I just got a new aluminum grille for the front of my 99 z28... how do you remove the original plastic..It looks like it is riveted to the car?

 

If it is a billet aluminum grille like mine (lots of horizontal bars) Then it just attaches to the front ot the black plastice grille.

If you need to take the grille out, all you do is pull. It is hard to explain but start at one of the sides, they pop right out. Once you get those out, you just carefully pull very hard ( haha sounds impossible right?) Once the first clip comes lose you will see what I mean. I pulled mine out and it seemed like something was going to break but finally it just popped out.

Dustin

 

Yes I bought a billet grille ...it just attaches to the existing one?
hope it looks good !!

but I am sure I will remove the license plate holder That must pull out also?

grille came with 4 rivets

 

Here's a previous thread referencing this same issue: Grill

 

The easiest way is just pulling, however if you ever want to re-install the original grill you want to keep the little locking pieces that are behind the grill and behind the bumper. If you just pull it off these pieces fall somewhere behind the bumper and are very likely lost... you should loosen (don't remove it) the black plastic cover that is located right underneath the bumper where the air gets sucked in towards the radiator. Then you can get in there with one hand and collect the little pieces that the dealer will charge big bucks for .... (this is based on experience by the way )

Getting the grill off is not a problem at all, getting it back on almost requires you to take the bumper off. It's a lot of pain that you go through if you try to get the locking pieces/washer back in place.

I hope your billet grill mounts over the existing one.

 

just yank that pos off

 

When I had the '01 Z28, I removed that black insert so I could cut the foam from behind the holes and help get some air up into the engine bay.

Unhook the bumper cover from underneath, reach under and work the metal clips from the bottom and then work on the top, pulling a little at a time and going from one side to the other.

It takes about 15 minutes of patience, but you can get that sucker off intact and still be able to put it back on.

Since I did not retain the upper clips (didn't remove the entire bumper cover) I hit each of the posts on the top of the insert with some black silicone and let it set, which made the posts bigger. Then I trimmed them down to get a real good friction fit on the holes and replaced the metal retainers only on the bottom.


When I totalled out that car ... the front bumper insert was still in place.