RS grill installed on my LTZ

[MPFab]

The old adage is true...you can do anything you put your mind to
This was an absolute pain in the fanny. Trim, install, trim install, trim install. Over and over again. WAAAAYYY more difficult to pull off cleanly than I anticipated. I had to modify the RS grills, the bumper cover, and the stock grill surrounds.
My methodology was to trim the RS grills to fit the bumper openings and use the factory grill surround so there wouldn't be large gaps around the Bowtie(The RS has a much larger Bowtie).
This took all afternoon and into the evening, but I think I pulled it off:banana:



Close up..


Backside..


So glad it's over!

 

[sx sonic]

Turned out amazing thou. Looks phenomenal!.

Why didn't GM do this in the 1st place.

 

[Stew]

Very clean work, looks very factory.

 

[rdss]

Turned out nice!!

SonicR went through the same process. http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/exterior-modifications/6047-rs-grill-mod.html

 

[MPFab]

Turned out nice!!

SonicR went through the same process. http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/exterior-modifications/6047-rs-grill-mod.html

I saw his thread after a bought them. From memory, his didn't fit very well around the Bowtie, but he used the RS grill surrounds.

 

[rdss]

Yes. He cut them to fit.

 

[Beastlick]

very nice install! The bowtie area looks just slightly off but very nice work trying to make it fit. Any non-RS without the stache' looks much better than stock!

 

[Preloader]

If you paint the bowtie black, it'll draw attention away from the RS bowtie hole filler you did.

Either way, it looks great.

 

[MPFab]

very nice install! The bowtie area looks just slightly off but very nice work trying to make it fit. Any non-RS without the stache' looks much better than stock!

Thanks. I made 1/4" aluminum plates to fill in the recess where the RS emblem went. Is that what you're talking about being off? Doing that allowed me to use the factory grill surrounds that fit the emblem. If I would have used the RS surrounds there would have been void around the emblem. It was a compromise for sure.

If you paint the bowtie black, it'll draw attention away from the RS bowtie hole filler you did.

Either way, it looks great.

If I did that, then I'd draw attention to the emblem....I think I'd rather not. Maybe that's why I painted it body color you goober!

 

[Preloader]

The majority here seems to dislike the bowtie. I rather like it. So long as it's not factory gold.opcorn:

 

[MPFab]

The majority here seems to dislike the bowtie. I rather like it. So long as it's not factory gold.opcorn:

I don't mind it at all painted body color.

 

[Beastlick]

Thanks. I made 1/4" aluminum plates to fill in the recess where the RS emblem went. Is that what you're talking about being off? Doing that allowed me to use the factory grill surrounds that fit the emblem. If I would have used the RS surrounds there would have been void around the emblem. It was a compromise for sure.

Yeah, that was the area I was referring to. I honestly didn't think they were an add on. I thought it was the original surround due to the larger bowtie on the RS. You'd almost need to buy an additional RS grill if you wanted constant geometry throughout. Not worth the time/money to get such a small area perfect.

 

[MPFab]

The plates are 1/16" and the fill the recessed area where the RS surrounds would have snapped in. The plates also cover the rectangular holes left from not using the RS surrounds.

 

[GMman]

Very nice !!

 

[Chrish051873]

Very good job ! I like it.

 

[Moxie]

I really wish I was capable of doing this. It looks great!

 

[lattyd]

Absolutely amazing job. Extreme props

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Macehammer]

Looks great.

Being an RS owner I would have preferred the Normal bowtie, or none at all actually, but another possible solution to this, I don't know if its been thought of or discussed, couldn't a ls-lt-ltz owner get an RS bowtie to fix the bowtie size problem?

 

[Beastlick]

the bumper recess for the bowtie is also different so swapping them would be even more challenging.

 

[ras42tbss]

awesome job! Did you get your RS grill from a dealership, or online somewhere? I've been looking online, but the only thing i can find is the regular model ones...

Thanks!