De-badged grill

[Stryker 0]

hey guys

 

i have a 1.8 16v and was wondering is the debadged 3 slat grill a straight swap?

 

cheers

[n3p 3]

Hi,

 

I've heard some people say that it would require slight modification, but my ebay jobby fit perfectly...ok, well I snapped a tab, but it still holds!

[Dec 1]

Basically depends on the age of your car!

 

The early style grille has two tabs at the bottom that mount into the slam panel, the late (3 slat) grilles have three tabs. So a late spec grille wont fit into an early spec slam panel without cutting the tabs off and re-fixing them in the early tab positions.

 

BUT!....some of the early/late changeover cars (i.e the last of the 1.8L's or the first of the 2.0L's) had mounting holes in the slam panel for both early and late grille tabs, so either grille will fit them! :wink:

[Stryker 0]

ah i see, mine is a g reg 1990, any ideas of the top of your head?

cheers

[n3p 3]

 

BUT!....some of the early/late changeover cars (i.e the last of the 1.8L's or the first of the 2.0L's) had mounting holes in the slam panel for both early and late grille tabs, so either grille will fit them! :wink:

 

woop!

[Dec 1]

ah i see, mine is a g reg 1990, any ideas of the top of your head?

cheers

 

That will be an early / two tab grille + slam panel. (unless your slam panel has been changed at any stage).

 

Try un-clipping your grille and check the mounting holes to be 100% sure! Just be careful when un-clipping the top clips as they snap very easily! :shock:

[Stryker 0]

yep mines a two tab, so are the end two tabs aligned properly with my two but the middle one need to come off?

[Dec 1]

Afraid it's not that easy! All three tabs have to come off the late spec grill, and the two outer ones relocated to the early grill tab position. The top clips will also have to be relocated. :(

 

Then you have the prob/issue that the late spec grilles will sit further forwards than the early grilles. so wont line up flush with the headlights.

 

I've modified a couple of standard late grilles to fit early cars over the last few years.with a careful bit of cutting + glueing they can be made to look right.

 

I don't know if there is a badgeless grille specifically for early spec cars, but it would save a bit of work if there was.

[Stryker 0]

right sounds like a mission then lol

 

luckily i work in a bodyshop repairs so hopefully there should be some plastic welding stuff around lol

 

cheers guys