Nathan J.

I purchased a replacement grill, as the one that came on my car was cracked, and I have finally gotten around to fixing it. The replacement is a job I am hoping to start and finish tomorrow. Having given it a cursory look, this just feels to me like it will be a job that requires a few tricks before it is all done???

Any advice from someone who has tackled this same job would be appreciated, in case there are some tricks to making the job go easy? Or maybe I just need some reassurance that this one won't kick my butt, and a relaxing afternoon, becomes a frustrating weekend

Thanks

Nathan

jsheiry

Nathan I think once you get the batwing off it will be fairly straigtforward, tiny phillips screws if I remember. I would seriously consider looking at this kit to have some hardware handy as these batwings have been removed over 20 some years by not necessarily the most concerned mechanics in my experience and after 100K who knows whats still holding it on. Cheap extra parts to be sure everything gets put back nice!

http://www.arnnworx.com/catalog/inde...1#.WN53ttQrL98

Nathan J.

John,

Thanks for the feedback. I wish I had known about this kit prior to purchasing some of the OEM fasteners from Pelican at high prices. If this one day project turns in to a multi-week project, I will buy this kit, as I love using the best fasteners available to me, and this kit seems to have some upgrades to OEM.

Best Regards

Nathan

Boeing 717

Dang, wish I'd have known about that as well. I just spent over a hundred dollars on screws.

jsheiry

Nathan

I like the folks over at Pelican but on Porsche OEM stuff you cant beat Sonnen Porsche

You will also find your local Porsche dealer may match Sonnen pricing so you can keep the local people alive too

Jay Wellwood

Boeing 717

Don't tell my wife, that wouldn't compute.

thomasmryan

There is a little bit of leeway in the screw holes in the grill to align the center section of the bumper inlet.

911Syncro

I've had to do this twice, and now again have a new OEM grille to install. Yuk, I always let my wife and kids drive the car and they were not careful with deep ramps to stores and such.

Thanks very much for the link to the kit. I am buying it, because last time I worked with Sunset Porsche to get the parts -- still have the spreadsheet with all the part numbers and prices and that totaled $49+.

Perhaps the obvious suggestions: clean / polish while the bumper cover is out, put a blanket/cloth down under the bumper cover, I recall the little mounting screws for the grille to be very tight so grab a variety of phillips screw drivers, need a long socket extension to get the side bolts holding the bumper cover, remove the front wheels for easier access to them, the batwing mounts to the fender liners so make absolutely sure to get those right else the fender liner will flap against the tires from wind and then start wearing away (ask me how I know), ...





One thing I didn't do, but it might be reachable is lube the headlight mechanisms while you are in there. Check AC mounting bracket.

Other thing is keep the PET page handy to see how it all goes together. Like this:

Nathan J.

I am happy to say that I budgeted a half a day for this project, and it took from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM (which in my experience is too close to being on-time to notice the difference ). Getting the oil cooler out of the way was the only tricky step, and the many small Phillips screws were easy but time consuming.

One further question, the two types of brackets that attach the batwing to the vertical supporting plastic panels, (numbers 24 and 25 on PET), how critical are these? I ask because I only have one of the four indicated on the PET? I will eventually purchase and install these, I just want to find out whether it is ok to drive the car without three of the four (which I have been since the day I bought the car)?

Thank you to everyone that posted helpful tips.

Nathan

911Syncro

It has been a few years, but I am sure those parts attach to the front of the fender liner, which will blow into the tires and wear away. So if you are going to drive it, I'd say these are important.