Swapping Out Your Challenger’s Grille for Style

The grille on your Challenger is a piece that works very well as an appearance enhancer. Despite its beauty, the grille actually serves a very important purpose. It’s on the front line when it comes to taking on rocks and other road debris.

Its primary job is to protect the radiator as the car moves along the highway. Without the grille, the radiator would get a lot of air but its lifespan would be very short due to the blows it would be taking.

If the grille had no openings to allow air to pass through, the radiator wouldn’t be able to do its job and the engine would overheat. Overheating an engine is one of the worst things you could do to it, and with a flat face in front of the radiator, that’s exactly what would happen.

There are a few variations in the factory grilles present on third-generation Challengers. On the 2008-2014 models, the Challenger’s grille was the same across all sub-models. 

This grille design is a mesh plastic and is mounted to the vehicle by spanning completely across the headlight housings. The center of the grille was accented with a silver trim ring which makes it as close to the design of the 1970 Challenger as possible.

With the generation split in 2015, the grille was subjected to change. The grille was redesigned to resemble the grille of the 1971 Challenger. This grille is present across almost all sub-models of the 2015-2018 Challengers. This design of grille only lives between the headlight housings and is fastened within this space.

With the Hellcat and Demon Challengers, the grille is different than the other sub-models of Challengers. The design of the grille is much thinner because of the design of the bumper. To mimic this look, the bumper cover of a Challenger changed as the mounting styles and designs are not interchangeable.

Upgrading to an aftermarket grille may be rendered a mod revolving solely around form rather than form and function. It does seem like an aesthetically biased decision, but the use of an aftermarket grille does bring some functional advantages to the table. With the radiator relying on the grille’s protection, this may be a mod to consider regardless of the physical appearance.

Protection: The Challenger’s factory grille works perfectly, but is made of plastic. In harsh environments, the plastic may not stand up to the beatings. Moving to a stronger material is the perfect way to ensure no debris can blast through the grille and rupture the radiator.

Style: An obvious reason to switch to an aftermarket grille is to enhance the style points of your Challenger. Aftermarket grilles for Challengers come in a variety of designs and layouts. Swapping to a grille that matches the style of your particular build is a way to give the car an unmatched personal touch that will distinguish your Challenger as your own.

Aftermarket grilles come in different materials. Selecting a grille to match a personal touch can be done so regardless of the material it is constructed of. However, moving to a stronger material can mean that regardless of the design of the grille its structural integrity will not be hindered.

Plastic: The factory grille and many aftermarket units will be constructed of plastic. Plastic grilles will be cheaper than aluminum grilles but aren’t as strong. Plastic is perfect for budget builds or cars being built to be driven in environments where the driver need not worry about large rocks destroying the grille.

Aluminum: Using a grille constructed of aluminum opens up many doors. A variety of designs and grille layouts are constructed of aluminum. Mesh grilles, billet grilles, and other designs rely on aluminum as they can use smaller cross sections and mesh sizes without sacrificing structural integrity. Aluminum grilles are great options for style points and for cars that are sure to take on some heavy hitting debris from time to time.

The installation of aftermarket grilles seems like a fairly straightforward process. On Challengers there are a few steps that need to be taken in order to remove and replace the grille.

The first thing to do is remove the factory bumper cover. The grille is mounted to the inside of the bumper cover so the whole thing will need to be removed. Doing so can easily be done by one person but will be easier with two. Before the cover is pulled away from the car, be sure to double check all of the bolts, screws, and disconnects are removed.

Also, be sure that the fog lights are disconnected to ensure they aren’t damaged. Once the cover is pulled away, the grille can be removed.

To install the aftermarket grille one just has to basically follow the reverse order of the removal of the factory grille with some variation depending on the aftermarket grille.

After the grille is in place one can reinstall the bumper cover. Before securing the bumper cover back on the vehicle remember to reinstall the fog lights. Otherwise, the process is very straightforward.

Aftermarket grilles generally don’t require any modifications to be made to the base vehicle. This means that you can return the vehicle back to stock form very easily.

Installing a grille on a Challenger is not difficult but it is time consuming. Before taking on this job be prepared to spend at least an hour to two hours doing so. Some of the bolts are in very hard to reach places and if you rush you will risk damaging the mounting points of the bumper cover.