Hood Deflectors are Cool
Thread Starter
CF Beginner
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 10
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From: Arizona
Hood Deflectors are Cool
Hi,
I still like the "old school" look of a smoke/dark hood deflector and want to add one to my 1998 C1500 Silverado Ext Cab. (She's my baby - still looking good!)
Anyone care to share thoughts on a brand they like and know will fit? I've heard that some take up too much space between the hood and top of the grille, forcing you to raise the hood latch - so I'd like to avoid that if I can. Thanks!
I still like the "old school" look of a smoke/dark hood deflector and want to add one to my 1998 C1500 Silverado Ext Cab. (She's my baby - still looking good!)
Anyone care to share thoughts on a brand they like and know will fit? I've heard that some take up too much space between the hood and top of the grille, forcing you to raise the hood latch - so I'd like to avoid that if I can. Thanks!
CF Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2019
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I'm curious about which brands are good and fit well too. I've been debating getting one as well as rain guards/deflectors for the windows on my Tahoe. My Dad has a hood deflector on his F-150 and I swear it deflects every bug on the road right into the windshield.
Thread Starter
CF Beginner
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 10
Likes: 5
From: Arizona
I just found a hood deflector called "Bugflector II" the company is AVS (getAVS.com) which for these trucks is their model # 25631. I can't install it myself so I'll have the boys at my local shop do it on Thursday. I'll post back here again to let you know how it turns out! :-)
CF Monarch
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 4,605
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From: USA
I just found a hood deflector called "Bugflector II" the company is AVS (getAVS.com) which for these trucks is their model # 25631. I can't install it myself so I'll have the boys at my local shop do it on Thursday. I'll post back here again to let you know how it turns out! :-)
Thread Starter
CF Beginner
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 10
Likes: 5
From: Arizona
Hi,
The results are in. So this is an all acrylic, one piece deflector, looks just like the one I had on my '91 a long time ago. Guys at the shop found that the only way they could mount it following the instructions - and still have the hood close - was to mount it very shallow, meaning that it would stick out in front much further than it should. This was because the grille mounts were in the way. The far left and right grille mounts, right next to the corner of each fender just under the hood, were in the way. For it to look "right" (aka, sexy-cool) it needed to be pushed in by another 3/4 inch so that it sat about a half-inch out from the front edge of the hood.
The only way to make this work would be to cut out about 7 inches from the mounting surface from both ends so that the deflector could be mounted further back without those grille mounting points being in the way. This part worked!! They used a Dremel cutter, checking and rechecking to make sure they only cut away what they needed to, and we were able to achieve the proper mounting depth.
However... once we were sure it was ready to install, they did a test fit and found that the hood would not close. There wasn't enough space between the hood and the grille, more so on one side than the other, but not enough throughout. The only way they could have installed it was to raise the height of the hood latch. But this caused the hood to be obviously higher than the fenders which did not look good at all. So in the end, we did not install it.
Now, we talked about why this might be. Dave, the most experienced guy there who worked for a dealership for years and knows these trucks well, speculated that two things might be factors. First, there is more variability in the fitment of external parts on Chevy trucks than people realize - whether brand new or 20 years old, and whether early model or late model (someone else could pull in with another 1998 Silverado like mine, and the deflector might fit just fine on that one.) Second, my grille is an aftermarket one from LMCTruck.com. He said the specs on it could be off just enough that the grille rides a bit higher up than it should.
I really like the look of this deflector - Bugflector II by AVS. Sporty but not too swept back, and wraps just right to cover the fender corners. If installed the way I want it, it would look just like the "Michael Hicks" white 1996 that is currently featured on the LMCTruck.com website.
If I still want the deflector, he recommend that I try an OEM grille to see if that solves the clearance issue. So, kinda bummed, but it was a learning experience. Oh, one more thing. I called the technical assistance line for AVS after we tried all that, and their recommendation was to raise the hood latch, so...
I'm not giving up on it though. If/when I get a new OEM grille I will try again.
The results are in. So this is an all acrylic, one piece deflector, looks just like the one I had on my '91 a long time ago. Guys at the shop found that the only way they could mount it following the instructions - and still have the hood close - was to mount it very shallow, meaning that it would stick out in front much further than it should. This was because the grille mounts were in the way. The far left and right grille mounts, right next to the corner of each fender just under the hood, were in the way. For it to look "right" (aka, sexy-cool) it needed to be pushed in by another 3/4 inch so that it sat about a half-inch out from the front edge of the hood.
The only way to make this work would be to cut out about 7 inches from the mounting surface from both ends so that the deflector could be mounted further back without those grille mounting points being in the way. This part worked!! They used a Dremel cutter, checking and rechecking to make sure they only cut away what they needed to, and we were able to achieve the proper mounting depth.
However... once we were sure it was ready to install, they did a test fit and found that the hood would not close. There wasn't enough space between the hood and the grille, more so on one side than the other, but not enough throughout. The only way they could have installed it was to raise the height of the hood latch. But this caused the hood to be obviously higher than the fenders which did not look good at all. So in the end, we did not install it.
Now, we talked about why this might be. Dave, the most experienced guy there who worked for a dealership for years and knows these trucks well, speculated that two things might be factors. First, there is more variability in the fitment of external parts on Chevy trucks than people realize - whether brand new or 20 years old, and whether early model or late model (someone else could pull in with another 1998 Silverado like mine, and the deflector might fit just fine on that one.) Second, my grille is an aftermarket one from LMCTruck.com. He said the specs on it could be off just enough that the grille rides a bit higher up than it should.
I really like the look of this deflector - Bugflector II by AVS. Sporty but not too swept back, and wraps just right to cover the fender corners. If installed the way I want it, it would look just like the "Michael Hicks" white 1996 that is currently featured on the LMCTruck.com website.
If I still want the deflector, he recommend that I try an OEM grille to see if that solves the clearance issue. So, kinda bummed, but it was a learning experience. Oh, one more thing. I called the technical assistance line for AVS after we tried all that, and their recommendation was to raise the hood latch, so...
I'm not giving up on it though. If/when I get a new OEM grille I will try again.
Last edited by CzechMix; Oct 3, 2019 at 5:08 PM. Reason: spelling
Thread Starter
CF Beginner
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 10
Likes: 5
From: Arizona
top corner grille mounts prevented us from mounting it as deep as we wanted to make it look right.
the cut-outs we did worked - we got the depth that I wanted. (but my truck didnt have enough clearance between grille and hood to install it.)
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