Back in July 2022 my 2006 SS was backed into while parked, damaging the car's front bumper cover, hood and upper grille. Luckily the impact was super low speed so it's just minor cosmetic damage. The last ten months has been interesting but, as of today, I have all OEM replacement parts ready to go and am just waiting for the shop to give me the green light to bring the car in for the repairs - they've been slammed and don't have adequate help (pretty common with a lot of businesses these days).





I'm working with the same GM dealership collision center that I had repaint the front end of the car back in 2012. A lot of the same employees are still there - I'm dealing with the same manager and the guy who's going to be doing this repair work and paint is the same guy who did the front end repaint on the car back in 2012.

Regarding parts sourcing, it's been a challenge to say the least. I've always preferred OEM parts hands down, especially for this car, but some of the OEMs through GM have been extremely hard to find and the fact that this car is now over 17 years old doesn't help. To make matters even more challenging, some of these parts are specific to the 2006-07 Monte Carlo (only 62,593 units) or the 2006-07 SS (only 14,829 units). The SS front bumper cover has been discontinued for a few years now and is basically non-existent. The shop had exhausted all efforts for months to locate one so I resorted to salvage yards to find one. Even used, they're almost impossible to find. When a nice, used one does show up in a salvage yard, it disappears almost immediately. During this time, I did confirm that the LS/LT/LTZ front bumper cover will work on the SS, the only difference being that it doesn't have the holes and slots pre-cut along the bottom like the SS's does for its lower valance extension piece - those would simply need to be cut in manually by whoever's doing the work. The shop did confirm that the OEM LS/LT/LTZ front bumper cover is still available new (though limited) as well as the hood (since the Impala used the same hood through 2016).

I did do some salvage yard exploring which actually may have been more challenging than finding new parts. These 2006-07s are becoming extremely rare and they just don't show up in yards that often (especially the SS). I did end up finding a precision red 2007 LS that I pulled the front bumper cover, rear bumper cover and trunk lid from and a white 2007 LS that I pulled the hood from - these two were at separate yards in Detroit. Even though I did pull these used parts, I ultimately decided to go with a brand new OEM front bumper cover and hood instead - these went straight from the dealership's parts dep't to their collision center so I don't have pictures of them. I'm not sure what to do with these used parts but for now I have them as spares if I decide to keep them.









The upper grille is still available OEM so I grabbed one. I also figured that, during this work, I'd go ahead and address the lower grille (the original on the car is full of road wear) and the energy absorber (the original on the car is cracked on both sides where each headlight retainer locks in) so I went ahead and bought new OEMs for those as well. My existing hood insulator is only a few years old and is still in great shape so I'm going to swap it over to the new hood once the repairs are done.

In addition to the front repair work, I also wanted to address a few other things this spring. First, the trunk lid support struts have become very weak and the trunk no longer pops up the 1/4" or so it's supposed to when unlocked (has been like this for several years). All of the support struts are still available OEM so I went ahead and ordered a pair of new struts for the trunk lid and the single strut for the hood. I'll get around to replacing these after the front repairs are complete.

Also, the car's original backup lights (that I smoked myself back in 2011) are faded and showing their age so I wanted to have them redone, professionally this time. Initially, I thought I'd pull the originals out and have them resmoked but upon removing them found they're in pretty rough shape so I decided to look for replacements. The backup lights are still available OEM so I bought a brand new pair and just recently got them back from being smoked by a local shop. I also repainted the screw heads black (I prefer they blend in) and will be getting the new lights in the car this week.

Pictured here is the new upper grille, lower grille, trunk lid support struts, hood support strut, backup lights and hood insulator retainers (all OEMs).



The original back up lights after being pulled off the car.





The new backup lights after being smoked.





The new smoked backup lights (left) next to the originals (right).



I will update as all of this progresses

 

The new back up lights look great. I am certain everything will end up flawless with this car. It will be great for it to be returned to it's glory! But you have well explained the down side to owning an older and less popular car that you do a lot to keep in mint condition.

 

Here she is after the front repairs were completed! I dropped the car off at the shop last Tuesday and they were done by mid-morning Friday. He absolutely hit it out of the park again with an unbelievable paint job that matches perfectly - he even matched the factory paint sheen on the underside of the new hood. And, since this was the perfect opportunity, I decided to replace a few additional parts that weren't damaged in this incident but were showing their age**.

New parts (all genuine GM OEMs):
89025784 LS front bumper cover (modified to add slots along the bottom for the SS's front fascia extension)
89023526 Hood
22865901 Front upper grille
15886100 Front fascia energy absorber**
10368817 Front lower grille**
10335108 Front fog lamps** (trims repainted black)

After a ten month process, it ended up working out just fine and I'm extremely happy with the results!

 

Looks great and has to feel a lot better to be whole!

 

You're lucky i am trying to find a left fender front bumper left front wheel well cover back bumper for mine. Seems like having mine in excellent body condition is now fubared. Had a one place say they had the same fender the same color as my year monte it ended up being for a impalla fender. Tryed to contact them saying it's for a sedan not a coupe body like ours. Gor sorry it's the right one no refunds after a few weeks after getting it. Let me know if you see a fender front bumper wheel well and back bumper cover. Dm me and i will be happy because the 6th and 7th gen need to be out on the road loved. It seems like there were hate for our 7th gen no one wants them on the road or to be seen any more

 

I was lucky only after months of searching and researching. I could have simply used used parts off a salvage yard car but that just didn't jive well with me for the level I have this car is at. Most used front bumper covers aren't in nice condition anyway because they take the brunt of wear and tear, get scraped on the ground, are warped, etc. The front bumper cover was the hardest to source but it worked out. You just have to be persistent and sometimes improvise if necessary.

Manufacturers typically produce OEM replacement parts for vehicles for up to 10 years after stopping production of a vehicle (altogether or switching generations). Certain parts for the 2006-07 Montes, like the hood and headlights, are still readily available since the Impala used some of the same parts through the 2016 model year. Certain parts for the 2000-07 Montes have become extremely hard to find and that's just normal - it was the same scenario at one time for cars such as the 1st gen Camaros but now there's a super strong replacement part market for those Camaros. The same may happen for these 6th gen Montes depending on how popular they are in the future.

 

I get it's less preferable due to fitment issues, but isn't aftermarket an option? Never looked into availability specific to the monte, I just remember working with a guy that did bodywork as a side job and he had catalogs of dirt cheap body parts for practically every non exotic vehicle from the most recent decades. Usually aftermarket support stretches our longer than OEM spares.

I know its an old post from monte07, just figured new aftermarket is better than nothing if there truly is nothing left.

 

Thankfully this one ended up working out for me. For me, parts being original or OEM on a vehicle (especially on a show car) is a big deal, even if most wouldn't notice. Aftermarket would be a little different if these cars had parts being reproduced and marketed for restoration purposes from companies like Year One, Classic Industries, NPD or similar but these cars just aren't old enough and don't seem to have enough consistent demand for that (yet). At one time it used to be hard to find parts for the 1st gen Camaros and now they have so many options for replacement parts through companies like the ones I mentioned above - crazy to think about that considering how popular the Camaro is.

 

Little update to this even though it's been a while. Here's a shot of the new smoked backup lights right after install. They're still looking great 1.5 years later.



And a couple shots of the new trunk struts and new hood strut and hood liner reinstalled. First pic shows an original trunk strut (top) and one of the Genuine GM replacements (bottom).

 

Such a perfect looking car man. -But I dont need to tell ya that.