Took me a while to drill new holes in the brakets (which are different, but i made them work).
You'll need a facelift grille as well.

amazing how big of a difference that extra height/ volume can do.

tap the picture if you want quality or to zoom in
DETAILS IN THE FOLLOWING REPLIES

 

Looks good

 

Is this a 05MY (January 2004 build) update aluminium hood?
If so will the later grill fit the early front bumper or will you need to change that as well?
I think that they are a different shape at the lower end.

The bumper cover mountings, the inner bumper beam and even the welded front panel are all different on the later cars so fitting the later bumper will not be easy at all.

What are you going to do about the screen wash jets?
The later 05MY cars have the washer jets on the wiper arms.
Before that they were mounted on the hood.

Do keep us informed as to how you get on with this.

Mellow

 

hi

yes this is a 2007 facelift aluminium hood, on a 2003 prefacelift car.
the brackets ( hinges) aka the hood supports are different and require drilling two new holes for the alu hood's screws to fit thru the brackets. ( mind you, the alu hood has screws popping out, instead of holes with thread like the old hood)
i will post a picture with how i drilled them, so i can spare other people from measuring. i did it the first attempt.
Security latches and unlocking lever work very well. they are the same and they fit without mods.
- You would also need the spraying whipers and the hoses from the donator car

bumper and grille:
- im keeping my prefacelift bumper, although the hood is rather proeminent in the middle front area, by the grille and high beams location. i actually like that, it makes it more agrrssive looking.
- I loved my prefacelift grille because i chromed its vertical little pillars and had the old logo on it, but prefacelift grilles are too tall, so you need a facelift grille.
As you might know, the facelift grille sits more upright and so its shorter in height.
Now a facelift grille will fit and will let the hood close perfect over it, but i kinda needs to be forced in.
What i mean is the bottom tooth will be inserted in the bumper but the clip above it must be broken, i will post pictures.
The grille's side screws will fit tip in inside the prefacelift bumper screw holes (but will do so tightly enough that the thread will rub hard against the plastic, keeping it really tight) (facelift grilles have screws on the sides, prefacelift grilles have nuts)
The clips by the scews will push against the bumper, keeping the grille at a perfect distance so it will sit right for the hood to close.
And the grille's arms will fit perfectly for the top screws.

Now, as the hood pokes out a bit in the front middle area, compared to the bumper, the grille will nicely draw the line between the two, but will leave a bit of a side gap (i will post a picture later on). You can fit something by the sides of the grille to fill in the little gaps, personally, i dont care as i did this mod for weight reduction and the gaps are fine. And it looks way better. old hood was very heavy

CONS: the alu hood feels a bit filmsy. As its way lighter, it needs to be pressed to latch and close, as you cant drop it like the old steel one.

Ask me anything. This mod is totaly doable

 

thanks man. its not a big deal. i just wanted to give it a try

 

btw, any other alloy/aluminum parts on the facelift besides the hood?
thanks

 

The difference by the middle area


This is the facelift grille. (One arm broken, got it for cheap) Ive cut off the horisontal lines and chromed the vertical, also painted black the sides

Bottom tooth of the grille above the plate

Screws tip in the holes. Pretty tight so it will sit there

Side gap view after grille istalled

Above view

Fish eye picture

Front reflection

 

And the final product

 

Well this is interesting. When I got my 06STR, I noticed the front hood and front bumper cover did not line up correctly and there is a gap between the hood and the bumper where the hood sticks out an inch or two more than the bumper cover. I know that the car had been in a front end accident at one point Before I got it so I just chalked it up to poor workmanship at the body Shop

but now I’m wondering if they fitted an earlier bumper cover onto the car. Maybe the used a pre-facelift bumper cover on the car because they couldn’t find the bumper cover for an 06 STR. And I know they’ve replaced stuff up front and it has a used bumper support because I’ve had the bumper cover off and the bumper support has red overspray paint on it from the car that they removed it from. My car is black. Also the black STR grill is missing and they had a chrome grill on it. I’ll post a picture in a little bit when I go out to see it

You can’t really see the gap in the picture but it’s the only pic I had available on my phone right now. You can see they also used a regular chrome grill instead of the black grill for the STR

 

.....but now I’m wondering if they fitted an earlier bumper cover onto the car.

You can’t really see the gap in the picture but it’s the only pic I had available on my phone right now. You can see they also used a regular chrome grill instead of the black grill for the STR[/QUOTE]

That is a facelift bumper.
It is just a very bad fit!!
From what I recall the chrome grill suround was a zero cost option on the facelift STR's.
It was more common on 06MY (Jan 2005) onwards STR's that had the chrome boot/trunk trim chrome as standard. (Body colour boot/trunk trim was a no cost option.)
(The 05MY (2004 built) facelift STR's had body colour boot/trunk trim as standard and chrome as a no cost option.)

Mellow

 

a bad fit was my first thought.