Everything on our 2017 Yeti is now de-greyed (bumpers & mirrors) apart from the chrome grille surround, so it's all metallic blue or black. Its Monte Carlo ish with the right wheels on it.

 

I understand that you need to push in the tabs on the old grille frame to release it and I've read that cutting up old credit cards works well (in more ways than one).

 

Anyone changed it themselves and have a better idea before I have a go ?

It comes out with patience, you have to unclip it from the bumper and then unclip the grille from it.

 

I presume you want to fit the black Monte Carlo surround? They were expensive when I rebuilt mine so I repaired the broken chrome surround, abraded the whole surface with a Scotchbrite wheel on my polishing arbor then painted it matt black with a 2K clear coat to protect against stonechips.

 

It worked for all of a few days before starting to chip, 4 years later it looks appalling, if you find a source of cheap black surrounds let me know, I am considering vinyl wrapping it, it cant look any worse than at present.

 

I like the grey on the bumpers but would prefer the mirrors to be black but after my failure with the grille they can remain grey.

Ok, will do, thanks.

 

OEM black grille:- 69.99 + postage.

 

Black Mirror caps:- Failed on Amazon ones even though they should have fitted. Eventually bought from a UK eBay company that supplies and paints. One needed a line of glue to hold onto a clip, but good. Have painted stuff myself but were fairly reasonable.

 

Front and rear grey plastic in bumpers:- it was cheaper to buy scrap yard extra grey bits and leave them with a friendly local body shop for a few weeks to fit in around other work, for cash. Called me when ready to fit the painted ones (2 hours).

Gave up in the rain today - dry day required!

 

I don't see how you can prise the clips apart behind the grille without breaking the fittings on the standard black radiator grille that the chrome frame mounts to ?

 

Anyone have a video as the only one I found wasn't much use on what to press and hold without breaking. I had screw drivers and credit cards at the ready !

From memory I think you have to unclip and remove the grille and frame before you can detach the grille from the frame.

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

From memory I think you have to unclip and remove the grille and frame before you can detach the grille from the frame.

I can do the top 'chrome' plastic ones but it's the ones at the corners and lower down that I can't work out / don't want to break. (The trim arrived massively packaged from Czech, by the way !)

Edited 7 September, 20241 yr by Prezafab

Yes, that brings back memories, they were quite inaccessible and I thought I might have to remove the bumper but with determination I succeeded.

To anyone attempting this, don't bother on what are 7-12 year old cars now.

I got the whole grille off eventually, but separating the chrome from the backing grille so I can replace with the gloss black is a nightmare. Buying another black grille .

Its doable, I did mine which would have been 6 years old at the time, it takes a different skillset and mindset taking apart something that was never designed to come apart, it can be somewhat destructive if not thought through at every stage, plastic gives very little feel when its approaching yield point.

 

Certainly replacing both the inner and outer grille together is the 100% safe option, now that my painted black finish has failed so spectacularly I regret not buying both, I had to replace the grille, it has been shattered in the accident, the surround was fractured but I reasoned that my repairs could be hidden by the black finish, I should have bought a new surround but the black ones were are probably still are stupidly expensive compared to the chrome ones that cost more to produce.

Done at last. One of the fiddliest jobs I've done on a car. Very simple on paper but glad I gave up trying to remove the chrome trim from the original grille. The copy pattern grille was £65. 

Edited 10 September, 20241 yr by Prezafab

If you’re not going back to the chrome trim, cut the clips holding it to the grille and push on the new one. That’s what I did and it took 10 minutes. That included a bit of faff getting the clips sat correctly at the bottom of the grille. 

You did amazingly well - maybe post a decent YouTube video for other people if you ever do it again !

 

I did start cutting and twisting the chrome clips off, but gave up after an hour because the black tabs on the grille itself were getting damaged as well in the process. That's why I went for a new grille as everything was incredibly tight on my car.

 

Getting the new assembly of grille and black surround back onto the car needed two people to line up all the tabs into the front bumper moulding, otherwise it kept springing off before you could get the back edge of the lip of the flat 'bonnet lock gap' cover into its retaining groove.