How do I remove front grille? ('04 Expy)

[gakman]

How do I remove front grille? ('04 Expy)

Hi,

I need to remove the front grille in order to mount a PA speaker (which is too big to slip in from the top).

Looks like the plastic grille is attached to the entire (plastic) front bumper cover/spoiler/apron assembly and they will come off as one unit

I can get to and remove all of the screws holding the assembly in except for two spots at the bottom where the assembly has two extensions attached to the chassis. There are two plastic disc-like fastener holding them together (see picture). The "disc" rotates but it does not unscrew, my question is how do you detach these two fasteners? Do I just pry it lose and not have to worry about it breaking? Or do I let it break and get new ones to snap back on later?

Or is it possible just to remove the grille without removing the whole she-bang?

Thanks in advance!

Stewart
Seattle, WA

 

[gakman]

 

[gakman]

 

[ELVATO]

Did you mean 04 Expy? If so, the grille is removable. It has like 7 or 8 clips, which you have to pull/slide off. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow, but it is a bit of a PITA to do. Still, I'd assume it's easier than taking off the whole front assembly.

 

[ELVATO]

BTW, that round thing is I think to hold the flexible plastic piece on the bottom that seems to act as an air dam. Not sure, though.

 

[ELVATO]

Here's a picture of what one of the clips looks like:


It seems that there's 7 clips total, 2 per vertical side, and 3 along the bottom of the grille. Clips 1 and 7 you will have to feel for to find them. All the rest should be visible.


Sorry for so many posts, I saw you were online, and didn't want you to miss something if I edited.

 

[gakman]

This is great! Thanks for your help! The clips were not obvious at all! =)

 

[ELVATO]

Yea, I used to think the whole thing had to come off, until a friend of mine talked to a friend of his, who is an installer.

Ask if you have any more problems, since I may have left out a step.

 

[smo0othride]

Are the clips supposed to come all the way off, I'm thinking not? I'm holding 8 clips in my hand right now and not really sure how I'm going to get the clips back on.

 

[ELVATO]

Yea, I took all of them off. You kinnda have to push them back on. In the process I ended up losing like 3 of them, so I "distributed" the rest around

 

[smo0othride]

I just can't find the place where to push them on though. Do you push them on once you've put the grill pack in place? I painted my grill and then ended up driving 120 miles on the freeway with no clips on the grill and it seemed to do just fine.

 

[ELVATO]

It was a long time ago when I took it off, but I think you slide them on from the side of the tab (1st pic in post 6).

 

[corvettej]

When I replaced my grille with a billet grille the original grille on my 03 XLT had 9 tabs with clips, 2 on each side and 5 across the bottom, then 2 push down tabs at the top with no clips. Not hard but requires some patience to keep from breaking something. Take your time is the key.