Wife's new ride + Denali grille swap

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HansNoble

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I found this video on YouTube of someone doing the swap. May be helpful to everyone here.

 

ljn21

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I found this video on YouTube of someone doing the swap. May be helpful to everyone here.

Thanks for the find. That is helpful (at least to me), I am still considering swapping or painting our grill black and haven’t pulled the trigger yet due to the intimidation factor of not knowing how to assemble/disassemble. Thanks!
 

Pertzbro

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you'd likely have to disassemble it anyway to get it painted correctly. Also from my experience - painting over plastic chrome will most definently have rock/bugs chip the paint. I did it about 10 years ago to a truck of mine. It's hard to get the paint to stick the plastic chrome and it chips easily.
 

davekalk

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I just did the same swap. Of note, the grill I ordered from GM did not come with the red name plate and the camera did not come with any bolts to attach it to the new grill. The video in this thread is really helpful except... the grill does not come off as easily as the video implies. First, there are two white locking tabs next to headlights that require removal. Not terribly hard but don't drop then into the abyss of the grill compartment. Once you've loosened the grill along the headlights everything changes. The grill is held on at the bottom by a number of plastic tabs that are virtually inaccessible. After you disconnect the wiring harnesses, the tabs at the bottom are all that is left holding it (no more bolts). Yanking or prying too ******* the painted molding to separate the two pieces will break or damage the tabs (that means breaking a part of the car taste than the grill being removed). I found another video that helped as it showed how to remove the entire from bumper cover and grill at the same time. And doing so provided easy access to those last tabs at the bottom of the grill. All that was required was removing two more 10 mm bolts that are accessed from inside the wheel well when you remove the other two (for a total of three on each side). You can easily see and access the bolts as they are near the bottom of whole assembly facing the front of the car. Once those are out, it helps to have two people to jostle the grill and bumper cover completely loose but it will hang away from the car providing more than enough room to work each of the bottom tabs free. From there you just push three new grill into place starting at the bottom working your way up the sides. My last suggestion is to take the two protective panels under the bumper off in case you need a little extra access. There's a lot of 7 mm or star drive fasteners so take a picture to make sure they all go back in the correct spots.
 

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