Ok well im doing a cavie front end swap onto my cavfire. Now im curious about a few things that werent really clear in the faq page. The hood latch first of all. Do i need to change the part that is bolted to the car or just the part bolted to the hood? Also with the headlights there is a little metal clip that im assuming clips into something...but what? a hole in the front or a bracket of some sort? any help would be apprectated..phil

Instead of creating a new thread why didn't you just post your question in the sticky?
The hood catch bar (piece on the hood) is longer on 03+ cavs and sunfires. I don't remember for the cav's but I'm pretty sure the latch assembly may be different as well. As far as your question about the headlights, there should be a tab on the back of the headlight that slides down into a piece on the frame/core support.

Well i posted here since i dont feel like waiting for months cause noone looks in them...as for the headlight here is what im talking about..its not like all the previous years with the tab that slides into on the rad suport it seems to clip in..phil

This is the sunfire/up to 2002 cavie light clip that you are talking about:



This is the 2003 up cavie clip and i need a pic or something of what it goes into:

Philly D wrote:Well i posted here since i dont feel like waiting for months cause noone looks in them

Eh hard to say that when I had posted earlier today in the 3rd gen front swap sticky (hours before you made this thread).

Anyways, your pics aren't working for me. Try getting me those pics thru a pm. I'll see what I can find out about your clips (I have a friend who is doing an 03 cavi swap right now too).

cant see the pics, but i just posted the answer to this exact same question a few days ago. the clip behind the headlight clips into the support right behind the headlight. im not positive if it comes cut out for all years, but if you line up the headlight to where its supposed to sit, you should be able to see where its supposed to clip in

back when i had 03 headlights i broke my clips from removing the headlights so much, lol. its there to eliminate the "flicker/bounce" you see in some headlights. i put some padding under the headlights to eliminate the flicker. worked fine

Philly D wrote:Well i posted here since i dont feel like waiting for months cause noone looks in them...

yeh thats false.. i look there everytime im in exterior(atleast once a day) also it is set to if anyone replies i get a email.. so either way ill be looking in there as it seems joey and micah do as well because they are usually the guys answering questions before me sometimes


hit enter to go down a couple spaces and it hit post. Alright, its not in the sticky but if u read replies it was brought up and answered. Now being urs is a sunfire i dont know if the hood latch will work. but, if i were u just get the 03 hood latch, and that should fix your problems. i dont think the sunfire latch would work but u can try. and what i am talking about is the bar bolted to the hood, not the latch bolted to the core support, the latch on core support im pretty sure is the same for all year jbodies.

Now the clip, i cant see the pic but i think i know what your talking about and since i havent be into a 03 headlight i didnt know there was a clip. but if u look behind where the headlight bolts there should be a little hole then like a slot where the clip goes in. i know on the 95-99 cavs its a lil plastic Lshaped bracket, the 00 cavs have the corner bracket its connected too, and im thinking 03s will ave a similar little Lbracket like the 99s for the headlight to just clip into in the back. If u need a pic of where im talking about ill pull out my cds to find it. if u look where the outside rubber bumpstops and look down it should almost be directly there where im talking about on the frame.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, May 02, 2007 6:15 AM

Im pretty sure the hood catch bar (piece on the hood) is the same between cavs and fires but is different between 95-02 and 03-05 year models. I have found that the 03-05 ones are taller.

yah ill have to order a hood latch bar..as for the pics photobucket isnt working for some reason. Maybe ill venture over to gm to see how the lights clip in..phil

if u can find me a pic of a cav with no headlights in, or no bumper and headlights on, i can show you exactly where it clips in

i just searched for 30 mins and cant find a pic to show u.

^^ here, u can see the little bracket i was talking about. its at about 5oclock from the outside rubber bumpstop, if im not mistaken thats the bracket ur talking about? i dont know if the 03s are different type tho

Yah those are the ones i have and the 95-99 lights use that hook thing..but the 03 has a metal push in clip..I finally go tthe pic to work but as you can see it looks liek it has to clip into something. I know i could jerry rig it but id much prefer not to.. This pic is taken from the top of the light...phil

same spot as the 03-05, only difference 03-05 is a square hole to clip into, not a round hole like shown in that pic