Hot Off the Grille

Upgrading the grille on your SUV is a relatively easy way to give the front end a brand-new look. What is especially nice about installing a grille is that, depending on your taste, the new unit does not have to be very expensive and can be installed in a couple of hours or less. The options when choosing a grille are nearly as vast as wheel and tire choices. The determining factors are personal tastes and price limitations.

Trenz Manufacturing in Bakersfield, California, makes a wide array of billet aluminum products, including bumpers, interior and exterior styling accessories, steering wheels, exhaust tips, and grilles. The company's grilles are made from 6061 T-6 aircraft aluminum and undergo a three-step powdercoating treatment for a chip-free surface. There is also an eight-step hand-polishing procedure before the grilles leave the factory.

We followed along as Glenn Gruettke at Trader's in Whittier, California, installed a Trenz billet grille on a 2001 GMC Yukon. The installation took less than two hours. This aftermarket grille does not come with GMC badging, but Trenz offers a billet emblem for the piece.

1. The stock grille comes as a one-piece unit along with the chrome fascia on the front of the Yukon.	2. The Trenz grille is a billet piece that will fit behind the stock shell.	3. To start the installation, Glenn unbolted and removed the radiator cowl.
4. He then unbolted the shell.	5. Once the bolts were removed, the shell easily snapped out.	6. Glenn used a die grinder to cut away the inner webbing, the black bars of the stock grille.
7. Once this process was complete, the entire center of the grille was removed in one piece.	8. Glenn taped the chrome to ensure that it did not get damaged during sanding, and sanded away the rest of the black plastic from the OE grille.	9. He finished prepping the stock shell by sanding the rest of the plastic by hand.
10. The new grille was fitted inside the shell and centered to make sure that the ends of the grille did not show through the sides of the shell. Glenn double-checked the centering and drilled 1/8-inch holes where the tabs on the Trenz piece lined up with the shell. He then used bolts to secure the new piece in place.	11. Glenn snapped the shell back in place on the Yukon, bolted it on, and replaced the radiator cowl.	12. Anyone who buys this grille has the option of ordering the GMC emblem from Trenz to put in the center of the grille, or they can leave it as-is.