Front Bumper Molding Swap

Hi everyone! I'll admit it... Whenever I see a 2006+ Prius with the chrome (vs 2005 painted) front bumper piece, I get a little jealous. If I wanted to swap my painted part out for the chrome version, do I have to take the whole bumper off? Or can I just take off the plastic shroud at the front of the engine bay to get access to the screws? Thanks!

 

Okay so finally got around to making the swap. Here are my notes:

1. To remove the black shroud at the front of the engine bay I found it easiest to simply reach underneath the little plastic pop rivet things and just push them out with my finger. There was one that I couldn't reach with my finger so I used the pry method.

2. To free the top of bumper so it could be bent back, I removed the two rubber hood rests with and used a flathead screw driver to pop up and remove the bigger plastic pop rivet things.


3. From here just bend back the bumper to access the four screws. Once those are removed there are some plastic locking tabs that you push to finally remove the molding piece.


4. If you look at the side by side comparison of the old molding and the new, you will notice that the plastic tabs do not match. To me this isn't a big deal since you have the four screws holding the molding in. The shape of the 2006 part is also slightly different but it fit fine and the screw holes line up.


5. I actually snapped a screw standoff while reattaching the new part with very little force, so be careful. So, either use smaller screws to attach the new molding or pre thread with the original screws. So that side is a little loose but it doesn't rattle around or anything like that.

6. Then just reverse the process and you're good! Thanks for reading.



(PS - I know my headlights are yellow... That's next on the list.)