going to replace rear bumper cover and hatch , whats the best way to get to the bolts/ clips on the cover thanks

i might have a 97 Legacy FSM i could send you, would you be interested in that? guess i should have told you off line since we were just talking but i didnt' really think about it. let me know.

i am sure it is pretty easy to get to and take off ,

You have to pull the whole bumper and cover as a unit. In the wheel wells on both sides remove the 10mm bolts. Inside the car pull up the carpeted panels on both sides of the spare tire well. Then you will see the bolts that hold the beam on. Remove those and slide the bumper off. Then you can get at the clips to take the cover off the beam.

thanks,

With my '97 Legacy L sedan, I was able to get the cover off without taking the entire assembly off the car. This was learned after the first time removing the whole thing, which I will warn you, is quite heavy if working alone. The last time was two years ago and again I was able to remove just the cover... so the process is a bit foggy (old age issues, me not the car)..but, remove the mud flaps, then one plastic fastener (possibly two) along the rear wheel well openings, then as subaru360 mentions, there are 10mm bolts that fasten the top of the cover as it goes into the wheel well (you kinda have to get into the wheel well to see them). Then a few bolts along the bottom of the cover and the trick, there are two long, black bolts that come through the rear of the car, remove the nuts off of these long bolts and you should be able to slide the cover off the car. Now if you can't get the mud flaps off the car (those fasteners always seem to rust badly), you will need to remove one more item on each side. There is a capture mechanism along each side, if you have the mud flaps off, you can slide the cover off, but if you can't get the mud flaps off, you will need to release the capture devices. This is done by taking off the nuts on the device from the inside, under the carpet liner. They sit about midway along the side and are probably a 10mm nut, once released you should be able to flex the bumper cover out to clear the mud flaps and remove the cover. It sounds confusing (took me doing the job twice to understand the best way to do it) but just take your time and if it feels stuck, you forgot something. Best of luck and let me know if you need further.

well ran out of time only switched the damaged hatch + new support struts, the cover is not really damaged only side drivers side is down about 1 inch, thanks for all the help