I did not see any writeups on the faq, nor on here (though I did not really search that hard) so I figured I would snap a couple pics for those who were wondering what is involved.
First of all, get a better looking grille than this one:
Remove the rubber cover (A) There are no screws, you just pull it off.
Remove the 6 compression pins by first using a screwdriver to pop up the inner pin. Then carefully pry up the outer pin by its flange and pull it out of the hole.
These are the easy ones.
This is where it gets a little tricky. You have to pull the grill away a little (the stock one is more flexible than the sport grill) and remove the
two compression pins. The hard part is that they are facing away from you. What I did (as shown in the second photo of my ugly-ass hand) is use an awl with the point rounded off to push the inner pin out (from the bottom of the pin which is facing you.) Then I squeezed the bottom of the outer pin and pushed it though. There is just enough room to snake your hand in there and pull them out the rest of the way. Then do the other side.
Then there is a
flanged tab between those two pins that you have to pop out.
After that, there are
four bottom pins. At this point the grille will now rotate out enough for you to have some room to work. Pins 1 and 4, are pretty easy, as there is about an inch between them and the steel bumper. Pins 2 and 3 are not bad if you use my awl trick. You can kind of pull up a little on the tabs, to push the whole pin through (after you have removed the grille) and take them out. You can throw them away at this point, because I guarantee you are not getting them back in without removing the whole bumper cover (at least with the sport grille.)
After you remove those 4 pins, there are
two more tabs between 1-2 and 3-4 that you have to pull out. Then there is a
center tab between 2-3 and then the grille will come free.
My little awl trick to push the inner compression pin out of the inside of the pin:
Putting the sport grille on will take some craft. I did not take any pictures, because it would be too hard to explain here. If you buy one, you will see what is involved. On the four bottom pin holes, and the 4 side pin holes, you have to not only align the plastic grille holes with the bumper cover, you also have to align the holes in the metal tabs that hold the mesh in place. I left off the two middle pins on the bottom (2 and 3). The two outer pins (1 and 4) were a PITA! You just have to struggle though it. Or leave them off also. I know others have, and the three tabs on the bottom of the grille hold it pretty securely.
As for the side pins, the lower one (pin 2) I got the hole in the plastic grille aligned, and the pin through, but I could not get the mesh’s metal tab aligned. The top pin I got through both tabs just fine. Once you get past that, of course, the top pins are a piece of cake.
Despite all this, the grill is soundly in place.
The end result makes it all worth it.
I agree. Nothing to it.
