Chevy & GMC Vans

This procedure is for 1999 Astro
I prefer the composite style grill & headlights so here is the way I went about wiring it in

here is a before shot:


and after:


First get all the pieces you need, grill, headlights with black backing attachment plates, non-functional clear lights that attach to outer edge of headlights, composite left and right pigtail harness from a donor vehicle, and all bolts & screws. I got all my parts from junkyard for around $60.00 total. The swap is a straight forward direct bolt in procedure, no drilling and everything fits, you can find plenty of threads on it. My main concern was the wiring and I couldn't find tutorial with pics for the wiring, so I decided to make one myself.

start with the pigtail harnesses, 2 wires on the left are ground wires I also clipped from donor vehicle


here is the sealed beam plug you will cut off


here is the composite harness ends next to sealed beam plug, notice the wire colors are exactly the same, except the composite style has an extra black ground wire


find a spot to attach your extra ground wire, I chose this spot by the washer fluid bottle since there is no paint under the bolt, I also used the same bolt on the drivers side for the other ground wire


remove bolt


attach ground, it looks almost factory!


run the ground through the headlight bucket and you now have all 4 wires needed to attach the composite harness


cut off the sealed beam plug, and attach all the wires of same color together, for testing


put some tape over the exposed connections and test for high/low and DRL's


if all works as it should, the next step is attaching. I used crimp connectors and heat shrink tubing, I would've preferred to solder the connections but I left my solder gun at work


I attached all 4 wires like this one


then taped them all together with 3M professional grade Super88 electrical tape


then tucked it all in flame retardant plastic wire conduit and wrapped the ends in electrical tape


now repeat process for the other side, bolt everything on, plug it in, and your done

Now that's a cool write up. Thanks.

Well done.

Well done!

I gotta ask...why did it take you so long to put this write-up out here? I mean these pics were taken last summer...look at the green grass and bare hands.

LiftedAWDAstro wrote:Well done!

I gotta ask...why did it take you so long to put this write-up out here? I mean these pics were taken last summer...look at the green grass and bare hands.

I did the swap couple of months ago? But the very last pic is from today, no joke! Didn't you know I'm in California? It was cold and clear today, about 60deg Hahaha, feel sorry for you guys up north, 40's is the absolute coldest it gets in my area

I would have soldered the wires as well as use the shrink tubing. Very nice job, though.

CaptSquid wrote:I would have soldered the wires as well as use the shrink tubing. Very nice job, though.

I would've too, but I was halfway into the job when I realized my soldering iron was at work, oh well, I made sure the connections were as good as you could get otherwise

Nice write-up and pics, thanks for sharing the info.

very good write up and pics... this is a swap that I have no idea why more don't do. there's some very nice vans out there .. custom cargo's especially that would look so clean without that plastic headlight bucket. a thread like this wouldn't deter me from buying one with sealed beams.

lucky sob living in cali with summer all year .. no rust anywhere on that thing

btw.. great deal on everything for $60 !!!!

lastly, nothing new for mounting the grill? everything just bolts right up?

crash wrote:very good write up and pics... this is a swap that I have no idea why more don't do. there's some very nice vans out there .. custom cargo's especially that would look so clean without that plastic headlight bucket. a thread like this wouldn't deter me from buying one with sealed beams.

lucky sob living in cali with summer all year .. no rust anywhere on that thing

btw.. great deal on everything for $60 !!!!

lastly, nothing new for mounting the grill? everything just bolts right up?

Nothing new for the grill, same hardware and mounting holes, and $60 is a steal, I thought for sure the grill would be more, but I got the grill for $20 minus bowtie emblem, and it looked pretty shabby, put some steel wool to the chrome to bring back the shine and used the bowtie from my cargo grill, I did forget to include the price of the harness and ground wires, which were $12 I think, still $72 total is not too shabby

one other question, after looking at the before/after pics.... are the signal/parking lights the same? i never realised how similar they are until seeing the pics side by side like that

crash wrote:one other question, after looking at the before/after pics.... are the signal/parking lights the same? i never realised how similar they are until seeing the pics side by side like that

They are the same lenses, but I de-oxidized them with none other than Brasso! works like a champ, just a lot of elbow grease, I have a tutorial with pics to write up on how to do it, I also have a tutorial with pics for the later year throttle plate mod, and another one for cheap, cheap speaker upgrade with stock radio, just haven't had the time to do them. Also, if you are going to use the GMC style composite grill, you will need new turn signal lenses, or trim up the chevy ones to make them fit, they don't interchage well, you will also need trim pieces under the lenses color matched to your vehicle, this is the main reason I chose the use chevy style grill

slim724 wrote:

CaptSquid wrote:I would have soldered the wires as well as use the shrink tubing. Very nice job, though.

I would've too, but I was halfway into the job when I realized my soldering iron was at work, oh well, I made sure the connections were as good as you could get otherwise

Thanks!!! Excellent tut!!! But who needs a soldering iron?

Here's a link to a vid and a field soldering kit that had me wondering why I didn't think of this a long time ago. #-o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quczoJgU ... r_embedded

http://www.instructables.com/id/Guide-t ... offset=100

Makes a great addition to your glove box!

Nice pics and write up! Smok'in deal, too!

crash wrote:very good write up and pics... this is a swap that I have no idea why more don't do. there's some very nice vans out there .. custom cargo's especially that would look so clean without that plastic headlight bucket. a thread like this wouldn't deter me from buying one with sealed beams.

lucky sob living in cali with summer all year .. no rust anywhere on that thing

Yes, lucky sob, I guess nothing is stopping us from moving there.

I actually like the sealed beams. They look retro or utilitarian or something to me.

Thanks for all the great info. I just bought a 97 Astro Cargo and I want to switch to the composite style grill as well.
I also want to add power mirrors which, I think, should be an easy add on.