Question about black grille insterts for 2015 silverado

malibu43 · June 2, 2020

Hello folks.

I am interested in toning down the chrome on the front of my truck and am looking at getting black grille inserts. My truck currently has the chrome mesh (image attached). I STRONGLY prefer the look of OEM black grilles (either the mesh I have in black, or the simple horizontal grill that you see on a lot of Z71), but I am having a really hard (if not impossible time) finding just grille inserts that match that look. I either find entire grille assemblies (including the framing and bowtie, and usually with the frame matching a body color) which run several hundred dollars, or after market inserts that have a very dense mesh that doesn't really look anything like the black OEM grills. There are also some products that are meant to go over a chrome grill to tone down the chrome look, but I don't really like those.

Am I not looking for the right thing (using the right search terms), or is it really that hard to find just the grill inserts that are similar to the OEM ones?

On a related note, what do people think about plasti-dipping in a situation like this? It looks like I can pop my existing mesh grill insterts out of the grill with a few tabs and get a black grill for the cost of a few cans of plasti-dip. But I have read such polarizing opinions on plasti-dip (I've never done it myself). I'm curious if anyone thinks this is a good application for it or not...?

malibu43 · June 2, 2020

Sorry for responding to my own post so quickly, but I just found these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2014-2015-Chevy-Silverado-1500-CHROME-Snap-On-Grille-Overlay-Grill-Insert-Covers/380959620225?fits=Year%3A2015|Model%3ASilverado+1500&epid=2248877844&hash=item58b2f67c81:g:DJ0AAOSwEK9T0pP9:sc:UPSGround!92040!US!-1

Could I get something like this and try plasti-dip or just matte black paint? Then if it doesn't work I'm only out $100 and restoring my truck is as easy as just popping this cover back off...

VanguardK2 · June 3, 2020

Sorry for responding to my own post so quickly, but I just found these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2014-2015-Chevy-Silverado-1500-CHROME-Snap-On-Grille-Overlay-Grill-Insert-Covers/380959620225?fits=Year%3A2015|Model%3ASilverado+1500&epid=2248877844&hash=item58b2f67c81:g:DJ0AAOSwEK9T0pP9:sc:UPSGround!92040!US!-1

Could I get something like this and try plasti-dip or just matte black paint? Then if it doesn't work I'm only out $100 and restoring my truck is as easy as just popping this cover back off...

I’d say paint rather than plasti dip as it looks horrendous when it is starting to loose its... elasticity. Also it is a pain to remove from emblems, so removing it from a mesh grille such as yours would be even more frustrating. I’ve painted and plastidipped a lot of things over the years from other cars, and in the end I always wanted to get paint or a physical new trim piece within a couple of months because I wasn’t satisfied. If your interested in the GM z71 grilles, I’d visit a GM parts website like gmpartsdirect.com and search your year and body style, then just navigate through the menus and find the right part number for what your looking for. Sometimes searching eBay and whatnot with an actual part number can be fruitful. As another option lies in our good buddy [mention]Frankielozano214 [/mention] as he can probably help source something. There’s a rumor he runs a ”chop shop” [emoji23] but it’s because he’s our unofficial parts guy.

P.S:

to Frankie, I’m so glad I saw that thread so I could make this joke in good fun

To Malibu, he (Frankie) is a standup guy [emoji1303] and the ‘chop shop’ comment is false, and is a current, running joke here on the forum.

Hope something I said here helps you out. Cheers and good luck!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

malibu43 · June 3, 2020

13 hours ago, VanguardK2 said:

I’d say paint rather than plasti dip as it looks horrendous when it is starting to loose its... elasticity. Also it is a pain to remove from emblems, so removing it from a mesh grille such as yours would be even more frustrating. I’ve painted and plastidipped a lot of things over the years from other cars, and in the end I always wanted to get paint or a physical new trim piece within a couple of months because I wasn’t satisfied. If your interested in the GM z71 grilles, I’d visit a GM parts website like gmpartsdirect.com and search your year and body style, then just navigate through the menus and find the right part number for what your looking for. Sometimes searching eBay and whatnot with an actual part number can be fruitful. As another option lies in our good buddy [mention]Frankielozano214 [/mention] as he can probably help source something. There’s a rumor he runs a ”chop shop” but it’s because he’s our unofficial parts guy.

P.S:

to Frankie, I’m so glad I saw that thread so I could make this joke in good fun

To Malibu, he (Frankie) is a standup guy and the ‘chop shop’ comment is false, and is a current, running joke here on the forum.

Hope something I said here helps you out. Cheers and good luck!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks. GM parts direct was a good suggestion. However, they still don't seem to sell those grill inserts separately. It looks like maybe I could by a black work truck grille assembly for about $200, in which case I could try and pull the black inserts out and swap them. But I'm not sure if that $200 solution is better than those inserts I linked above and a can of black paint.

I'll keep looking around...

Edited June 3, 2020 by malibu43

Eddie 70 · June 3, 2020

I have a 2014 and feel the same way you do about the all chrome grill. I kept looking at Craigslist and Ebay. I finally found a guy that had a chrome shell with black inserts and gold bowtie for sale for about $100. I jumped on it. I think it looks much better and I was able to sell my stocker on Craigslist for the same $100 in about a day or so. I think the work truck grill would work too. Just remove the mesh and move it over.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Eddie 70

malibu43 · June 3, 2020

1 hour ago, Eddie 70 said:

I have a 2014 and feel the same way you do about the all chrome grill. I kept looking at Craigslist and Ebay. I finally found a guy that had a chrome shell with black inserts and gold bowtie for sale for about $100. I jumped on it. I think it looks much better and I was able to sell my stocker on Craigslist for the same $100 in about a day or so. I think the work truck grill would work too. Just remove the mesh and move it over.

Ya, that's pretty much what I'm looking for. For some reason I didn't think to check Craigslist. I just found a full chrome grill for $150 down the street, so I bet if I check back every few days I might find one with the black inserts. I'll probably either do that or try the $100 clip-in inserts on ebay that I can just paint black.

malibu43 · June 10, 2020

Can anyone tell me if the mesh portion of the grill can be unclipped and removed from the grill frame without damage, or do they all need to stay together as one piece?

Still trying to figure out how I want to move forward, and whether or not I can get the mesh separated safely from the rest of the grill will affect which way I go (both in terms of painting my existing grill and possible grill swaps).

Thanks.

malibu43 · June 12, 2020

Bumping my previous question about separating the mesh from the grill...

Eddie 70 · June 13, 2020

12 hours ago, malibu43 said:

Bumping my previous question about separating the mesh from the grill...

From what this guy is saying in his video, if you get a 15 grill the honeycomb does not come out. On a 14 the honeycomb does come out.

Prong · June 14, 2020

I had a 15 and removed the honeycomb to plastidip it and it worked well. Careful use of needlenose pliers to straighten out the tabs and remove the inserts worked well. It held up fine for 2+ years when I ended up trading for an 18.

malibu43 · June 14, 2020

Thanks for all the good info folks.

Darksky · June 15, 2020

I appreciate your perspective and agree about the excess chrome. I went the opposite way and am pleased with the results.

The second shot was during the install. I wanted to show how pleased I was with the color. It’s years in, now and has held up perfectly well. I’m a ranch truck type. So, it’s not perfect, lots of gravel road driving.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Darksky

Darksky · June 15, 2020

Body shop pics. The disassembly was not difficult.you can put in a Rough Country curved light bar and MoriMoto fog lights at the same time. I can heartily endorse both products.

michigan2500hd · June 23, 2020

I've been wanting to do this on my 2015 LTZ with the chrome grill. It looked like the inserts could be removed without taking the entire grill off but after trying and almost getting them I just couldn't without possibly damaging other parts. I've been looking for just the inserts and have found them at online parts stores but they're about $134.

Keep us updated!