Is there anyone in the bay area that would be willing to help me fit this? I already pulled the stock bumper off, pulled the chrome part, and spraypainted over the stock color. All thats left is to make the grill fit! Is there anyone who has done this in the bay area that could help me out?

 

Sorry I can't help you but you may want to post this in the Regional Section of that site, that way more people in your area will view this message

 

I will if i get no response here as well as the NorCal MINIs section

 

JC --

Unfortunately, I am on the Right Coast and can't personally lend a hand. I installed the Aero Grilles in my stock MCS bumper early this summer.

The upper grille is a walk in the park; a simple replacement. The lower grille requires all the work. I used existing instructions on the net and made a template out of cardboard to help cut the slots. Here is a link to my earlier post:

Installation Hints

Note that I did not glue the lower grille on but instead fashioned a pressure-fit system secured with cotter pins. Hope this helps out a bit.

Theo

 

Alright so just to clear a couple things up.....

1. You drilled slots in the bumper for the existing tabs on the aero grill. Did you drill slots for ALL of the tabs or did you cut a few off?

2. Once you took off the stock grill, you saw that things would not sit flush due to a lip on the bottom and the top. You cut these you?

I dont trust myself enough to do this job alone, but friend of mine has all of the tools to help get the job done. It doesnt look TOO bad right now with just the spraypaint, you can barely notice unless you are right up on the car but still, I want to get that grill in.

 

I did not cut any tabs off. Knowing that I did not want to glue the lower grille to the bumper, I figured leaving all the tabs in place would provide extra stability. This assumption proved correct. The cardboard template I created was invaluable for cutting all the slots in the bumber.

Yes. All edges of the lower grille need to have material removed to help the grille sit flush with the edge of the opening in the bumper. However, in addition to removing the grille material, the single existing louver mounting "ridge" in the center of the opening of the bumper needs to be removed. Note that without removing this ridge, you will not be able to have the grille installed flush with the bumper. Fortunately, a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel will do the trick here.

It is strongly suggested that a Dremel tool be used for all cutting required for this installation. Also, be aware that this process isn't really super difficult, it just takes time and requires patience. Read all that has been written online and feel free to contact me at any point with questions!

Theo

 

Do you know waht is this? After I removed the front bumper to insatll the lower black grill.


This is what you look down from the top.

 

That pointy thing ther is the outside temp probe. It just clips in. OK to remove to take off the bumper.

 

Here is what I did. I removed pretty much all the tabs and only keep 2 at both ends.




On each ends I make a small hole for attachment.



I removed this portion of the bumper to make the grill sit lower to the bumper.


I use this clip which I got it from my RC collections to hold the grill in position and glue it down just keep it in place. I only have one on each side and secure the rest of the grill with double side tape.



Here is a final product.





After searched around and saw different instructiuons I came up with my own way to secure the grill with the bumper. I just want to keep the bumper in the original form as much as possible in case one day I might go back to the standart grill.

After I finished with installing the grills I took the car for a spin and everything holds in place nicely.


Just want to add my story to this topic.