DUDE I have never had anything ship that fast, I ordered yesterday at 2pm, it's at my door today at 2pm. Crazy! Installing it now..

 

McMaster is probably wondering what the heck is up all of a sudden with everyone ordering this stuff!

 

I was thinking the same thing LOL.

McMaster is awesome... fast shipping, incredible selection, great prices.

 

For reals. We order from Mcmaster all the time at work and they are always prompt--especially for the shipping rate they charge you. Service like that at any other place would cost you $20+.

They should pay you commission.

-P

 

Just bought some zip ties and such from Home Depot. Going to have a go at this this evening. I also purchased some connecting points (backed with industrial adhesive and rated at 185 degrees). I'm going to try attaching to these so I don't have to have so many semi-visible connections. We'll see how that goes. If it works out, I'll post some pics.

-P

 

Just a quick question. Did the AC just stop working altogether? I have noticed no leaks, but I have noticed that at times it does not blow as cold as it once did. Upon looking at the condensor it appears fine. Can anyone post up a pic of what a replaced unit appears like?

I am dreading taking the car to honda for fear they will try to stick this on me. Horrible service on Hondas part!

Everyone should send a tip to Autoblog.com http://www.autoblog.com/tips about this topic! The frequency of such events suggests a very real design flaw in this vehicle. The manufactuer truly should take some responsibility for these events! Squeaky wheel gets the oil!

 

Hey everybody! I purchased a Mr. Grill Billet Grill from eBay the other week. I just got around to installing it this morning. It's really nice, and I got it all for $100 shipped. It comes in 3 colors: brushed aluminum, polished aluminum, and black. I chose Black.
2009 Honda Fit Billet Grille Grill:eBay Motors (item 120441197076 end time Jun-30-09 09:03:53 PDT)

Here's a little DIY.

Tools you will need:
Medium sized flat head screwdriver
Wire cutters (if you mess up and need to cut a zip tie)

First of all, the kit comes with the Grill, 10 zip ties, and some lame instructions.


Pop the hood. The plastic cover pictured here has to go.


To remove the fasteners, get your screwdriver under the center part and lift it.



Like it's been said before, the 2 fasteners on the very ends are longer than the other ones. You'll see when you take them out. Once you have it removed, it looks like this. (Skinny legs not included)



As you can see, my condenser was in pretty good shape. It just has a few bugs on it.



Fit the Grill on the front of the car. It sort of holds itself in place.


On the back of the Grill, There are 10 welded brackets. They're there for the zip ties to go around. I should have taken pictures, but if you order one, you'll know what I'm talking about. Well, take the zip ties and thread them from the inside of the car around the brackets and back in. You're basically fastening the Grill to the stock grill.



Sorry I couldn't get any really amazing pics of it. I didn't want to drop my camera down the front of my car.



Tighten the zip ties as tight as you're comfortable with. I made mine really snug so there wouldn't be any slipping. Once you get all 10 on and tight, replace the plastic cover and the pins. Remove the protective tape from the grill. Be careful, there were hellas metal shavings on the sticky side on mine. Otherwise, it comes off nice and clean. You can see where I messed up and had to cut a zip tie. Oh well.



Here are some more after pics.








Hopefully this helps you out!

 

Man. For a hundred bones you think they could have come up with a bit better mounting hardward than zip ties. Looks good, but zip ties are weaksauce.

 

^^^ I agree... for this, I'd stick with the $10 solution LOL!

 

Ya'll willin' to be drillin'? For what it is the zip ties get the job done. If it were a full blown "replacement" they would have to come up with something besides zip ties for sure. If you pull your grill out you'll see it is all tabbed clips except for the two "pop clips". Not really much to work with down there...

 

Well duh... Mr Grill should just build a REPLACEMENT for the lower grill, not an add-on. Then it would snap on just like the OEM grill does. Why they come up with the add-on grill is beyond me!!!

 

Ya'll got a grasp on what it takes to "reverse engineer" a grill? The stock lower has eleven anchor points, none of which are on a straight line to anything in particular. It costs thousands of dollars in man hours just to utilize CMM (coordinate measuring machine) technology if you have it. Throw in several more thousand at least if you want to go plastic injection mold.

It's not as easy as it looks or would seem to be. A simple "grill over" with zip ties is the most cost effective route to go for initial sales.

 

Yeah you're right... I specialize in plastic packaging, and specifically work in the CAE/CAD area, which eventually ties into the injection and blow mold processes. Reverse engineering the grill is not rocket science. Matter of fact, a reverse-engineered mold can be done in India today for less than $3,000 in about 3 weeks. The mold itself is costly, I'll give you that. I have no idea how it compares to the billet grill the manufacture in terms of upfront $$$


QUOTE=Malice101;685279]Ya'll got a grasp on what it takes to "reverse engineer" a grill? The stock lower has eleven anchor points, none of which are on a straight line to anything in particular. It costs thousands of dollars in man hours just to utilize CMM (coordinate measuring machine) technology if you have it. Throw in several more thousand at least if you want to go plastic injection mold.

It's not as easy as it looks or would seem to be. A simple "grill over" with zip ties is the most cost effective route to go for initial sales.[/QUOTE]

 

I got mine in black a few months ago. They had promised to send me stainless steel fasteners with screws on the end of them. The screws are small enough to fit through the small holes running throughout the grille. They are black just like the grille. When I got the zip ties alone, I got on the phone and demanded the stainless fasteners as promised. They came in the mail a few days later. They actually sent me eight, but four was more than adequate.


Also, I simply popped out the foglight housings and extended my hand into the area to which I fastened. I positioned the fasteners one upper and one lower, about two inches inward from the grille edge, both sides. Made for a much tighter and neater install than the zip ties.

 

To each his own. Mine looks great with SSM body color. Virtually indistinguishable from the upper grille in color. Really looks like it belongs on the car. It was worth $100 delivered.

 

+ Rep to that.

 

Oh very mature... name calling! Let the fun begin!

Seriously though, a 'bulletproof' solution, that is mounted with zipties? That gives me such a chuckle!

 

Don't underestimate zipties, try grabbing it and ripping it off...you'll either break the grill or dislodge the bumper from the fenders before you snap the zip ties.

All of my grill mesh is held by epoxied clips with zip ties, and you'd rip the links in the grill mesh before the zip ties snapped.

After failure of the double sided tape adhered metal clips that came included with my body kit to hold the grill mesh on, I tested some new plastic clips that use zip ties in conjunction to hold the grill. I didn't want to go the tape route again so I tried different adhesives on some scrap fiberglass I had laying around. I tried super glue, gorilla glue, silicone adhesive, and JB weld epoxy. It came down to JB weld in the end, which held so strong that pulling on it with full force ripped the plastic clip and tore a layer of fiberglass, yet the zip tie held up fine.

IMO the $10 solution would definitely prevent damage but for me metal is much more appealing and stronger--I'd go with this billet for my GD3 if I still had a stock front bumper but I have the Ings+1 bumpers. Great product.

 

So I've been following this thread for some time and installed a mesh grill on my 09 Fit yesterday (I used the gutter guard material found at Home Depot). Then last night, I started thinking...could having a mesh grill void your warranty? I mean, I guess Honda could claim that theres not as much air flow as there used to be and that could cause wear on the engine if you ever took it into the service center for work to be done. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but what do you guys think?

 

Woah there killer. I was just stating that I am not a fan of zipties. To me they represent a half-hearted attempt at engineering an adequate fastening solution from the manufacturer. Sure they are great in a pinch to custom fab a solution, but if I want to custom fab something I would spend 8 dollars, not a hundo. If you do not agree with my views, thats fine. But, you should not try to argue based solely on personal bias towards a product.

You know what else is strong and holds tight? Duct tape. By no means am I questioning the strength of zipties. Its just one of those items I would rather not use on a car. I always look at it like this: If I wouldn't use it on a car that was worth more money, why use it on the Fit.

That is the correct way to change a pesons mind about a product. +rep. Now I want to get one.