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Reading through this thread resulted in me placing an order with Mina Gallery for both mesh grills.
Since wife found an extended trailer hitch on a truck one day which broke the splitter, these mesh grills will hide the broken splitter.
I did look for a replacement splitter, found Out Of Stock at the usual places.....did find one, but the grills were about the same cost; went with the grills to help protect that A/C condenser and power steering cooler.
when you get the grill from Mina Gallery discard the screws they provide given they are pretty much junk, i went out and bought some self tapping screws, predrilled the holes with a smaller drill bit and they grill went on easily.
Reading through this thread resulted in me placing an order with Mina Gallery for both mesh grills.
Since wife found an extended trailer hitch on a truck one day which broke the splitter, these mesh grills will hide the broken splitter.
I did look for a replacement splitter, found Out Of Stock at the usual places.....did find one, but the grills were about the same cost; went with the grills to help protect that A/C condenser and power steering cooler.
Lanny,
Be sure to remove what is left of the Splitter and Paint anything that shows from the Front (Black)...That way the shiny stuff won't shine through......Then it will look like an "R"!
Will do both. One plastic cover already has a hole in it, I think from PO using a front plate, so again the grill is going to hide this as well.
Thanks.
Also going to be cleaning all the bugs from the condenser before installing these grills.
So the mesh grills finally arrived today; Mina Gallery is quite slow in shipping; anyways, I am not able to get the black plastic over riders off the bumper. I have tried twisting, turning, pulling, pushing and afraid I am going to tear the bumper cover...so guess the bumper cover is going to be coming off.
This is going to take much longer than I expected.
Or is there something I am missing??
Last edited by Lannyl81; Jun 23, 2022 at 12:23 PM.
I figured-out how to get those plastic covers on the over riders off; I removed the bottom pan which provided just enough additional flexibility of the bumper cover to allow getting those covers off.
Step 2: paint the aluminum blocks. Two coats of black.
Last edited by Lannyl81; Jun 24, 2022 at 07:56 AM.
My Aluminum Bumper Part was not Painted at the Factory and shows through....So you have improved the process! Looking forward to seeing the finished Product! Send some Photos! It looks good! You will like it better also!
Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch
Last edited by bcprice36; Jun 23, 2022 at 06:51 PM.
Reason: Added something....
It looks OK! Being Black as it is...No One will notice! It appears to be a little small for the area..... At least the Black Paint hid the Cross-Bar....
My XKR had a new Right Headlight, Grill and the Nose Piece re-placed during the last (2) Weeks due to someone hitting it in a Parking-Lot....Looks the same, your Grill is just Black...I can't tell if you used the Lower Grill or not but it looks a lot newer!
Good Luck!
Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch
Last edited by bcprice36; Jun 26, 2022 at 05:37 PM.
Reason: Addwd something
The upper grill is a little small for the area; that is why I have the ends pushed in. The lower grill is there and is a perfect size/fit.
I had replaced the right headlight lens a few months due to the lens getting cracked (not by me). A few years ago, wife had a FedEx truck back into her and took out the right headlight. Must be "something" about those right headlights....
You've done a great job! I'll bet Momma really likes it...I think these Grill look a lot better than the older "Buck Tooth" one's! Teel her I gave you 5 Stars for that one!
I only recently learnt about the XK's dashboard being shaped after (or having its shape named after) the Spitfire wing. Of course the lower portion had to deviate from the wing's outline due to packaging and ergonomic reasons (glove box, for one). Which suborns me to use my first post on this forum for some mischief and spread a little conspiracy theory:
XKVIII, you are way too young to remember the American made cars of the 1950's. Old Coots like me do, We drove and worked on them. I was told that after WW11, some of the aircraft designers went to work in the American automotive industry designing cars Tue or not, I do not know, but consider this, suposedly the big tail fins on many models were "throw backs" to airplane wings. I remember Buick had a model with multiple chrome ovals on both sides of the hood. Think exhaust ports for aircraft engines. Most cars built at that time had massive grills fitted in an open nosed front end. I think of those huge Pratt and Whitney engines comanding so much visual attention. Any truth to this? I don't know, but since we were talking about WW11 airplane design and it's supposed influence on automotive design, I thought I'd just throw this one out.
Thanks for the input, ironically I was just looking on Mina Gallery’s website and I can get a mesh grill and parts for $130. I think that’s the route I’ll take and just install a new correctly. Based on what I’ve read should be a simple install w/o having to remove the front bumper.
bcprice is correct, the Mina grill goes on the inside . Someone tried installing it haphazardly.
when installing my Mina grill I did need to remove the bumper covering and grind off the rivets holding on the metal under the “buck teeth” plastic covering. I don’t recall if removing the buck teeth was mandatory, but I wanted more air flow, so out they went.
what holds it in place are 3 or 4 nearly invisible black headed metal screws that attach into the 1/8”
holes that you drill into the metal bumper. Mina supplied those as well as some rubber sleeves which serve to space out the grill to the right depth. The black heads of the screws makes them blend in with the grill and they are unnoticeable unless you are really looking closely.
all in all, a fine product.
Z
PS: the hardware kit Mina supplies is different for the XK8 vs XKR, and likely different for the 4.2 L years too.
XKVIII, you are way too young to remember the American made cars of the 1950's. Old Coots like me do, We drove and worked on them. I was told that after WW11, some of the aircraft designers went to work in the American automotive industry designing cars Tue or not, I do not know, but consider this, suposedly the big tail fins on many models were "throw backs" to airplane wings. I remember Buick had a model with multiple chrome ovals on both sides of the hood. Think exhaust ports for aircraft engines. Most cars built at that time had massive grills fitted in an open nosed front end. I think of those huge Pratt and Whitney engines comanding so much visual attention. Any truth to this? I don't know, but since we were talking about WW11 airplane design and it's supposed influence on automotive design, I thought I'd just throw this one out.
True words, indeed. Here in Europe automotive design rarely went in that direction, so one has to visit car meetings to see a Cadillac Eldorado or a Buick Eight. It should be mentioned that Saab had its own take on the topic, though. Allegedly inspired by Saab jets, several cars offered a "black panel"/"night panel" function that switched off all lights in the instrument cluster except those for the speedometer. And coming full circle, the decorative horizontal brace in Saab grills symbolises the wings of an aeroplane.
The Grill Man!
