What is the best way to remove the surround from the grille without breaking anything?

 

i take a screwdriver and a butter knife and go 1 clip at a time, i just popped one apart the other day took like 10 mins. make sure to pull the black cloth-like tape off too, there are clips under there too. also the hood braces on both sides will need to come off.

slip the butter knife between the surround and the grille and push on the tabs with the screwdriver.

 

A pair of needle nosed pliers helped me in the process also.

 

As said above, plus I added a little heat with my wife's hair dryer.......

 

they look like there a bear! ive looked at it a couple times and got pulled away.

 

This seems like its one of those projects where heat can be your friend. The colder the plastic is, the more brittle it is. I just did the wiper cowl painting, and I had an ooppsie. Now, I am in the market for a new cowl...oh well. Lesson learned.

 

I let both grills sit inside for a day to let them acclimate to temperature then I used a knife and a screwdriver. I took my time and didn't break any of the clips. As i separated the clip from the grill I pushed the surround off the grill w/my thumbs and worked my way around. It took me about 30 minutes each

 

I used a heat gun to warm the clips up and a small flat head screw driver to pry the clips from the grill surround. Took 10 mins.

 

Do you have to remove the whole front plastic piece around the insert and the headlights and then take the grille insert out or can you just take the insert out by itself? Looking to pull mine, paint it and reinstall.

 

*Nylon pry bars - Harbor Freight part # 95214
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Just like everyone else says: Take your time and use a hair dryer. I used a hacksaw blade and a dremel with a cutting wheel to cut out the center of mine after separating it from the frame. I think the best advise for guys that don't do a lot of plastic work is don't rush or force anything!

 

I decided it was too much work to remove the front fascia just to get that grille out. I taped it off and painted it with black Krylon Fusion for Plastics yesterday. Looks awesome!

I wanted mine to have a slick, glossy finish, not the flat, matted finish. That's what I got and I couldn't be more satisfied.

I did get a small amount of overspray on my fascia, which luckily scraped off with my thumbnail. We'll see how well the paint holds up on the road.