Just want to thank John Eifert for his excellent instructions on front bumper cover removal - everything was exactly as advertised and the directions saved me countless hours of frustration (not to mention the several hundred dollars that the body shop was going to charge for taking it off and putting it back on. The shop's book has removal and reinstall as a 4.5 hour procedure - don't know if that includes chin spoiler or not.
I am a rookie wrench with low end tools, and it took me about 2.5 hours to take off the spoiler and cover. Was not difficult, if you can handle an erector set, you can do this, just time consuming as there are at least 50-60 fasteners you have to hit to take the thing off.

I would not do it again without an 8 mm offset ratchet box wrench - that second bolt from the inside on the top is a pain - about 100 tiny little turns and you can't get at it with a regular socket wrench.

Amazing amount of stuff behind the wheel well covers (and I was just starting to figure out what everything was in the engine compartment!)

- just to further my education, can anyone tell me what these things are:
(1) passenger side aft of wheel, black cylinder about 1 foot long, apparently some sort of filter (marked "Purolator");

(2) driver's side forward of wheel, black plastic box with brass knob on top and what looks like electric motor protruding from bottom (Bosch  0265 200 009);

(3) driver's side aft of wheel, black dome over silver cylinder, imprinted with "VDO" - two wires with connectors (928 612 499 00) that go nowhere are coming from the back of the dome and just dangling - are those supposed to be attached to something?; (4) those wacky looking black plastic balls just above and behind #3.

Thanks again to John, Mike Briggs, Tony, Jorj, and everyone else who has put so much effort into putting their experiences on the web.

John's instructions were as follows:

[[I was able to do it without removing the headlamps. By jacking up the car, flipping up the headlamps, removing the chin spoiler, Parking lamp trim, front wheels, brake cooling ducts and the front wheel well walls, I was able to get to 10 of the 12 8mm nuts that hold the cover to the front fenders with 1/4" socket wrench and extension (s) and the last two with an 8mm box wrench fairly easily. The four hardest nuts to remove are directly in front of the headlamps actuating bar (two on each side). The two nuts on each side innermost to the engine compartment wall were reached with close to a 1' long socket drive consisting of an 8mm socket, two 1/4" drive extensions (3" and 6"), and the 1/4" drive socket wrench itself. The next nut to the outboard side on each side were removed with a lot of patience and a box wrench. There is no clearance for a socket wrench. When I put the cover back on I will use an offset ratchet box wrench to speed it up. Then its just a couple of bolts on the bottom of the cover and the screws under the lip of the hood, and the cover pulls right off with parking lamps in place. Make sure you only pull it off slightly as the headlamp washer jets need to be disconnected (yup I found out the hard way). I was lucky that the cover is still in excellent shape considering the blow given it by the PO that cracked the paint up.

Hope that helps for those that were also interested and asked me to pass what I found along.]]