I have torn the Internet apart looking for a good site with a tutorial to complete a bolt on grill installation (upper and lower) and haven't found one that explains it well yet. So after taking what is listed as a 1.5 hour job and making it last 4 hours, I am going to share what I learned to make everyone else's experience easier. After performing this once, I could probably do it again inside of 1/2 hour.

I bought a grill on e-bay that came with directions. I eventually tracked down the original manufacturer and found that it is a Carriage Works brand grill, however most bolt on grills should follow a similar build.

**NOTE**: Please read these directions a few times before attempting the install. This way, you won't have to stop in the middle of the work so often to re-read. Also, DO NOT attempt this project if you cannot finish it in one sitting. Your truck will look stupid with no grill. Plus, the majority of this truck's grill is held on with snap clips, so the more often you have to remove and re-install it, the weaker they get.

What you will need:

- Long (really long) flat blade (standard) screw driver

- Phillips #1 or 2 (depending on brand) screwdriver

- 10mm socket (and ratchet)

- 13mm socket (and ratchet)

- 13mm open end wrench

- Drill w/ 1/8th inch drill bit (Yeah, I hate drills too, but its really easy)

- Hammer (or rubber mallet if you are the type who only takes home run chops)

- Masking tape

- Several sheets of paper

- Paint marker, or white out pen (so you can make marks on black plastic)

1.) Open hood, crawl under truck and remove the two rear bolts for the front skid plate with the 10mm ratchet. I know this sounds weird, but there is a good chance you will drop something along this installation, and this is likely where it will end up. If you remove these two bolts, this will allow the skid plate to flex enough such that anything that falls will fall all the way to the ground, so you can retrieve it. I have a 2004 Titan SE 2wd, so this worked for me, if you have an off road package you may need to remove the whole plate.

2.) If you are anal like me, you don't want any scratches anywhere. So apply masking tape to the inner edges of the grill (where its painted, or in some models chromed) as well as on the top of the bumper, directly underneath the grill.

3.) Prepare a space for you to put your grill (not just the inserts, but the whole plastic front portion), before you remove it. This way you don't pull that giant awkward plastic grill off, and stand there looking stupid wondering where you will put it (I made that mistake). Remove any sharp objects from the surface (tools, etc) that may scratch it, and lay down some shirts or rags to make sure you aren't just setting it on concrete or any other surface that may damage the finish.

4.) Examine grill from backside and note the four places where the upper portion connects to the chassis. These are located on the same hunk of metal as your hood release, and all of those stickers warning you about stuff.

You are looking for the square shaped screw looking things (they will actually look like diamonds because they are rotated a quarter turn). These are similar those annoying little plastic clips that hold interior plastic paneling all over modern vehicles.

Simply take your flat blade screwdriver and turn each one of these top four clips 1/4 turn counter clockwise (left). This makes the diamond back into a square, and will allow it to slide conveniently through the square shaped holes in the grill. Now the upper portion of the grill will feel somewhat loose after loosening these.

5.) Examine the lower portion of the grille, actually the gap between the bumper and the grill particularly. There will be three more of these clips, take a look at the top ones again if you forget what you are looking for.

Same routine as above, 1/4 turn will set these clips free as well. Now the bottom may feel slightly loose.

6.) Here is one place where the directions were incorrect in my application. They say to look for two more of the 1/4 turn clips on the sides of the grill, which are only accessible through the grill. On my truck, these do not exist. Instead, my grill was fastened with conventional clips on the sides (one low, which you cannot reach) and one high. The high one is visible from above about two inches down and an inch forward of the outermost of the four clips you loosened earlier. You can compress it with your fingers if you want to ease the removal. While holding the clip compressed, give the grill a yank, and it should come free on that side. Repeat on the other side, and the grill assembly should be in your hands.

7.) Move the grill over to your workspace, and lay it down with the logo (or hamburger as some call it) facing the ceiling.

8.) Take the center section of the three piece insert and lay it on top of the grill assembly. Take note where the four mounting points are inside of the grill bars.

9.) Grab all the mounting hardware and, sort it into groups so that you can easily access everything. Note how the mounting brackets are flat, but have the ends bent up. When using these, orient the up-bent ends such that they face toward the front of the grill.

If you take the time to test fit it against the back of the grill, you will notice the brackets are not long enough to tuck the up bent ends between the diamond shaped holes in the plastic grill when placed vertically or horizontally. The only way they fit is to go diagonal. Drop one of the long black screws through a mounting point on the grill insert. Reach under the grill, and slide a bracket (up bent ends facing forward towards you) onto the bolt. Hold the Philips screwdriver against the bolt and loosely hand thread the nut onto the bolt. Repeat this process for all four bolts.

10.) Now that the bolts are loosely holding the insert in place, you can tilt the grill, such that the logo faces towards you (or away from you it doesn't matter). Using one hand holding the screwdriver, and the other hand holding the ratchet w/10mm socket, tighten the bolt until the bracket is snug (making sure you keep it diagonal, and centered in the diamond holes of the grill assembly). Now loosen the bolt slightly, so that you can move the bracket with minimal effort (this way you can make slight changes to the grill insert alignment). Repeat this process with all four bolts.

11.) Lay the grill assembly down again (logo facing up) and center the insert to your liking. Once you have it where you want it, take several sheets of paper, folded up and wedge them in between the top, bottom, and sides of the grill assembly and the insert. This will hold the insert still and centered so that you can finish tightening the bolts.

12.) Tilt the grill assembly up slowly such that the logo is pointing at about a 45-degree angle. This way you can again reach behind the grill with the ratchet with one hand. Tilting it too far may cause the logo to fall forward, and need to be re-centered. Finish tightening the bolts just enough such that you cannot turn the mounting brackets from side to side with your hands. Too much tighter than this may cause damage to the grill insert.

13.) Using the flat blade screwdriver, take the rubber shields off the backsides of the grille (located behind the left and right portions of the three-piece grill). This is done by pressing the grill tabs with the screwdriver, while lifting up on the rubber shield.

14.) Perform steps 9-12 for each of the side grill inserts. To summarize, loosely fasten the grill insert on. Then snug down the hardware, and loosen slightly to be able to make minor alignments. Center the inserts, and use folded paper shims to hold it in place. Then perform final tightening, and remove the shims.

15.) Inspect the grill. If you are not satisfied with alignment of any of the inserts, now is the time to change it. If everything appears aligned, try shifting the insert, to see if it moves. If so, tighten down further, until the inserts do not move.

16.) Here is a turning point in the work. If you only bought the upper 3-piece step, you can skip to step 39. If you bought the lower bumper grill insert as well, do not re-install the grill yet.

17.) The lower plastic grill is held in place with two different types of fasteners. The first is a plastic type of rivet (I spent hours trying to figure out how they work), the other is plastic studs that have strange nuts that make their own threads.

For whatever reason, Nissan decided that this piece was going to suffer through nuclear war or something because it is fastened in 9 places. They must have also assumed that this piece is more valuable than gold, and everyone would want to steal it because every single fastener is damn annoying to try to get to. But with a little patience (and some scraped knuckles) you can get through it.

Start with the plastic rivets. Examine the plastic bumper grill piece. Look at the very top of it and you will see three circular black disks. These are the heads of the rivets. These rivets do not go directly into the metal bumper, instead, they have a plastic sleeve around them, which has a strange tip (out of sight above the bumper). This tip of the sleeve squeezes the rivets to keep them from falling out. It is also important to reach up behind the bumper, either through the lower grill opening, or from above (that’s one of the reasons the main grill is left off) and feel the sleeve portion of the rivet. I actually used a hand mirror and a flashlight (pointed at the mirror) to examine how to remove the rivet before I could figure it out.

To remove the rivets, take a flat screwdriver, and pry on the head of the rivet. Unfortunately, the sleeve also has disk shaped head that is just smaller than the rivet's head. It is not visible until you pull the rivet slightly downward. You must pry the rivet down enough, so that you can fit the blade of the screwdriver between these two flat disk heads. If you do not, you can sit there and try endlessly to pry on both heads at once, and the rivet will not come out (unless you break it, which is not the goal). If you have done it properly, a fair bit of prying on the rivet head (not the smaller sleeve head) will cause the rivet to pop out.

18.) To remove the sleeve, you must reach through the grill opening, and up to the top of the bumper from behind. Simply squeeze the top of the sleeve (the portion above the plastic bumper piece) and push it down with your finger, and it will come out. Repeat this for the two remaining rivets.

19.) Now onto the plastic stud/self threading nut removal. The remaining fasteners are located about half way up the plastic bumper piece on either side, as well as four along the bottom.

First take a peek through either of your tow hook holes in the bumper, and you can see the line of four across the bottom, as well as the one on the side that you are looking through. There is no simple process for this step, just grab your open ended wrench, your ratchet, something comfortable to sit on, and start turning (counter clockwise).

I have found that to access the side ones, it is easiest to go from above the bumper (the other reason I said leave the main grill off) and that way you can remove those two with a ratchet and a 13mm socket.

20.) Once you have removed the upper three rivets, and the two side nuts, the bottom is the toughest part, not really tough but time consuming. Take the open ended 13mm wrench in one hand and use your other hand to locate the nut. You are going to be removing the nut without being able to look at it, so two hands comes in handy here to act as your eyes. You can lean the plastic piece somewhat forward, since the upper fasteners are removed, which will give you more room for your hands.

21.) Once you have removed all the fasteners (congratulations), you can remove the studs from the grill, by gently pulling on each side, inward towards the center of the grill (the plastic will flex). This should loosen the side studs from the mounting points on the bumper itself. Pulling up on the lower portion of the plastic piece will flex it enough to remove the studs from the mounts on the lower portion of the plastic grill piece. Make sure to work from one side to the other, removing one stud at a time, until it comes loose from the truck

22.) Take the L shaped brackets, and install the clips on to the short leg of them. Take a look at the clips, you will notice that one side has a bump and the other side is flat. The side with the bump is what the threads of the screws are going to thread into later. This is about the only thing that the manual pictures are really good for. Install a clip as the manual pictures show, with the clip going across the shorter leg, instead of with it. And the bump side facing upward. Line the holes in the clip up with the holes in the bracket, so the screw can go through it later.

23.) Now take the bumper grill insert and compare it to the plastic grill piece. You can observe that the mounting points on the insert are set wider than the vertical supports on the plastic bumper piece. To allow for the mounts to attach to this, the short end of the bracket will need to be bolted to the grill. This leaves two options for orienting the brackets. You will want to flip the brackets such that the longer portion of the L bracket is closer to the center of the grill so that it can come in contact with the vertical supports. This means that when looking at the grill from the front on the left side, the long side of the brackets will be on the right. So on the right side of the grill insert, the long side of the brackets will be on the left.

24.) Now that you have visualized how the pieces line up, its time to mount them. Take the Phillips screwdriver and place a screw in a mount hole. Using your other hand, orient the bracket according to the above step, and screw it into place. It is a good idea to leave the bracket slightly loose for final aligning later. Repeat this step for all four brackets, making sure that the brackets are always aligned with the long leg closest toward the center of the grill.

25.) Set the plastic grill piece down face up. Lay the grill insert (which now has mounting brackets) on top of the plastic piece. Orient it such that the side with two unused mounts is toward the bottom of the plastic grill piece (the side with the four studs).

26.) Align the grill insert. Make sure you align it in all three dimensions. Top to bottom, left to right, as well as depth from side to side. Once you have the grill sitting in a position that you like, stick the paint marker through the bracket hole on the long leg, and draw a mark on the grill upright for the screw to go.

Keep in mind as you are rotating the grill around, to make sure that before you draw your next mark, that you haven't shifted the grill such that the previous marks you made are out of alignment.

27.) Once all four marks are drawn, double check (measure twice, cut once) that when all four marks are showing through the holes on the brackets, that the grill is still lined up. If not, wipe off old marks, and make new ones.

28.) Once you are sure (maybe measure three or four times if you are paranoid) about your marks, take your drill and 1/8th inch bit and drill through the holes. While you may have 24-volt cordless drill that can do a million rpms, its better to spin the bit as slow as possible, so that it tracks straight through the plastic when starting. Otherwise the bit may slide and drill your hole off center.

29.) Remove the grill insert from the plastic bumper piece. Place the remaining four clips over the holes you just drilled in the plastic piece. Put the bump side (side with thread) towards the center of the plastic grill piece. Make sure the holes are completely lined up, so that the screws can go in easily.

30.) Replace grill insert on top of plastic bumper piece. Screw the remaining four screws through the long legs of the brackets, and into the holes (now with clips) on the plastic bumper piece. Leave these slightly loose for final adjustment later.

31.) Now you should have the plastic grill with grill inserts all bolted together. Unfortunately, the insert is going to get in the way when trying to install the plastic piece back into the bumper of the truck. So remove the four screws that go through the front of the grill insert. This should detach the insert, leaving the mounts attached to the plastic bumper piece.

32.) All of the fabrication work is done now, its just re-assembly time. Start by inserting the plastic piece, bottom first, and aligning the center two studs first. Press down to feel it drop into place. Next, align the outer two lower studs (if they didn't fall into place from the previous step). Finally, align the last two studs along the sides of the plastic grill piece (you may have to flex the grill somewhat for this step).

33.) Before re-attaching all of the self thread nuts, look through the tow hook holes in the bumper to make sure all of the studs are lined up with the mounting tabs along the bottom and sides.

34.) Once the plastic piece has all of the studs lined up with the mounting tabs, you can begin to re-install the self-thread nuts. Grab your open-end 13mm in one hand, and hold the nut in the other. Hand thread the nut onto the stud, and then tighten it down with the wrench. One note here, I noticed that it seemed like forever to remove the nut, but re-installing them only took a few spins of the wrench. Check through the tow hook hole to see if the nut is tightened down all the way for the first couple, to make sure you do not over tighten them.

35.) Once the bottom four nuts are re-installed, trade out the 13mm open-end wrench, for the ratchet w/ 13mm socket. Tighten the side nuts back on from above (through the hole where the main grill would be). Again, use the tow hook holes to make sure you don't over tighten the nuts.

36.) Now that all the self-thread nuts are back in place, take one of the rivet sleeves, and press it up (from plastic piece through bumper) through the hole again. Repeat with all 3 sleeves. Now, grab the hammer or rubber mallet and tap the rivets back into the sleeves.

At this point the plastic grill piece should be tight, and securely mounted again. If it isn't, see which portion is loose and tighten the nuts further, until the plastic piece is secure.

37.) Take the time to clean the plastic bumper piece, because pretty soon, it’s going to be tough to get to. Now fasten the grill insert back into the bumper plastic piece, with the four screws used earlier. At this point, inspect the alignment of the grill. You can make side to side adjustments by loosening the front four screws. You can make up/down or forward/backward adjustments by reaching behind the plastic piece from above (through opening where main grill would be) and loosening the rear four screws, which attach to the plastic uprights.

38.) Once you have the grill where you want it, wedge some more folded paper shims in place around the grill, and tighten down all 8 bolts, until the grill is securely fastened. Check to ensure the alignment is how you want it, and then remove the shims.

39.) Now its time to re-install the main grill (almost celebration time). Again, thoroughly clean the backside of the grill, and clean your radiator of any bugs or debris, before you make it difficult to reach by re-attaching the grill.

Go along the engine cross member, and remove all of the 1/4 turn clips that may still be stuck inside it.

40.) Now for the very important step where planning can save you a half-hour of frustration. Examine the 1/4 turn clips and notice that the end that binds into the engine cross member has two sides that resemble the prongs of an arrow. When being re-inserted into the frame, the arrow prongs should be vertical (I screwed up the first time and made them all horizontal).

Note the name of the part though, it is a 1/4 turn clip, which means that when putting them into the grill mounts, they should be 1/4 turn from vertical. Since tightening is usually clockwise, you want them to be 1/4 turn COUNTER CLOCKWISE from vertical.

First re-install a clip square head back through the square hole in the grill. Now squeeze the arrow like prongs (which should be sticking out the back of the grill) and you will notice that there is a small piece of plastic flashing that acts like a holder to keep the prong squeezed. Slide the clip so that it stays in place somewhat squeezed. It should be sitting on a diagonal angle such that when you rotate it 1/4 turn clockwise (to tighten) the arrow prongs will be aligned vertical to grip the holes in the engine cross member.

41.) Once all the clips are in place in the grill, set your flat blade screwdriver somewhere on the engine where you can easily reach it (because your hands will be full from holding the grill assembly).

Line up the lower three 1/4 turn clips of the grill assembly first (do not try to push them all the way in yet). Now line up the side clips (the ones that are not 1/4 turn clips) and finally the upper four 1/4 turn clips. Once you have them all lined up, one hand or your forearm to hold the grill in this position. Examine all of the clips to make sure that none of them have become misaligned.

It will save you tons of time to double-check all of the clips before tightening. If one fo the clips gets knocked out of position, the grill has to come off, so that you can pull that clip out. Or if it falls down below, you have to remove the grill to retrieve it and re-install it.

42.) Take the flat blade screwdriver you positioned earlier and start by turning the three 1/4 turn clips along the bottom of the grill. If you have good karma, and good luck none of the clips will have accidentally fallen out down onto the skid plate (yeah right).

While still supporting the grill, snap the two side clips on one side of the grill in place by applying pressure to the grill side.

Work your way along the upper four 1/4 turn clips, and once these are fastened, snap in the other two side clips. If all went well through this process, the grill should now be securely fastened. If it is loose anywhere because of a misaligned 1/4 turn clip, you are going to have to try to either pull the clip back out of the frame and back through the grill with needle nose pliers, or more likely remove the entire grill and repeat steps 40-42.

If the grill is secure, guess what, you made it! Remove all the masking tape, and HAND WASH your truck. Automatic car washes probably won't get the sticky goo from the tape off. Go buy a Mr. Clean Auto Dry Car Wash, and a can of spray Armor All and make the rest of your truck shine like your new grill does.

It took me 7 hours to write, proof read, and re-check this. If you find any mistakes, or any shortcuts, feel free to add them. Just try to write in the same detail I did. Keep in mind that many people take on this project that are not mechanics, just people who wanted a grill for their truck.

I try to write with enough detail so that someone who has maybe held a wrench twice in his or her life can still pull it off. If you are spending over an hour working on something two paragraphs worth of instruction probably won’t cut it.

Also, I didn’t know I was going to write this in advance, so I didn’t take pictures. If anyone has pictures of the steps described, feel free to add them.