Having just replaced the two grilles located behind the front wheels on the sides of my Crossfire with stainless steel ones, I thought I would ask if anyone would want to read step-by-step instructions and see some photos of the steps and the results. I found that it took me about 1-2 hours from start to finish for each side of my car and required no special tools. I purchased my grilles off Ebay and I believe one can find listings for them there any time.

 

Post a write up, and also post up a link to where you purchased these or how you came to get the SS inserts.

 

I sure would, absolutely!!!

 

What is the Ebay link ????? What ias the cost ? A DIY pictorial/text would be outstanding !!!

 

Your name isn't Dan is it?

 

FP,
Don't know if you're asking Dickbee or me. But, no 2005 Ragtop = Tim

 

Im glad you had a good experience with this product.. I, on the other hand, did not. I wouldn't place those grilles anywhere near my crossfire! Not only did it take over 3 weeks to ship to me, but the quality was sub-par at most! Stainless steel? Tell that to the ones I received.. they seem to be pretty damn stained with discoloration, and poor machining quality. The only way I would ever install them is if i painted them to hide all the defects. Of course this is just my experience and I cannot speak for all

Oh.. And I purchased this before I roamed the threads of this VERY INFORMATIVE forum and learned the sellers reputation.. live and learn Good luck with your side grilles.. post some pics if you could!

 

Not surprised.......Another one of Dan's victim.
BUYER BEWARE: ebay seller: moonsert7-2008

 

FP, Alcon,
Wasn't aware Dickbee had purchased a ROOT product. Do however vividly recall another forum member verifying with Dan that these grill strakes are in fact ABS plastic NOT aluminum. CAVEAT EMPTOR !!!!!

 

At first I didnt know what you meant by "Root" product but in checking my records, my stainless grilles were purchased from Dan Root. At discussion here are not the strakes because I re-used the originals which are plastic. I'm going to describe the ss grille that rests behind those strakes. There's no need for me to go into Dan's history -- you guys know more about that than I do. All I can say is I purchased these grilles from Dan; they are ss; they fit quite well; they came promptly; and you can judge for yourself about their quality from the photos I will post. Maybe I can get my posting up tomorrow. There seems to be enough interest to warrant posting my notes and the photos.

 

Id love to see what they look like, I have been working on a better design and have not had an 'inspiration" yet. Tried several approaches and have not had one that made it yet.

Wanna see others efforts so I can review the options, thanks WOODY

 

OK...here are my notes and photos.

Crossfire Side Grille Replacement
The following comments and images are offered to help anyone who may be considering replacing the black plastic side grilles on their Crossfires. I purchased two stainless steel (ss) grilles from Dan Root off eBay for $80. While the instructions were missing from that purchase, emails from Dan provided adequate information for me to proceed. The grilles came with 2 equal size and shape pieces of smooth black plastic, about 1/16th inch thick with two circular pads of double-stick tape attached to one side. The two pieces of perforated ss also had 3 strips of very thin double-stick tape attached to their back sides. Photo #02 shows the car with the original grille & strakes at the start of installation.

The installation process involves four basic steps. Tools and supplies I used included:
· 18” piece of heavy plastic fish line (approx 80 lb test)
· hair dryer
· spray bottle of water
· Alcohol
· razor knife
· thin blade putty knife
· Scotch Exterior Mounting Tape
· “Goo Off” adhesive remover
· Pliers
· Wet/Dry sandpaper (220 grit)
· Two pieces of masking tape
· Paper Towels for clean-up


Step 1. Removing Original Grillles
This step took about 30% of the time required (roughly 2 hours total working slowly). The original grilles come as a single piece unit (see photo #12 ) with the three parallel silver plastic strakes attached to a black plastic backing that includes the original grille. The unit is attached at three places – at the tail end of each silver strake is about 1” of double-stick adhesive; near the middle of each strake is an --> shaped tab/prong and at the front end of each strake is a tab/point that projects into holes of the car body. Note photo #xx to see the holes in the fender of the car that receive the à tab and the strake point tab.

Using the hair dryer, I first warmed the tail end of a strake, to soften the adhesive holding it to the car. Using the putty knife I carefully inserted it between the car body and the strake to allow me to open the gap between the strake and the car just far enough to slip the fish line behind the strake. Then, using somewhat of a sawing motion, I pulled the line up and down while at the same time pulled it through the adhesive towards the front of the strake. Once behind the strake, the line cut the adhesive quite quickly. I repeated the process for the two other strakes.


Now comes the slightly tricky step. You need to release the à prong of each strake from the car body. Again I used the thin putty knife slipping it down between the strake and body as I CAREFULLY pulled and rotated the strake gently to expose the prong. With the edge of the putty knife I carefully depressed the top “wing” of the à prong so that it would pop out of the hole. Just go slowly and carefully.


If you accidently break off the à prong, don’t fret. You’ll just need to use more double-stick tape later.

Repeat this process for the two remaining strakes. It makes sense, I think, to start with the top strake and work down, as you can see better to the à prongs.


Once the third à prong is released, the whole grille assembly will come off easily. See photo # 06 to see what my car looked like with the grille assembly just removed. Photo # 12 shows the backside of the original grille assembly.

At this point, using a spray bottle of water, I cleaned the side of the car. I used the “Goo Off” to help remove the remnants of double-stick tape from the side of the car. My finger nails helped too in this cleaning/scraping process. I also used just my fingers to rub off the remnants of that double-stick adhesive from the ends of the strakes. Before I cleaned off all signs of the strakes, I placed a vertical piece of masking tape along the door edge and marked on it where the center line of each strake occurred. That tape and those marks really helped me to know I was aligning the strakes properly at final installation.


Step 2. Install the new ss grille
Once the car is cleaned, I wiped the area that will be behind the new grille with the alcohol to remove any waxes, oils, etc. that might interfere with the double-stick tape adhering tightly to the car. You will see on the side of the fender, where the grille will go, two circular black rubber “buttons”. I presume these serve to eliminate noise/vibrations from the original grille vibrating against the fender.


Before you install the ss grille, you need to install the black plastic backing. On mine, Dan had installed two large circular patches of double-stick tape. I “test fitted” the black plastic to the car, and had the feeling that the double-stick tape would be on top of those two black rubber bumper buttons and would hold the plastic too far off the car body. So I removed those two circular patches of double-stick tape from the black plastic. Do not remove the rubber round buttons. In the place where the black plastic backing will sit, I installed several pieces of my Scotch double-sided tape all around the area where the black plastic would rest, but not on top of those two rubber buttons. With the tape in place, I installed the black plastic piece and with it positioned carefully, relative to the lines of the fender indentation, I then installed the stainless steel grille on top of the black plastic after cleaning the black plastic with alcohol. See photo #16.


Step 3. Removing the strakes from the original grille assembly.
This is likely the most tedious part of the whole project. First, using the razor knife, cutting along the edge of the silver strake (start at one side of the assembly), being very careful to not cut any of the silver strake, score the black plastic backing. On the other side (the “inside”) I carefully cut the black plastic where it was formed to meet the strake. Then, carefully, and slowly twisting the strake, I bent the assembly away from my first strake, breaking the black plastic. The plastic is soft and breaks slowly and easily and not with a “snap”. It may require a couple of flexings back and forth to break it off. Set that separated strake aside, and repeat the process for the other two strakes. Discard the pieces of black plastic – the original grille.


Now that each strake is separate from the original assembly, you need to remove the excess black plastic from the front “inside” side of each strake. Mine ended up with about 1/8-1/4” of plastic around the front end of each strake. To remove that excess, as we want to have just the silver strake and no black plastic, I used the razor knife to score the inside side of the strake below the edge of the silver strake and I scored right along the edge of the silver on the other side being careful again to not nick the silver plastic of the strake. With several scorings completed, I then used pliers to grip the excess black plastic and again with a twisting motion flexed it back and forth until it started to break free. I then slowly broke off all black plastic that had extended beyond the silver sides of the strake. The good news is this black plastic is only at the front end of each strake – it’s the remnants of the plastic grille that originally supported the front end of each strake. It actually breaks off easier than I would have guessed, but the scorings really help. Repeat until all three strakes are free of black plastic.


I then used the wet/dry sandpaper placed on a smooth working surface. With the paper face-up on the work table, I rubbed the strake – just the front end that once had the black plastic – back and forth over the sandpaper. I sanded off maybe 1/32nd inch of strake and black plastic residue at the front end only, where the strake will pass over the stainless steel grille. I did that because with my grilles I perceived that with the black plastic backing and the thickness of the stainless grille, the outer surface of the new grille stood further off the car body than did the original. By taking just a little off the front end of each strake, I felt the alignment to the car body was better along the length of the strake. I came to that conclusion with a strake that I had accidentally broken off the à prong. With that strake I could insert the tab at the strake front as it comes in and out readily, and check the overall alignment of the strake to the car body. You don’t want to try it with a strake that has all tabs and prongs because it will mean you’ll have to carefully release that middle à prong again.


With all three strakes sanded, and cleaned of any old adhesive at the tail end, I placed new double-stick tape segments from the tail end along that part of the strake that had a plastic backing that would hold the tape. I suspect my pieces of tape were about 2” long, from the tail end, and were cut to match the “boat” shape of the strake. The center à prong and the front tab will hold the strake in position on top of the grille in those places so no tape is needed there.

Step 4. Final Installation

The final step is merely to re-install each strake, inserting the front end tab into its hole and positioning the tail end to be aligned with my mark on the masking tape. With both ends in proper position, merely press the center à prong to secure it. I pressed the tail end of the strake to get a good adhesive stick between the car and the strake. Photos #18 and #21 show the new installation.


I’ve gone into a great amount of detail here only because I would have liked to have had this information when I started. The second side went much easier given the experience gained from the first. Feel free to ask any questions. Good luck if you try it with your car.

 

I'm glad you're happy with your purchase.

Personally, I would not purchase anything from Dan, no matter how nice it may be. He has done enough damage to members here that out of principle I would not do business with him. But to each their own.

 

I guess that "damage" somehow escaped me. While I dont read every thread and message, I read a lot of them. Somehow I missed the reports of his transgressions and shun by members. All I can say is that he treated me well, fairly, no worse than any other seller on ebay and I've bought a LOT of stuff there.

 

you know, if I even thought these were a grt design, I would pay Woody to make them, and sell them at a loss on ebay just so Dan Root knows he can kiss my @ss.....interested in a "go after Dan Root" venture Woody...you know we can make a better product than this crook....and I could care less he treated 1 out of 10 of his customers well, he is a crook and ebay should have shut him down...

 

Well I dont know anything about the drama but is there any chance we could get some pics that are from further away to give us a better idea of the effect.

Cheers

 

Sure...I'll try to shoot some tomorrow...I've been pleased with the results.

 

Turned out very well indeed. Although, this is a pretty fair amount of time invested, permanently altering the factory strakes so they can no longer be put back to OEM, and having the costs associated for such a small cosmetic difference. I like it because it is something that i WOULD notice, but will be lost on 99% of the population.

I went with carbon fibre side strakes so I can not really talk about cost, but I can always put it back to OEM if necessary.

Nice look, subtle but different. I like it for sure.
______________________________

As far as Dan goes, I bought some product from him before I really knew of his true colors, and the transaction went well, all things considered. Would I deal with him again, after talking with Doc and FP at past GTGs, no I would not. But all things considered, both of us had good transactions we are happy with, I am sorry everyone on the skirt buy did not get the same outcome.

 

Even a broken clock is right twice a day....

 

WHAT?!? Did you go with an overlay or have actual CF strakes made? Hmmm...and overlay might look nice...w/ the steel inserts maybe even better.