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2017 Z71 grill modification?


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My 2017 Z71 Texas Edition has what looks to be the High Country grill but the longitudinal strips are black instead of what are chrome on the HC.

My question is, has anyone removed these strips or is it possible? I'd like to paint them and was hoping someone else might have tried this already. They're definitely attached somehow, not made into the grill, so I'm thinking it's doable I just don't want to get into something that's going to end up being a huge PITA.

 

Love the grill though, way better than the regular LT one.

 

Thanks!

 

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Yes it is completely doable and yes a bit of a PITA. If you remove the grill from the truck and look on the backside you will see melted areas of plastic that hold them on. Basically during manufacturing there are plastic studs sticking out the back of the inserts which go into corresponding holes in the grill assembly and they use heat to melt the ends flat and hold the peaces together. You need to carefully grind away the melted plastic which will release the pieces off of the grill. And then after you do your mods you would reinstall the pieces and add some quick dry epoxy over the back of the studs to hold it together once again. Hope that made sense. Good luck.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes it is completely doable and yes a bit of a PITA. If you remove the grill from the truck and look on the backside you will see melted areas of plastic that hold them on. Basically during manufacturing there are plastic studs sticking out the back of the inserts which go into corresponding holes in the grill assembly and they use heat to melt the ends flat and hold the peaces together. You need to carefully grind away the melted plastic which will release the pieces off of the grill. And then after you do your mods you would reinstall the pieces and add some quick dry epoxy over the back of the studs to hold it together once again. Hope that made sense. Good luck.

 

Makes perfect sense, I appreciate it!

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  • 2 months later...

Bought and tried the wrap.  It sucked trying to get it to conform to all the bends and then trimming it showed the black edges.  Basically, I couldn’t do it. 

 

I then removed the “slats” off the grill and painted them.  That sucked also but painting I can do.   I like it. 

84AFC61A-49C8-4220-A909-C748EED6B5F9.jpeg

Edited by OmniCamaro
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Bought and tried the wrap.  It sucked trying to get it to conform to all the bends and then trimming it showed the black edges.  Basically, I couldn’t do it. 
 
I then removed the “slats” off the grill and painted them.  That sucked also but painting I can do.   I like it. 
84AFC61A-49C8-4220-A909-C748EED6B5F9.thumb.jpeg.4239ba577f4eeeed1672394a4ec1316c.jpeg
Looks really good. Good job. Can't wait to see it on the truck.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

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7 hours ago, sjr613 said:

Looks really good. Good job. Can't wait to see it on the truck.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
 

looks good. HOW hard is it to removed the slats ???

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On 7/13/2017 at 8:45 PM, DeepBlue17 said:

Yes it is completely doable and yes a bit of a PITA. If you remove the grill from the truck and look on the backside you will see melted areas of plastic that hold them on. Basically during manufacturing there are plastic studs sticking out the back of the inserts which go into corresponding holes in the grill assembly and they use heat to melt the ends flat and hold the peaces together. You need to carefully grind away the melted plastic which will release the pieces off of the grill. And then after you do your mods you would reinstall the pieces and add some quick dry epoxy over the back of the studs to hold it together once again. Hope that made sense. Good luck.

 

Actually they "usually" use sonic welding, not heat. Pretty cool process if you've never seen it done

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