how to remove front valance

[Eldorado]

Hey guys, got a new front valance in the mail yesterday and went to install it. I'm having issues.

I've removed the 3 bolts on either side (above the side markers)... Haynes says to remove the 3 bolts on the cross member, and 3 more bolts (per side) on the bottom corners of the radiator.

I think I've found the ones on the bottom corners of the radiator, and I know I found the 3 bolts on the cross member... but my question is how the hell do you get those bolts out? their heads point upwards, and screw down into the valance with some locking washer "clips"..... and i dont see any way to get a wrench/socket in there to get them out. any tips? will I need to pull the rad fans?

[Techno Duck]

Ive taken a few of these off and im not sure what your talking about. There are three on each side that attach to the fender. Three on the underside, right infront of the radiator support and i think one or two on the inner side of each foglight housing, they attach to a bracket that comes right off the radiator support.

Can you take a picture of the ones on the 'cross member' you are talking about?

[Eldorado]

I'll take a pic tomorrow if i still need to, but when you say "Three on the underside, right infront of the radiator support" - that's the three Haynes is talking about..

only problem is those three bolts, at least on my car, are threaded downwards into snaprings (maybe wrong word? they're clips with holes in them that act like a lock washer) holding them on....

if I am looking towards the rad, standing in front of the car, all I see are the bottoms of 3 bolts, not 3 bolt heads which (I assume) is what I should be seeing...

[Eldorado]

ok, here's the pic... I've circled the bolts in red that i was talking about earlier... notice how they screw "down" into the piece?
please tell me i dont need to take half my front end apart just to fit this silly piece of plastic - why cant it be as easy as the bumper? lol

[Eldorado]

well i got it off.. turns out those weren't the bolts that i needed to get off (i had already removed the bolt i needed to remove from the middle section, and forgot to go after the ones behind each fog lamp...

suffice to say, it took a lot of effort because i couldn't get a socket or wrench in there.. and I broke one of the plastic backings to one of my fog lamps.. but it's out. now comes some dinner, beer... and tomorrow to put the new one on.. finally she wont have a saggy front end on 'er!

[Eldorado]

alright, so the problem has been solved - the valance I got is different from the valance that was on my car.. the mounting brackets were different, and the holes were different in the middle, which was throwing me off quite a bit.

my part number - 931-505-371-01
part number of new valance - 931-505-371-04

anyway, the hardware to mount the -04 valance is already actually on the car, so no need to get anything new.. just for future, realize that you're going to have a few left over parts (brackets and such) when you're done the job!

the -04 valance actually runs a bit lower by an inch or so too, I've found... (measuring to the 3 holes along the middle bottom of the valance to the underside of the radiator.) - I've secured it at the fenders, and behind the fog lamps... but that's it - I cant get it to secure anywhere else... so i guess i'm just gonna have to wing it and see if it holds up!

[Marcone]

Lets see some pics!!! I am curious !

[Eldorado]

I'll take some tomorrow... wanted to wait until i got all the lights back in.
you get my message about those fog lamp backs?

[Eldorado]

ok, here are pics as requested..

in a pic that I took before the removal, you can see how it attaches... a piece on the valance actually travels up to the rad support and bolts in at the bolts circled. The belly pan is removed in this pic, but actually bolts up close to where the valance bolts to.



Now, with the new valance I put in, it doesn't have that piece that goes up to join the rad mount, instead, it's got all one piece that travels straight back, about 2 inches below the normal rad mount...



here's another angle.. you can actually see right through to the back of my plate.



In this pic, you can also see a third piece, that is right in the middle, that is a sort of 'fin' on the valance with a hole in it... i suspect that this mounts to a piece that isn't on my car..

now what I dont have a pic of, unfortunately, is behind the fogs.
before I had metal "L" brackets, looked factory, that joined the back of the fog lamp housing over to the side of the rad support. now, i dont have metal clamps, there's actually a piece molded into the valance.. this is the best pic i have of it..



in my valance (originally) it did'nt have that piece, and relied on a metal bracket that lined up with only one of the holes on the body..


anyway, the point to all of this was to say that they're different. And I haven't found a way to mount those three bolts that run along the bottom of the valance yet...

[Eldorado]

any ideas why?

[Baza]

Kyle
Have a look at this link it may help http://www.pelicanparts.com/PartsLookup/HTML/944_2_USA_KATALOG/802-10-Frame5.htm
Its from the pelican site