Cars House

Hi, I was wondering if I could get some help here- I damaged my grill frame and have a new one already painted. How much should it cost to have it replaced (just labor)? I just brought it into a local auto shop and they quoted me $250, explaining they needed to take out the headlights and bumper to replace the grill frame. Is that fair? Thanks for your help!

Don't know what would be a good quote for it... but $250 does seem a bit exhorbitant, considering it's not much more than headlight and bumper R&R. That's about 30 minutes of time there.

Anyway, it's all screws and bolts (ie, not welded), so if you're a bit mechanically inclined, you just might be able to replace it yourself.

uh... $250 is EXTREMELY exorbitant. you can easily do this in under an hour in a driveway, on the street parked, etc.

you need to remove both turnsignals, headlights, (easy, need a stubby flathead screwdriver (to keep mounting things from turning... you'll see), 8mm socket screwdriver deal for the headlight bolts. (~30 min or less)

the grill is mounted to the car via two bolts per side in the wheel wells (gotta push aside the plastic liner to get to them), and then four bolts to the left and right of the grilles (hard to describe... but it'd be right behind the headlights on the inside part).

sorry for the crappy description, but i had to replace my grille frame after spinning out on the highway last summer, and it is definitley not worth $250 to replace (also had to take it off to replace hood latch cable... that auto shop would have quoted what, $500 for that?) btw... removing the bumper literally takes 10 minutes. four bolts, some trim on the bottom, bam, off.