Grillin'...
We purchased a new 2016 Sunseeker last fall, and I've been busy with various projects.
I had ordered myself a few Christmas presents, one was a new billet grill insert.
Here's the Sunseeker just after we brought it home. It needed something to spruce up the grill:
I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning on installing the inserts - here's the finished grill:
One thing that's always bugged me about many vehicles is the hardware behind the grill is the wrong color - body panels, AC condensers, braces, etc. The AC condenser in the Express was no different:
Using a very light coat of flat black paint, I sprayed just enough to darken the bright bits:
Then installed the grill, markers and headlights. Here's the finished product:
It is a vanity item... purely for appearance. But hey, it's not often you buy a brand new motorhome & get to add a few accents!
I purchased the insert from Amazon; it required a lot of work to get it to look right.
While the billets were well made, the welded in aluminum nuts had powder coat paint in them; I used a tab to clear the threads.
Next, the provided studs were inconsistent, and a bit beat up. They are 2.5cm lengths (1"ish) of 5mm threaded rod, with a slot in one end to help thread them into the mounting holes. I ran a tap over the whole lot as the end with the slot would bind the nuts.
Next, I used additional nuts to bind the rods into the mounting points, and used lock-tite to secure & provide a bit of corrosion resistance.
Once the studs were mounted, I mounted the lower unit without difficulty. It looked good, save a spot where the nobbies on the grill were pushing the bars up & down.
The upper unit was terrible. It had too much curve for the grill, and had to be pulled in with a lot of pressure to get the nuts to start. Also, the curve was incorrect - it was straight, but it needed a bit of a smile type curve. I worked on the unit for quite a while to re curve it in both directions but it still wouldn't mount correctly. I took my dremel tool & cut the nubs off, then using a course, file, cleaned it up & finished flattening the surface. After cleaning the edges, I was finally able to mount the upper unit & make it look good.
I would have preferred to purchase a replacement GMC grill & had a billet filler that didn't have a cut-out for the GMC logo, but those are difficult to come by. Better yet, if they made a billet that replaced the entire grill - that would be the ticket. (It's only money....)
I had ordered myself a few Christmas presents, one was a new billet grill insert.
Here's the Sunseeker just after we brought it home. It needed something to spruce up the grill:
I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning on installing the inserts - here's the finished grill:
One thing that's always bugged me about many vehicles is the hardware behind the grill is the wrong color - body panels, AC condensers, braces, etc. The AC condenser in the Express was no different:
Using a very light coat of flat black paint, I sprayed just enough to darken the bright bits:
Then installed the grill, markers and headlights. Here's the finished product:
It is a vanity item... purely for appearance. But hey, it's not often you buy a brand new motorhome & get to add a few accents!
I purchased the insert from Amazon; it required a lot of work to get it to look right.
While the billets were well made, the welded in aluminum nuts had powder coat paint in them; I used a tab to clear the threads.
Next, the provided studs were inconsistent, and a bit beat up. They are 2.5cm lengths (1"ish) of 5mm threaded rod, with a slot in one end to help thread them into the mounting holes. I ran a tap over the whole lot as the end with the slot would bind the nuts.
Next, I used additional nuts to bind the rods into the mounting points, and used lock-tite to secure & provide a bit of corrosion resistance.
Once the studs were mounted, I mounted the lower unit without difficulty. It looked good, save a spot where the nobbies on the grill were pushing the bars up & down.
The upper unit was terrible. It had too much curve for the grill, and had to be pulled in with a lot of pressure to get the nuts to start. Also, the curve was incorrect - it was straight, but it needed a bit of a smile type curve. I worked on the unit for quite a while to re curve it in both directions but it still wouldn't mount correctly. I took my dremel tool & cut the nubs off, then using a course, file, cleaned it up & finished flattening the surface. After cleaning the edges, I was finally able to mount the upper unit & make it look good.
I would have preferred to purchase a replacement GMC grill & had a billet filler that didn't have a cut-out for the GMC logo, but those are difficult to come by. Better yet, if they made a billet that replaced the entire grill - that would be the ticket. (It's only money....)
