I just bought a 99 Monte C and I want to get rid of the bumper fascia (the piece with the peeling chrome) but there are holes in the bumper that it mounts to. I saw a different type of 5th gen. bumper that did not have this piece. Is it possible to swap out the bumper cover with one that does not have this fascia?

 

Yes you can swap the bumper covers. The Z34 monte's don't have this molding and they also have a more aggressive lip. The two are interchangeable. If you can find one in white it will be an easy fix/upgrade

 

You can remove it, but the bumper underneath will look like ****.

 

Thanks for the confirm on the bumper cover. I will be on the look out for one.

 

Maybe you could sand the peeling chrome off an paint it flat black or some other color..

 

Cheapest option would be sand and paint. Keep in mind - the strip of fake chrome on your LS bumper is gunmetalish on Z34 bumpers.

 

True, I forgot about this. If you swap a Z34 bumper your chrome strip wont match around the whole car. I've seen people black out this strip with paint, vinyl, or plasti-dip, and it usually looks pretty good if done around the whole car.

 

The entire piece is cracked and brittle. If I remove it to repaint it will probably break. I will probably end up removing it and filling in the holes and repainting the bumper. I also am removing the front license holder so will need to fill those holes as well.

Any recommendations on what to use to fill the holes on the bumper?

 

Great Idea

 

You will destroy it if you remove it. The double sided tape under it makes sure of that. Tape off the bumper if you want to paint it. If you want to remove it, you'll need to take off your Chevy emblem, it's held on with 2 nuts I believe. Those are the only holes you'll need to fill, if you don't just put the emblem back on. But it will be yellow, peeling, and quite gross underneath and will require painting. Best thing for filler would probably be some sort of body filler that can flex because the bumper is plastic... Bondo will likely fall out after a short amount of time (I'm not sure on that, but that would be my best guess). You could try fiberglass resin I suppose...