[midnit]

Originally Posted by Rootus

I like the painted stock grill a little better. I might change my mind if it were possible to have the sport grill with the great big pillar behind it deleted. It makes that so visible it looks kinda weird. Maybe in person it's not so noticable, but in the pics it draws my eye directly to it.

100% agree. It seems that no grill is perfect just yet. The Sports grill has too small an emblem, so when you get rid of it, you've now got that huge pillar to deal with

[Rexspeedworthy]

Originally Posted by azunguy

Are there step by step instructions anywhere explaining how to get the grill off?

Thanks

It's held on by poppits. Remove all at the front of the wheel wells, and about 5-6 underneath. Once you have all the poppets off, it will pretty much slide off. Beware if you have the fog lights, to unplug them before you try and take the bumper skin all the way off.

[Riggs]

Love the sports grill. Looks much better and cleaner than stock.

[ETCMSSJoe]

I took my silver "civic stripe" out and painted it to match the other flat-black grill insert pieces. I scuffed it with 400-grit emery cloth and washed and dried it thoroughly, then spray painted with plasti-kote #230 high temp engine flat black from Pep-Boys. It matches the rest of the grill trim perfectly and looks so much better.

I was kind of surprised that the entire bumper cover is only held on by pop-its but all the little grill parts are secured with screws. The silver piece alone has six! Overall its a bit of a pain to get the whole bumper cover off for such a small project but worth it in my opinion. Note: if you planned on installing supertones or a JDM bumper beam, wait and do it all at once.

[Rexspeedworthy]

Originally Posted by ETCMSSJoe

I took my silver "civic stripe" out and painted it to match the other flat-black grill insert pieces. I scuffed it with 400-grit emery cloth and washed and dried it thoroughly, then spray painted with plasti-kote #230 high temp engine flat black from Pep-Boys. It matches the rest of the grill trim perfectly and looks so much better.

I was kind of surprised that the entire bumper cover is only held on by pop-its but all the little grill parts are secured with screws. The silver piece alone has six! Overall its a bit of a pain to get the whole bumper cover off for such a small project but worth it in my opinion. Note: if you planned on installing supertones or a JDM bumper beam, wait and do it all at once.

Pics??
I may paint my sport grill to match the lower opening of my front bumper. In your opinion, would that also be plasti-kote #230?
P.S. Ibcolorblind

[ETCMSSJoe]

OK, I'll try to post pics for the first time. Here goes. A little more info: after letting it dry overnight I wet-sanded with the same 400 grit emery cloth, washed and dried again and painted again, then just let it dry, doing nothing else. That made the texture match exactly also. I don't know what you mean by the "lower opening" of your front bumper. As you can see by the pics, the grill trim pieces are kind of a grainy flat black, whereas the bumper cover is glossy.

[Rexspeedworthy]

Originally Posted by ETCMSSJoe

OK, I'll try to post pics for the first time. Here goes. A little more info: after letting it dry overnight I wet-sanded with the same 400 grit emery cloth, washed and dried again and painted again, then just let it dry, doing nothing else. That made the texture match exactly also. I don't know what you mean by the "lower opening" of your front bumper. As you can see by the pics, the grill trim pieces are kind of a grainy flat black, whereas the bumper cover is glossy.

I have a different color car than you. You can see below the color around my foglights. Looks pretty close to the color you used. I may have to do that. The sports grill is a little too shiny(it's a little hard to see in the pic). It should blend in better I think?

[Rootus]

Originally Posted by ETCMSSJoe

OK, I'll try to post pics for the first time. Here goes. A little more info: after letting it dry overnight I wet-sanded with the same 400 grit emery cloth, washed and dried again and painted again, then just let it dry, doing nothing else. That made the texture match exactly also. I don't know what you mean by the "lower opening" of your front bumper. As you can see by the pics, the grill trim pieces are kind of a grainy flat black, whereas the bumper cover is glossy.

That looks much better than the sport grill IMO. Good job.

[jph]

here's a dark gray sports grille on a silver sti






J.

[HASTIhatch]

i wanna put that roof rack on the car just for looks hah

[SirMattieP]

Wait so is the sports grille different to the Japan Parts Grill?!?!?! Because i dunno if one looks like theres more mesh than the other? And how much is the sports grill cause i converted the yen to the dollars and the Japan Parts grille comes out to be like 340...

Thanks in advance

[S'poreSTI]

Originally Posted by ETCMSSJoe

I took my silver "civic stripe" out and painted it to match the other flat-black grill insert pieces. I scuffed it with 400-grit emery cloth and washed and dried it thoroughly, then spray painted with plasti-kote #230 high temp engine flat black from Pep-Boys. It matches the rest of the grill trim perfectly and looks so much better.

I was inspired by ETCMSSJoe's pics to do the same on my grille, and i love the look without the 'civic' stripe' Followed the instructions and it turned out great (i used Duplicolor flat black paint, code DA1605)

When i took the grille off i noticed the bumper surround had holes on the passenger side, corresponding to the snorkel. i figured it was meant for the sports grille option, better airflow into the snorkle(?) With that i got the idea to make my own sport grille from the stocker, was a bit of work, my first time with a dremel, but it worked out pretty good, imho
a few pics here, i plan to put more on my journal, it was fun getting the bumper off the car, got a few other small jobs done behind there at the same time

[GilMikalian]

I gotta do this mod. Looks better than the sport grille and WAY better than the stock.

[SirMattieP]

Originally Posted by S'poreSTI

I was inspired by ETCMSSJoe's pics to do the same on my grille, and i love the look without the 'civic' stripe' Followed the instructions and it turned out great (i used Duplicolor flat black paint, code DA1605)

When i took the grille off i noticed the bumper surround had holes on the passenger side, corresponding to the snorkel. i figured it was meant for the sports grille option, better airflow into the snorkle(?) With that i got the idea to make my own sport grille from the stocker, was a bit of work, my first time with a dremel, but it worked out pretty good, imho
a few pics here, i plan to put more on my journal, it was fun getting the bumper off the car, got a few other small jobs done behind there at the same time

Wait so you basically spray paint the whole front grill flat black?? How do you cover the Subaru logo? Im confused...

[jessej]

Originally Posted by ETCMSSJoe

I took my silver "civic stripe" out and painted it to match the other flat-black grill insert pieces. I scuffed it with 400-grit emery cloth and washed and dried it thoroughly, then spray painted with plasti-kote #230 high temp engine flat black from Pep-Boys. It matches the rest of the grill trim perfectly and looks so much better.

I was kind of surprised that the entire bumper cover is only held on by pop-its but all the little grill parts are secured with screws. The silver piece alone has six! Overall its a bit of a pain to get the whole bumper cover off for such a small project but worth it in my opinion. Note: if you planned on installing supertones or a JDM bumper beam, wait and do it all at once.

What's a bumper beam?