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.

Apex

Resurrecting this old thread—question for @911Syncro or anyone else who's replaced a grill

1. Any hardware required other than the 18 m3x16 oval-head screws? I'd like to just get a box of SS screws from McMaster-Carr if that works. There are some air-dam clips as well but I can re-use those...
2. Does the oil cooler need to unbolt to get in there? Looks like it does... Can I just unbolt it and let dangle while I fiddle with the new grill?

Cheers and thanks.

911Syncro

Well, it has been over 5 years since my 968 has been gone, however......

• The only way I ever installed a new grille was to remove the entire bumper cover and then place it on a work surface. So I am not sure what it means to move the oil cooler because that wasn't needed to remove the bumper cover. R&R of the whole bumper cover isn't very complicated, and then allows a much easier install of all those little screws to retain the grille itself.
• Oddly, I still have a "part" for all of this stuff in case it might help your work. AW BBH - Batwing and Bellypan Attach Kit (un-opened). Can't remember the price, but this link was probably it.
  • https://www.paragon-products.com/product-p/awx-bbh.htm
  • 
    
    
  • How about $25.00 shipped? Send me a PM and we can exchange paypal or whatever.

Apex

911 - I'm a sucker for bags of hardware so I'm in—PM coming. My front bumper has issues (another story, another post, soon, about that) so it might be coming off anyway. Thanks.

dlearl476

Man, that thing is a collectors item! Sadly, Arnnwerx is a thing of the past. For a while, there was a “Coming Soon” message on his link, but now it’s just a web domain service. That kit is great, I’ve used about half of mine. Seems I lose a screw or two between times I remove my pans.

FWIW, soon after I bought my Cab, I replaced to OEM grills with some stainless steel mess ones somebody on the other site was selling. I don’t remember any issues R&R-img them. I know for sure I didn’t remove my bumper cover. I think I put it on the same time I installed my splitter.