Hello all. Its about time for me to purchase a new grill for my 87 van, its cheap plastic and its cracking in some places, its just plain ugly.

So my question was, is it possible to use an older generation chevy grill (Single round headlights) instead of the 87 style?

I know it has to be possible, but has anyone done it? How? Difficult?

I just love the older style grills.

Good luck..hope you find what you're after.

i would start by finding old fenders and a core support.. thats how i swapped my 88 s10 grill to 93 jimmy grill




same principle?

hmm not sure if the fenders will be in the way. i just found this. He did exactly what i want to do.

http://pimpmyvan.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=19

its about halfway into his blog.

why not go get the grill and headlight buckets from a junkyard? try that.. and if you end up needing a core support go get one when you can afford it?

Do you have quad headlights or just the dual setup?

You may also need all the sheetmetal behind the headlights as well. not an easy piece to remove since most junkyards, here in friggin NY state anyways, will not allow you to bring in ANY form of cutting tool or power tool.. I am converting my van from 92 style to 79 style. have to get back out to buffalo to get the pieces that Stan cut off for me so i can do this conversion. But where the headlights mount to the structure is what you are going to need as well as the core support. Otherwise, it is ALMOST that easy.... have not seen yet where you have to change out fenders on a G20. some mounting points may be in a different spot, but that is easy to overcome.. far easier than cutting your fenders off and rewelding new ones back on.

wookee and hippieluke are wanting to do this.
And well anyway, you need the grille, and the grille support.


Smitty

You really need a 71 to 77 doner van.....

I have this project slated to be done but have not gotten around to it yet......

Karson also did it in his van....

It's just not an easy bolt and unbolt job.There will more than like likly be some welding and some spot weld cutting needed to pull it off.
I found out the other day a 91 hood is the same size from front to back as a 77.The latches are in different locations

Nice clean 71 to 77 grills are also getting harder to come by these days.

.......Wookee

I think the main difference is the 71-77 grills mounted flat , but in the 80s GM added a lip of sorts that kind of sits inside the headlight door that you will have to cut off so that the MID grill sits flush like it would on it's origin van.