[LoNOx 1]

I have been looking at different ways to “mod” the exterior. I have not found any sort of custom grill. The Insight has the same dilemma as several other vehicles that have a two-piece opening in front of the radiator. It has a grill in the lower part and nothing in the upper. This allows rocks, bugs, and other road debris to enter and damage the radiator and condenser.

I have contacted a manufacturer about a “group buy”. I am building templates this week-end. The billet grille is made from extruded T-6 aluminum for strength and durability. Installation would be simple.
I will install my prototype and post pictures when complete. It will probably be a couple of weeks. I am guessing the price to be around $60.

How many would be interested in an Insight original custom billet grill?
If interested, contact me at: insighthybrid @ yahoo.com

Remove the spaces before and after the @ .

 

[Holicow]

I think the pics will make a big difference in interest.

 

[LoNOx 1]

grill pics

I am only asking for interest at this point to negotiate with the fabricator.
I will post linksto a Photoshop pic later.

 

[Rick]

I might be interested. One question though, have you considered possible weight issues? That piece mostly just snaps in to place and one screw holds it there. I've had this idea once before and after looking at the grill decided a full metal one might cause fatigue to the bumper over time. Keep us posted.

 

[LoNOx 1]

grill pic

I have uploaded a Photoshop image of the grill at the following link.

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/671978

I HAVE NOT installed a grill. It is a digital image only!!!
I have installed a similiar grill in an 01 Nissan Frontier CC.

I might be interested. One question though, have you considered possible weight issues? That piece mostly just snaps in to place and one screw holds it there. I've had this idea once before and after looking at the grill decided a full metal one might cause fatigue to the bumper over time

.

The two-piece grill for the Frontier weighed less than 1 pound. Billet Aluminum is very light. The small hollow rectangular bars are very light. I don't believe fatigue will be an issue.


http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/671978

 

[Holicow]

That is pretty slick!

 

[Rick]

Hmmm, interesting, but I was thinking the design would be different than that. I can see how that would be much lighter than I was thinking. If your going to do a group buy with something like that count me out.

 

[Sparky5501]

A simpler grill and much cheaper solution is to use gutter guard.

I used the black plastic kind from a roll. I think it cost a whopping $5 bucks, and I have enough to do about eight cars. The only pricey bit is the black zip ties as they cost about $2 bucks for a pack of 40. Just cut off a three and a half foot section and zip tie the mesh to the back of the grill. It will nicely conform to the curve of the bumper.

Oh yeah, you'll have to remove the bumper to take off the three louver grill. :wink:

I'll post pics if anyone is interested...

BTW: The stock plastic grill doesn't weight anything. The only reason you would want to change it is for looks or extra protection for the condensor fins. Mine was the latter.

 

[Yves M.]

Sparky, I would like to see pics and the instruction/time/level of difficulty it is to remove the front bumper: I would replace my horn for a louder/lower tone horn at the same time

 

[drktrpr]

cool

for 60 bucks ish you can count me in

 

[Sparky5501]

Ok, so I got the price wrong it's only $3.00 bucks for a 6"x25' roll.

Here's a close-up of the installation.

Note the hole on the right-hand side. This is where one of three screws are used to hold the grill to the bumper. Trouble is it's screwed from the inside of the bumper so you really need to remove the bumper cover to access them. Luckly I had a special tool to get back there so I left the bumper cover on. A few scraped knuckes later (the condenser fins are sharp) and I had the grill out. From what I've heard the front bumper cover is fairly easy to remove. Centering the mesh and zip tieing so there are no wrinkles will take the longest portion of the install. I'd say an hour to hour and half for this mod.

Difficulty level 2.5, (1 is easy and 5 is hard) :wink: