[mfronczak]

I've been fighting with it for a couple of hours, figured I'd jump on here and ask if anyone has any good ideas...

Started with the lower bumper grille. Besides it being PITA to get to, I'm not sure exactly how the T-Rex grille is supposed to fit against the stock one. The T-Rex edge is covered in rubber, is this supposed to "slide in" the small gaps in the stock grill? If so, how tight? So far, the best I've been able to do is get the T-Rex edge against the stock grille, I'm not sure if this is correct or not.

The other issue I'm having is, the T-Rex grille seems to be about 1" too short so I think I'm going to have to get one corner on, then do my best to stretch it as I go until it (hopefully) gets to the other corner. Because it's mesh, this doesn't seem to be a problem, I just wanted to make sure this is the proper way. Thanks.

 

[mfronczak]

Finally got it done. The hood scoop inserts were easy, you have to pop the existing ones out and drill holes in them to get the new ones installed, so make sure you really want them before doing it.

As for the bumper grills...wow. Another member warned me about "leaving DNA" on the car when doing this and he was not kidding. There's just not a lot of room to get your arm and hand to the back of the grills, basically you have to go in from the very center and then contort your arm to the left or right once "inside" the front cavity to get to the bolts. Since the nuts used are self-locking nylon, you can't just spin them on by hand so you need to get a wrench or ratchet up there, too.

All in all, the install can be done but (1) you need a lot of patience and (2) I would plan on spending about 4-6 hours at least, don't be in a hurry.

If you decide to do this for sure, let me know and I'll give you a few more in-depth pointers that will probably help out.

 

[mfronczak]

If you paint the J-hooks black, they become much more "invisible" than when they are silver.

I put the hooks in the four corners (as much as possible), then one on the top middle and one on the bottom middle. The lower grill only has three, so one on each side and one in the middle.

I removed the top covers and the horns - made it a bit easier to get my arm down where it needs to go. For the lower grill, I found it was easier to get it from the top as well but you can get it from the bottom - but to do so, you need to remove the belly pans and have the car jacked up a little bit.

I started on one side and worked my way across the grill - if yours is like mine was, you'll need to "stretch" it out a little bit to get it to fit properly. If you start on one side, pull the grill a little and then do a middle one and then pull it all the way into place and do a j-hook on that end, I think it works better. I actually used some zip ties to get the grill in place and then hold it steady while I installed the j-hooks.

Finally...it took me a Saturday & Sunday (and some help of the wife) to finish this. After having on for a few weeks, I decided I didn't like the look so I removed them (in a few hours) and sold. Shortly after, I removed the front clip of the car to install my halos. If I were to do a grill again, I would definitely remove the clip and install them. Taking the clip off doesn't take as long as you think and with it off, you can get right to the back of both grills, place the clips exactly where you want them, you don't tear up your arms, etc. Depending on your mechanical abilities and how comfortable you are with doing this, I would definitely consider it.

 

[mfronczak]

I took the actual horns off. There are two, one on each side. Each one is held on by one bolt, and each has one wire connector. The connectors slide right off. With them out of the way, there was just enough room to get my arm down to each side.

Are you talking about the rubber on the grill? If so, yes, that stays on.