Hey guys, last night I replaced my grille on my '02. I know there's probably quite a few grille threads, but I couldn't find one detailed enough for how I wanted. So here's my take on how to do it! (I bought a powder coated black grille, can be found here. )

PRE NOTE: You will probably not be able to use the stock grille again, as it takes some destruction to get it out.

1: To remove the stock grille, pull out sides first. They should come out almost effortlessly.

2: Next move to the bottom. It's slightly more tough, but shouldn't be very hard to pull out either.

3: Next, the dreaded top part. This piece has 3 plastic screws, which can be relativity difficult to remove. When removing, pull with enough force, but make sure you don't pull too hard, as you don't want to damage the bumper. I ended up using needle nose pliers to hyper extend the piece attached to the screw.

4: Once it's removed, you should be pleasantly surprised by this:

5: I ended up Plasti-dipping the back, as the grille wasn't thick enough for me to be happy with it. You can probably see why:

6: Installing the new grille is pretty self explanatory. Unfortunately with mine, I had to drill new holes, but in the long run, it's totally worth it. It looks fantastic.

7: I'm going back and dipping just the "Camaro" part, as red. I'll upload pics as soon as I do!
Here's my current setup:


If anybody has any problems, let me know! Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the link to the grill. I got a cheap chrome one for mine back around christmas and plasti dipped it black. It got banged up by something on the road and is slightly bent with chrome showing because of it. Powdercoat should hold up a lot better.

 

Yea dude, I've only had it for a few days, but I've gotten mass compliments, and it adds to the mean look of the car!

 

Nice looking grille you have there, though I don't like the idea of drilling holes.

 

I was very hesitant at first, until I realized nobody will every see that part of the bumper... Not only that but it ended up looking pretty dang good, so I'm not too angry

 

hey i have this exact same one on my 98 ls1. the paint on it started to chip and i repainted it a metallic silver and it looks pretty nice