It's the little things...

[VTburban]

Just got these in the mail today from AKBrener. I'm strangely very excited to put them on.

 

[Modded]

You should be. They look way better than the gold stock ones.

 

[edgaranah1]

They look the same to me. But then again I dont see the chevy emblem daily up close. Lol

 

[VTburban]

Ok so here's an update, and maybe some helpful information for someone like me who wants to do this but doesn't know much about the subject.

I started by removing the old bowtie, which includes the opaque yellow-tinted plastic and the inner piece which is covered in a foil-like material. Using a pry tool, such as a putty knife or trim removal tool, the first plastic piece just popped out, really no problem.

The inner piece is held tight with two large plastic pins that go through the grille. The pins are held in place by nuts that in my case took a 7mm socket. The pins are long, so make sure you use an extended socket (don't know the technical name). These nuts are thin and flimsy (don't know the technical name) so once you get them started they can be loosened by hand. To get at them just reach down between the grille and the radiator, right behind the bowtie. Guys with big hands may want to loosen or remove the five 10mm bolts holding the top of the grille in place.

Once those nuts are removed I used my pry tool and my hands to pull the bowtie free from the housing. This required breaking it free from a piece of 3m tape, and required some force. Once this was done I removed as much of the tape as I could, then used an adhesive remover solution to get the small stuff. A 3m eraser wheel would work better and faster, but it runs about $40.00, and the solution works fine, so consider that.

Here's where I ran into my only problem. The new bowtie has two studs that are supposed to line up with the pre-existing holes used by the old pins. In my case, the studs were about a centimeter too narrow, and no amount of pressure got them in place. To fix this, I used a dremmel with a cutting bit to cut away the inside of the exterior holes on both sides, thus widening the holes enough to get the new studs to fit. I then found that I had to cut away the same sections on an interior guide hole in the grille so the new bowtie would fit flat. Once this was done I was able to screw the new nuts on, and I was done.

I'm not sure if anyone else has had this problem, but since I got these from a guy with an '08 Tahoe and mine is an '08 Suburban, I figured someone might find this useful in the future. Once I figured out what I had to do, the whole process took about 10 minutes. Below are a couple of "before" pics, showing the issue. The first is the bare housing, the second is the new bowtie lining up with the housing, showing the difference in allignment. Hope this helps, I'll throw up some pics of the finished product soon.

 

[VTburban]

Here's a few of the whole thing...

 

[07Burb]

Did the back emblem go smoothly for you? Looks great!!

 

[VTburban]

Thanks! It looks way better in person. It went pretty well, but I noticed after I was done that I had loosened the entire applique, which slid down maybe a couple millimeters...not enough for most to notice, but it's a little loose now and there are a few scratches that had been covered up before. Not a very big deal, any maybe an excuse to replace it someday with a Yukon app if I ever get the itch...thanks for all the advice!!

---------- Post added at 10:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 PM ----------

So the rear emblem was a different process. This one is held on with 3m tape and two small pins without a backing. The left pin is in the lower left portion of the bowtie and the right pin is in the upper right. To remove the entire emblem I used 8lb test fishing line and my wife's hair dryer. It was a slow process, because it was cold here today, and I had to hold the dryer in my armpit as I used the line like a saw behind the emblem. I worked around the two pins, going in from each side, but when I got to the middle I changed tactics because I kept breaking line. I wedged a putty knife behind the housing (with a cloth under it to protect the paint) and just pulled with my fingers as I heated the housing. It worked pretty well. I then scraped the residue off with my thumbs, cleaned the surface and mounted the new emblem with 3m tape. It came out pretty well, with the exception of the above-mentioned applique issue. Had I known about the delicate nature of the applique prior to starting, I probably would have waited for a warmer day, and held down on the applique as I pulled to reduce tension on the studs holding it in place. Other than that, no issues, and it looks really good.

 

[ctahoe09]

looks awesome i have the same emblems.... the way i remove the back emblem was by using a credit card or something similar to it and just started pushing towards the center of the emblem... took about 5 minutes to take off.... the residue was a PIA to take off.... the front emblem was pretty easy i used a 10mm socket to remove the stock emblem and at first i thought the new emblem was going to fit but i pushed it in with some force and it went in.... but overall it is a fairly easy mod...

 

[07Burb]

The 3m eraser wheel is well worth the money makes very quick work of that adhesive

 

[VTburban]

Yeah I'd recommend it, especially if you're going to be debadging as well. $40.00 at one of my local stores.