I decided a few months ago that I wanted to clean up the front end of my Camaro. The license plate holder just did not do it for me.




So I embarked on the task of replacing my grille. I still wanted it to be black and retain a factory look, but I knew that the license plate holder was drilled into the grille on my car so I would need a new one. As luck would have it, my local Camaro dealer had one in stock. 50 bucks including tax which for a dealership part is not all that bad. My grille came from Chuck Nash Chevrolet in San Marcos, TX and I dealt with Charlie. He has been the main source for all my stock Camaro parts.

All the websites I have visited that deal with 4th gen Camaros simply state "To remove the old grille, pull hard and it should come off." Well, I did thinking the factory grille was simply snapped into place. Much to my disappointment I discovered that the factory grille is in fact screwed into place from behind and that pulling simply strips the grille from the nuts and metal retainers that hold it into place. I had to dig inside the bumper cover to recover the lost nuts and retainers. What is even worse is that because of the nature of the front bumper cover, access to the studs on the grille were prohibited by the styrofoam behind it. To properly install the new grille the cover would have to come off. I did find out though that a few Camaro owners have destroyed their factory grilles because they pulled too hard and broke off either the retaining studs or torn the actual grille itself. If you plan on retaining the factory grille, I suggest you remove the front bumper cover- instructions and pictures soon to follow. I was fortunate enough to not break my original grille in the process, so if I ever need to reinstall it I can. I do not recommend pulling the grille off by brute force now that I've found how to remove it correctly.

I discovered something else interesting. A few owners have in fact simply removed the grille and shown off the CAMARO lettering underneath.




However, when I removed my grille I discovered this was not an immediate option because the dealer not only drilled through the grille into the bumper when the plate holder was installed, but drilled through it twice because the original positioning was off center. So if I ever want the sans-grille look I will have to either get a new bumper cover or get this one repaired at a body shop. The factory grille had to go on to make it look good again.




So, I set off in the morning to tackle the removal of the bumper cover. Though it may appear daunting, it was not a hard task at all. First of all, remove the headlights completely and disconnect the side marker and turn signal bulbs. On each side there will be 1 bolt and 3 nuts securing the side of the bumper to each fender. Remove 4 bolts per side that secure the plastic shielding underneath. Finally, remove the 5 plastic clips up top and the 3 plastic clips underneath and the bumper cover is now completely loose. I pulled the sides forward and down and then simply unhooked the cover from the top and pulled it straight forward. If I would have known the process was that easy, I would have done this to install the clear corners too.






The nuts that retain the grille simply screw on by hand. There is no need to tighten them further, but simply snug them up with your fingers... otherwise you risk stripping the studs. The metal retainers press on from behind. The grille is now installed.






After that, rehang the bumper cover up top, make sure the bottom part slides into place and clip it in. Reinstall the bolts, the turn signal and sidemarker bulbs, and the headlights. Much, better, yes?


-Thor2015