Does anyone have photos or a video on how to remove the fairings and what those plastic clips look like? I have the instructions from rritterson's post. They are very helpful. But just to make sure, visualizations work wonders.

you mean just removing the fairings or doing the F to E conversion? if u just want to know how to remove the side fairings ill take some pics for ya 

Nevermind, I just did it. Those plastic caps are a Buddha Loves You. Using a srew driver helped on the second one.

for the "spike" clips i just basically pushed it through all the way, that seemed to work but few went flying 

This morning my fingernails onn two finger on my right hand are sore as hell. I must have lifted up the fingernail. Ouch, this typing hurts!

a thin screwdriver is your friend  ice the nail maybe