So was finally bored enough to modify my stock grille. The silver intercooler makes the cross hatch design of the oem grille stand a lot more, and i personally hated how it looked to the point where i removed it all together (as seen in my sig image).

Only problem with removing it completely was that the intercooler was VERY noticeable and i wanted it to be hidden more w/o having to paint the intercooler black. PLus there were huge gaps between the intercooler and bumper after removal. The grille sits right up against the intercooler, so it looks a lot cleaner in this aspect as well.

So i did what i've been wanting to do for a long time and just chopped off most of the vertical pieces of the grille, only leaving 2 for structural integrity. Of course it would look better with ALL of them removed, but i'm afraid that the center part would start to sag w/o any support.

Before (ugly cross hatch design with ugly license plate holder bracket):





After (removed all but 2 vertical braces) From the angle in the 3rd picture, you can barely even see the intercooler:

 

looks pretty good!

 

center part won't sag , lol looks like u removed it all anyway looks much better that way

 

i think it looks better without. but props for tryin something new.

 

hmm ok, maybe i'll remove the other 2 pieces. The center bar seems so flimsy though....those 2 bars left on there actually brace it pretty well.

 

Thanks yeah without it, the front end has a certain cleanliness about it. But I mainly did it to cover up the intercooler more.

 

oh from your sig or one of the pics it looked like u removed all of the grill, thats what i did before and it looked much better imo, of course its obvious then your FI but looks much better

 

looks good!...did you dremel them off? are there any noticable marks where the pillars used to be?

 

nah i've found the dremel to be too rough on urethane in the past (creates a lot of burrs). I used a good ol' razor blade. Takes longer, but creates a lot cleaner cuts. If your razor blade is brand new and sharp, it actually cuts through it pretty fast. You don't really notice where the parts were cut off, as long as the cuts are clean.

 

nice!, i love these modswhere almost no one notices, but makes the car look alot cleaner somehow,