I have some damaged to the front air dam from scraping curb. I can't find any information on how to remove the air dam and I have looked in "Workshop manual" Has anyone removed the air dam? If so how do you go about the removal?

 

None of mine have air dams, it’s all part of the bumper cover

 

so you're saying that what I thought was an air dam is actually a part of the bumper? This has just become a bigger project. I thought I could just remove what I thought was an air dam and fix the cracks. Now it seems I have to remove the entire front bumper?

 

Unless you have some sort of different bumper than I do on my 2003 2004 and 2005 r230 cars then yes you need to remove the whole front bumper.

 

It's not that tough to remove the front bumper cover. see Remove/install front bumper (benzbits.com)
I repaired one with 3M: p.r.o. fill E-Z sand, 05907 Adhesion Promotor, the yellow stick porous drywall crack repair tape, spot putty, and an aerosol can of paint formulated by an auto body shop supply company to match the paint color.
You can google front bumper cover removal. U may want to repair it while it is still on the car.

 

Thanks for your input! I now see that what I thought was an air dam is the bottom of the front bumper. I think you're right about repairing this while on the car. Any thoughts about using plastic welder, then sanding and painting?

 

I am unfamiliar with plastic welder. It could be great.

The repair I was talking about just had a 10" crack. I did the repair from the inside. This just left a tiny bead of the 3M flexible repair showing. I just sanded down the bead, smoothed to level with the surface, and blended in the single stage aerosol paint OEM paint color match. I taped and clamped things in place before and while I applied the filler.

Btw I am nearly finished repairing both bumper covers on my brilliant metallic silver 500SLAMG. I removed them and used 2 stage paint with a professional spray gun. I moved the gun too slowly, and have some pebbling in the clear coat finish. I need to deal with the pollen outdoors, and finish those operations.

 

Just some more information regarding my attempted repair of front bumper cover. I tried to stabilize the crack by plastic welding one the underside where it wouldn't show. Doesn't work. The plastic the bumper cover is made of is not suitable for welding. So I am faced with removing the bumper cover and doing the job correctly.. BTW, does anyone know if there is any ty[e of protective cover for the lower bumper cover? It seems to me that this would be in great demand!