating in certain areas under the vehicle (largest improvement from wheel wells). Other products used include SecondSkin, Damplifier, B-Quiet, RAAMmat or eDead from edesignaudio.com, rattlepad, some of which is used for improving the sound from door speakers, but these also help reduce other noise.

Here are some outside links on sound deadening:

Sound Deadener Showdown

CTR Article: Looking for a Quiet Ride?


Here are some threads which may help, the first is awesome and kind of shows what you'll be getting yourself into if you choose to do this on your own. I have heard it can easily take few days to get this done:

Audiophile Functional Full System (pics)

Sound Deadening

Rubber undercoating wheel wells-MUST!

Thanks for the info. But I still need to find out how to remove the interior trim piece aroud the rear wheel well area.

i cannot find any attaching screws. Are the panel a snap-on. I am afraid that if I pull too hard, it might break the trim panel.

Hope this helps. This is from a JDM honda fit but basically it's the same. It shows u where the clips are behind the panel. There are 4 screws holding this panel on. They are located where the oem cargo cover sits.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6457/panelsud0.jpg

Another shot of where those 2 screws are:

Thanks. This will be great help.

One quick question.
Do I need to pry off the cargo holder support in order to expose the screws? Passenger side is cargo holder support only. Driver side is support + trunk light. Are both snap-on parts?

evrything is snap-ons.
start by removing the tire cover tray.
then the panel on top of the bumper
next. now you can remover the doors that access
the bulbs and shocks. by removing these you will
have something to pull on to get it to start
poping out of the clips.

From the schematic sketch that koolkevin1107 posted, there are 2 screws attaching each trim panel (near the rear wheel well area) to the body. It looks like they are under the cargo cover support. I am just not sure how to remove those support getting to the screws. I am afraid to break something if I try to pry them off.

What support are u talking about? The screws are totally visible. You have an 07-08 right? If u have a cargo COVER (the one that rolls open and close), take that off and look on the sides of where it sits. U should see the screws. Remove them then start popping out the panel.

I have a 2009. May be it is a lttle different. There is no screw which is visible on the trim panel. May be they are all snap on pins for 2009.

Ah okay well the instructions is for the 07-08. If there are no visible screws, then it must not have any. Good luck on the panel. I'm sure it's all clips.

there are no screws. i have personally taken every panel off
in the back.
the pics you see with srews are for GD's
GE's don't have any screws.:wavey:

Thanks for all the info:). I'll start the sound deadening project once the weather gets warmer. I plan to use dynamat and do the spare tire area, trunk, interior rear wheel well and 4 doors (a good excuse to get rid of the stock speakers at the same time). It seems a PITA to remove seats. So I am going to leave the front half of the car alone. Hopefully that will cut down the noise to an acceptable level.