I got my billet grille. The cheap one from Wee1 off of E-bay, goes over existing stock black grille.
When I got it, I noticed the bend was off a little, but I just tweaked it to fit better. Then I must have sat there for a half hour trying to figure out how you are suppose to get those zip-ties to secure the new grille.
I gave up on those and went digging through the tool cart to see what I could find. BINGO, a pair of small 6" bungee chords - Ghetto rig the SOB!!!
As I told you guys before. I planned on still having my license plate on the front, but in a manner in which you can't really see it - if you're not looking for it. The stock license plate bracket obviously wouldn't fit, so I chuncked that, leaving just the plate itself. I considered drilling a couple holes marked by indentions where the factory bracket/plate once sat. So itd be in the same place and wouldn't go anywhere. But I didn't want to mess up my stock grille with holes should I need or sell it later.
So I took my plate, bent it over my knee until I got the correct angle of the Camaro nose.
Back to intalling the billet grille...
I hooked the backing plate on the far left and right side of the billet grille with the bungee chords, fished the bungee chords through the middle stock grille openings on the left and right sides, up into the bumper frame area and attached them to various holes, bumper brackets, light brackets, frame brackets, etc until they were secured.
The grille is fairly tight, enough that it won't come off even in aggressive driving, or a wicked pot-hole. But if you purposely manipulate it by hand you can pull it about an inch or two away from the stock grille. With that gap, I stuck the license plate between the two, and let go. It pulled tight against the stock grille again. And used a couple fingers to get the license plate centered perfect.
It's awesome. You really can't see the plate unless you are looking for it. The front end remains nice and clean looking.
But as you'll see in the pictures, any amount of light hits the front end of the car, like a bright spot-light (in my case a camera flash) the reflective license plate lights up and is easily read. Should keep my legal.
The new billet grille, no light applied. Because you are eye to eye with the Camaro, near the ground, you can see the plate more. When you stand up, the lines of the billet grille hide it entirely.
But when a light source is applied to the front end of the car, like a spot light (who would have a spot light - and would be looking for a front license plate :D ) you see this...
If you read this at a later date, you'll need to AIM or E-Mail me for the latter picture displaying my license plate. This is only for demonstration purposes, cropping my plate number out would take away from what you are suppose to see. I will be taking the link to this picture down in a weeks time. Please don't copy or send this to anyone. Let them notify me, I'll be glad to oblige them.
[ November 10, 2003: Message edited by: Bliggida ]
[ November 18, 2003: Message edited by: Bliggida ]</p>
When I got it, I noticed the bend was off a little, but I just tweaked it to fit better. Then I must have sat there for a half hour trying to figure out how you are suppose to get those zip-ties to secure the new grille.
I gave up on those and went digging through the tool cart to see what I could find. BINGO, a pair of small 6" bungee chords - Ghetto rig the SOB!!!
As I told you guys before. I planned on still having my license plate on the front, but in a manner in which you can't really see it - if you're not looking for it. The stock license plate bracket obviously wouldn't fit, so I chuncked that, leaving just the plate itself. I considered drilling a couple holes marked by indentions where the factory bracket/plate once sat. So itd be in the same place and wouldn't go anywhere. But I didn't want to mess up my stock grille with holes should I need or sell it later.
So I took my plate, bent it over my knee until I got the correct angle of the Camaro nose.
Back to intalling the billet grille...
I hooked the backing plate on the far left and right side of the billet grille with the bungee chords, fished the bungee chords through the middle stock grille openings on the left and right sides, up into the bumper frame area and attached them to various holes, bumper brackets, light brackets, frame brackets, etc until they were secured.
The grille is fairly tight, enough that it won't come off even in aggressive driving, or a wicked pot-hole. But if you purposely manipulate it by hand you can pull it about an inch or two away from the stock grille. With that gap, I stuck the license plate between the two, and let go. It pulled tight against the stock grille again. And used a couple fingers to get the license plate centered perfect.
It's awesome. You really can't see the plate unless you are looking for it. The front end remains nice and clean looking.
But as you'll see in the pictures, any amount of light hits the front end of the car, like a bright spot-light (in my case a camera flash) the reflective license plate lights up and is easily read. Should keep my legal.
The new billet grille, no light applied. Because you are eye to eye with the Camaro, near the ground, you can see the plate more. When you stand up, the lines of the billet grille hide it entirely.
But when a light source is applied to the front end of the car, like a spot light (who would have a spot light - and would be looking for a front license plate :D ) you see this...
If you read this at a later date, you'll need to AIM or E-Mail me for the latter picture displaying my license plate. This is only for demonstration purposes, cropping my plate number out would take away from what you are suppose to see. I will be taking the link to this picture down in a weeks time. Please don't copy or send this to anyone. Let them notify me, I'll be glad to oblige them.
[ November 10, 2003: Message edited by: Bliggida ]
[ November 18, 2003: Message edited by: Bliggida ]</p>
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