Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Maxy, what did you mean when you said "you have to make drilling holes"?

And what's your response to Zero's comment when he said he wasn't impressed with the fitment?

Still trying to learn more about this 2-slat JDM grill, and so far you're the only one who's playing in this thread and actually has one.

Squirrel82

iTrader: (30)

Body color shaved burger

Grand_hustle17

iTrader: (22)

look who comes on to post ^^^.........

My vote is to leave it alone

nelledge

iTrader: (6)

I thought sans burger looked a little ugly, but this looks great! I guess it depends on the body color.

Grand_hustle17

iTrader: (22)

i believe squirrel was the inventor of the burger-less grill

azdevils013

iTrader: (5)

I like the JDM grill since it looks clean and is not too flashy. Also like the mesh behind. I personally would go black on black but with your car color I might paint it like the OEM grill.

BrooklynRussian

iTrader: (5)

I have mine all black with the middle nissan part left alone, only crappy pic I have, will take a better one tomorrow

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

While we're at it, I have a question. When I paint my grille black, do you think it'd look best in gloss or flat black? I have a feeling that it's gonna end up pretty glossy no matter what because I'm doing a clear coat too. Hmm... I just don't know.

roggeezy

iTrader: (18)

Here is mine with the middle lines being black. I got bored after I blacked out my trim so I used the trimbrite material to black out the middle part of my grill.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

You did that with Trimbrite, eh? It would certainly be harmless enough to experiment with.

That's pretty clever. And easily undone, too.

One of the things that's bubbling up in consideration is that a blackened grill looks bests if you bake open the headlights and darken the housing.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

I've read your how-to thread. I just don't see this happening to my OEM grill without having access to you or a similarly skilled body-shop guy who would work for beer.

MaximusTi

iTrader: (1)

I just can't get into the Burger-less grill. It looks like someone cut the nose off the cars "face" It just looks too plain without it.

Of the ones you listed I'd say Option #3 is the most visually appealing.

The only idea for my grill is too paint the face of the slats in the same finish as my TE wheels (Hyper Silver/Chrome Shadow whatever you want too call it)

phatboislim

iTrader: (27)

i'm w/ the OEM look. your car's color compliments the OEM grill very nicely. if you had a black/dark colored car i would say get the ebay 'CF' grill and replace it.

quickhuh

iTrader: (18)

I have the cmods grill i just installed 2 weeks ago, i had it painted to match my car, blends in pretty good, ill have a picture later if you want.


if you want to buy a OEM grill to mess with i have mine so you dont have to drive around without one, one of the mounting holes on the top was damaged when i took it out.

As for the bolts for the cmod grill i did take my oem one out to see where the mounting points were, and drilled holes where they belong. It did have some small surface cracks on it from the factory that the shop filled in for me. shipping was fast surprisingly.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Now that I can easily remove and re-attach the grill, and have studied the OEM grill carefully in my hands (and cleaned it on my kitchen table, suffering my wife's rolly-eyes), I have a much better appreciation for the design details that go into the OEM grill.

Regarding the 2-slat JDM, although I haven't seen it up close, I'm guessing it's much more simplistic in comparison, and that this absence of design consideration would be evident on the car.

Butting that conclusion up against the amount of effort to de-badge the OEM grill, and I end up exactly where I started: keeping the OEM grill...

...for now, at least.

phatboislim

iTrader: (27)

lol i vote against doing all that work..the money you dump into that you could have already bought an ebay badgeless grill and have it painted for the amount of time/money you dump into your oem one..then you also have the peace of mind of going back to oem with just a few nuts/bolts/whatever holds it down.

Rhyno02

iTrader: (12)

You consider keeping the grill the way it is and just paint it to match the body? Sorry if that was discussed already, just skimmed the thread quickly for now

Mr. Brett

iTrader: (7)

I'm just sayin'.

The price is a bit outrageous, though. $180, including shipping? I can think of a lot of other parts I'd rather blow $180 on.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, I've seen that on eBay. It's the same design, 2-slat JDM grill, but in carbon fiber.

Personally, I've never understood the visual appeal of CF. But there sure are lots of people who plotz over it.

Mr. Brett

iTrader: (7)

John, just out of curiosity, have you seen carbon fiber in person?

I was never a big fan of it until I saw a carbon fiber hood first-hand. Something about the way it reflects in the sun is addicting to me.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

I suppose I did at Maxus, but the impression didn't stick with me.

So yeah, you're right... I would have to see the CF grill with the naked eye in order to make a final assessment.

Good point.

din9lebeRrY

iTrader: (2)

IMO, keep it stock. Your car has a clean look to it.

If you must, get a can of plastidip, spray on 3-4 good coats and let it be. When you're tired of it, just peel it off.

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

Ok, so I painted my grille black today. (Krylon Fusion black and Duplicolor clear coat) I'm gonna wait a while to put it on the car so the paint can cure for a bit and become a bit more chip resistant, etc. But here's a pic as it sits now (just an iPhone pic). I'll post more of it on the car when it's on the car

scarface4522

iTrader: (33)

took my grille out today and will be paintin it flat black tommorow

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

I actually like this look most of all....Reminds me of an MIG-15! LOL

zzmmrx0xmzz

i have the ebay grill you guys are talking about. what i did was cut it out with a power saw and it doesnt show at all anymore. i had the grill for about a year now and im starting to miss the burger

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Notice how the driver-side horn is lower than the passenger side? I thought it was just me and my rusty old brackets. But no, this seems to be by design.

Why is that, do you think?

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

I don't know why that is. But I used my dremel to cut the metal bracket that holds the lower horn in place and moved the horn up so theyre level. 5 minute job.

QnzMax

iTrader: (14)

Personally I like the OEM grill with the burger. It looks "off" without the burger if you ask me.

My grill is painted gloss black:



Might be able to see it better in my sig.

Grand_hustle17

iTrader: (22)

unless its a black maxima, im not too much a fan of the burger less grill

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Hi, Hustler.

Using this thread to explore options and have discussions on the grill brought me to that same conclusion. I'm leaving well-enough alone.

However, now that I can easily remove and re-install the grill, I am replacing those rusty old horns. So as of this morning, there's a PIAA Sport Horn 400/500 Kit working its way cross-country to my front door.

MONTE 01&97 SE

iTrader: (1)

Agreed!

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

Allllright. So I painted my grille and now its on the car. Here are a few pics:

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

Oh, and with regard to the horn comments on this thread earlier, here's what I did. I painted them black with some extra paint I had left over. In the first pic you can see that I ground the bracket so that I could get the horns level (or mostly level )

zero2sixtyZ

iTrader: (30)

jowo9, looks good. Any plans to paint headlight housings?

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure yet. Imma sit with this for a while and then we'll see what I think. I've baked those cursed headlights like 5 or 6 times and I don't know if I can stomach the process again for a while I like the black grille look though... even with the non-blacked-out headlight housings. Not saying I'll never paint them... I might someday, but for now I'm good with it. If I had a black car I'd probably be obsessed with blacking everything out, but as it stands, I'm not haha. zero2sixtyZ, your car has always been one of my favourites on the forum. In a perfect maxima world, my car would be a Black 03 6MT... but I'm almost as happy with my car, so it's fine.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Jowo9, nice job on the photos.

That grill has a clean look to it. Not sure how much I like it, but I don't dislike it either. And it looks like you did a quality job.

The bay is looking great. What are those wires on the passenger frame... do you have a grounding kit?

Good to know about getting creative with the horn brackets. I'll be installing those PIAA's in the next week sometime, and I'll probably have to do something about those brackets too.

scarface4522

iTrader: (33)

Here is mine,I still might paint the burger black too but i'll wait till its on the car to determine that..but if i dont I'm gonna buy a new emblem. I'll put up pics tomorrow when I put it on.

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

Now that the grill is black like that, you pretty much have to paint the headlight housings, right?

Somebody ought to lean on you about that, and see how you handle the peer pressure.

jowo9

iTrader: (1)

Thanks I'm liking the look of the grille so far. I did a good clear coat, so hopefully it holds up alright.

Yeah, those wires on the passenger frame are just grounding wires. I could have gone with some better quality wire, but those were cheap, 8 gauge, and local. I'm sure they do the job just fine (and that's an easy thing to upgrade if I ever decide to).
I grounded the block at the stock block ground (wow, that sentence sounds pretty wonky if you say it out loud!). Also grounded the IM, the tranny, the battery, and the alternator (with 2 wires)... oh, and then a couple places on the timing chain cover area.