Arrowstorm

I got the shield from 1800442PART's ebay auction, but it is stamped "The parts place inc", so that's why the title says that.

Guys, I got my stoneshield in yesterday and like any smart guy would do, decided to install the grills to the shield to see how it will look and to see how much trouble it was going to be.

It's A LOT of trouble. But, after much twisting and pulling and shoving, I did manage to get these grilles onto the shield AND line up well and look good with no gaps or anything like that.

The trick is... you're not EVER going to get those bolt holes to line up through the holes in ALL the tabs on the grill. Not EVER. That shield is not designed to simply hold the grills, I think. It's designed to be fastened to the grilles in such a way that it becomes part of the front end.

The first thing I concerned myself with is getting the top tab of the grille that is closest to the shield to fit inside the little groove in the shield. This is an actual tab, and not the stud holding the fastener for the molding. To do this, you must line that up above the groove, as close to the surface of the shield as you can, and position the back tabs of the grill in such a way that when you push down on the top of the grill while twisting the shield a little bit (it's good sturdy plastic you're not going to crack it unless you simply use WAY too much force) and with a little bit of persuasion, the grill will fit right in. There's no easy way to do this, and it's not ever going to simply slide right in like a glove.

But even after all of this, the bolt holes don't match up with at least one of the tabs on the grill! For me, it's the inner lower tab. Even the holes on the outer lower tab and the upper tab to the center of the shield don't match up 100% perfectly, but I don't think that matters very much. You gotta MAKE them match up by shoving that bolt in there and fastening it in as straight as you can. It wasn't off by much for mine on the tab going to the center part of the stone shield, and the outer lower tab on the shield was off by only a hair, but the inner lower bolt hole was so off from the tab, I could barely see the hole through the tab.

No matter. After fastening the other bolts down rather tight, I put that bolt through the tab and went to town, again, keeping it as straight into the hole as I could get. It WILL eat away at the plastic tab on the grill, but it won't cause it very much harm. And then you just tighten in on in.

I would have taken more pics, but I didn't realize that I would be seeing a few threads talking about how difficult a time they had (are having) with these grilles. I only looked to see if there was a better way than the way I ended up doing it, because it definitely IS a severe pain in the butt. I've already started painting, but when I'm finished, I will post a few more pics of how I accomplished the installation of these grilles to the shield.

I don't know if what I did was right, or if there even is a better or easier way, but when it was all said and done, the grilles were on straight, with no gaps and they were fastened as well as they were gonna get to that stoneshield, and hey, that's all we can really ask for. You gotta remember that the front end doesn't go onto the car "straight". It bends and curves inward from the middle.

Also, excuse the pic. It's pre-painted and I keep it rather cold in my house, so that's condensation on those grilles.

Lady72nRob71

There is a large detailed thread on the issues with the repro grilles on this site somewhere. I think it listed all the mods needed to just get them to work somewhat.
PITA just does not cut it.
Stupid repro parts...