Originally Posted by manxman

Yes, now you too can keep rocks from blowing holes in the A/C condenser of your very own GE8. No, it's not from the TV infomercial guy who makes the "Showtime Kitchen Rotisserie", and the aerosol fuzzy spray paint for the bald spot on the back of your head.

This is from MrGrille, in Norco, California and eBay.
eBay Motors: 2009 Honda Fit Billet Grille Grill (item 110344948908 end time Feb-02-09 12:15:42 PST)

This is what your car looks like now- BIG rectangular gaps in the lower grill that allow rocks to bounce off the road right into your condenser (the condenser is the shiny thing you see right behind the stock plastic grill) . A dealer will happily charge you $700+ to replace your leaky condenser. This is NOT a repair covered by warranty- it will cost you. ALL Honda cars have this design flaw, but your GE8 is the closest to the ground----

Click on thumbnails to enlarge photos--



This is the new grill. It weighs 3 pounds, the bars are 1/8" thick with open spaces of 1/8" between the bars. The front face of the bars has a matte, or satin finish, and the horizontal top and bottom bar surfaces are painted flat black, as is the entire back of the grill. The eBay ad stresses the high strength of the grill, so I put two phone books on the ground, put each end of the grill on a phone book, and stood in the center of the grill. It did not flex AT ALL.

Based on its weight and extreme rigidity, I believe that this is made from 6061 T6 aircraft aluminum alloy, used in landing gear and other high stress components.

On the back side you can see the little square reinforcements between the bars, and the tiny screw holes in the squares. You can also see the large square reinforcement plates that are welded in place.


The grill comes with sheet metal clamp strips that are used with screws that go through some of those little holes in the previous photo. I personally don't like to use metal clamps that go onto plastic grills- the plastic can be bent that way. So I used 8" long black nylon zip ties instead. The zip ties can hold a weight of 75 pounds each, and I used 8 of them. My grill is not going anywhere.


On the stock plastic grill there is one massive horizontal rib in the center, and four smaller vertical ribs. I used only the vertical ribs as the anchors for my zip ties, and I placed 4 zip ties along the top and 4 along the bottom, one at each vertical rib.


Under the hood, I removed the black plastic bridge between the bumper and the radiator support (the bridge surrounds the hood latch). I temporarily taped the aluminum grill in place, then reached down between the radiator and the bumper and fed each zip tie next to a plastic rib and poked it out the front of the aluminum grill. Then I bent the point of the zip tie back and shoved it back into the grill and along the opposite side of the plastic rib. Then fed the point of the tie into the cinch, and used pliers to tightly pull all of the slack out of the zip ties while pressing the cinch as far forward on the tie as it would go.

If you have big forearms, get someone else to do this (your child for instance), or remove the bumper entirely first. Fooling around in this tight space full of sharp edges will make you bleed.

A few shots of the finished product: (looking directly between the bars from only inches away, the zip ties are absolutely invisible).




WARNING: There is another eBay vendor who sells a somewhat similar product. The vendor is Grills4U. Their billet grill is more expensive, and of much lower quality and poorer fit. I know- I used to own one on my GD3. The grill in this review is far superior in fit, finish, and strength.

Another interesting note- this vendor will have these grills available in the future in a color anodized finish. Anodizing on aluminum is an electro-chemical oxide barrier finish that prevents corrosion and won't chip off like paint. If he had a black anodized version, I would have bought that instead, but I am very happy with the high quality appearance of this one.

Originally Posted by badself

My only question, how much modification is necessary to fit the factory license plate bracket back on once this grille is installed? Is it going to require some snipping in that area, and if so, how involved? I guess if I do have to snip, I can touch-up any exposed aluminum with some flat black automotive paint. Again, thanks.