Bend the plastic slats and they can be removed. I left everything else (actuators, wiring as is and no codes). I do not need the rad shutters in south central Kansas as the winters are usually pretty mild. Along the Canadian border, where it gets so cold you actually need to block some airflow through the radiator to get the cars HVAC to warm up, then you may want to keep them. I just bagged them up in a ziplok bag for future determination.