Well, I started the project Friday night. It took me about two and one half hours to get the bumper off. Thanks to S2K0 for the good instructions! The only snag that I encountered was with the bolts holding the top of the bumper by the top of the fender next to the light. There were two bolts one each side, I choose the bolt that was facing the front of the car rather than the bolt that pointed to the left and right side which resulted in the bumper not coming off. Once I removed the correct bolts the bumper came off. I found that there are two bolts one for the clip/bracket(the bolts point to the front) and one that bolts into the fender for each side. The correct bolt to remove is the one going into the fender.

Anyway once I got the bumper off I was able to un-bolt and remove the headlight after disconnecting the lights the headlight was out. As I stood there examining the headlight I was somewhat overwhelmed by the way the two pieces were put together and decided to skip doing the rest. I went ahead and installed the grills(which was much easier with the bumper off). Yes, I wimped out. But the more I think about it the more I feel that I should go ahead and do it(i can't stand the orange plastic). At least I now can easily remove the bumper!

Anyway here is a pic of the car with the new grills and side airflow vents. At least the weather was great here in Chicago, January with temps in the mid 50's!!


regards,
Michael

 

which grills are you using?

 

Grills and side air vents are from Costal Metals.

regards,
Michael

 

cool
thanks
they looks good!

 

Are you not required to have a front license plate?

 

dude, if you keep removing the bumper, it gets a whole lot easier. i do it in five minutes now.

here in texas we're required to use them, but almost none of us have them on.

 

epfennig, yes front plates are required in Illinois. We haven't got our plates yet and are still debating on putting them on the front.

regards,
Michael

 

Did you paint the weather stripping (for lack of a better word) around the grills? Usually it's black, yours looks silver.

 

Nside, Yes, I did not like the black trim with the stainless grill so I sanded the black trim to rough it up and painted it silver. I think the stainless grill should come with trim that matches since it will look better on all cars excpet the black.

regards,
Michael

 

Good call. That's my hang up about buying the grill, the black stands out too much. Maybe I'll try what you did...