Swap grill inserts without breaking tabs! What they dont want you to know...

Easy! Easy! Easy!

Tools:
-phillips screw driver
-exacto knife w fresh/sharp scalpel/point blade
-long thin flat head screw driver

Cliff notes:
1. remove 4 phillips screws (2 on each end)
2. trim the front tab (green line) with exacto knife (cuts like butter)
3. gently use flat head to apply slight pressure from rear of tab, grill will slide right out

Overview:
The surround (labeled FRONT) has a tab that puts pressure against the grill tab (labeled BACK), holding it in place. You only need to trim the tab on the surround (green line). The tab on the grill (BACK) will still hold the grill in place just fine, trust me!

You only need to trim the bottom (5?) tabs. The side tabs will release quite easily with minimal pressure. You are only relieving the excessive pressure off the back of the tab!


This is what you will be trimming:




Trim this:



Showing rear grill tab (do NOT trim this, push against to release):



Front tab AFTER trimming:

 

Nice write up !!

Going to keep this for future reference

 

Good work!

 

That will come in handy! Thanks for documenting it.

 

Thanks for the great write up, wish I knew about this sooner lol

 

I tried releasing the grill without trimming...most of the tabs broke off. Now I know.

 

I found that it helped if you have someone else pull the parts apart while you manipulated the tabs..
Easier than doing it alone...

 

Thanks for the info. I believe I will be doing this in the future.

 

This is exactly how I did mine. I neglected to take pictures and had a hard time trying to explain it to people. Good job! It seemed obvious to me when I inspected mine. After breaking one tab I trimmed the rest.

 

Nice!

 

Right on! Are you de-chroming? Do you have before after picks of the grill on your truck?

 

Thanks for the write up OP, no tabs were harmed today!

 

Bump!

 

I just used this method to swap my insert into the older Pro surround. It worked well to get the two separated and not breaking any tabs, but once cut, the tabs do not hold the insert in place like they used to.
I may need to put a tab of glue behind the tab if it gives me a problem down the road.

 

I swapped my grille out and I didn’t trim/grind or tamper with any of the tabs. Not sure why anyone would do this because it will never hold as intended.

Watched a few YouTube videos on this and with No tampering/trimming of the tabs they all came apart very easily.

It took me around 15-20 minutes tops and that was really taking my time. Probably less than 5 minutes of that time was inserting the grille into the new surround.

I definitely recommend NOT Trimming any of the tabs. Just take your time, the warmer the temperature the better, and it should separate easily.

Just my 2 cents