Okay so I had a semi truck lose a tire this weekend and sent a chunk of it like a bullet through my lower grill... Now I have a nice hole in the middle of the lower grill - really attractive...

Anyway, rather than replace with a several hundred dollar stock grill I have decided to cover it up with a mesh panel from Mina Gallery.

I expect it to be in Tuesday and would like ot get the old one out of the car and prep it for the new mesh insert. - Figured I would clean it and cut out the damage, I was told all that was really needed was the frame which thankfully in tacts still!

Any one have any pictures or instructions on how to remove the lower grill on a 2003 STR?


Thanks guys!

 

Crickets... No one has ever taken the lower grill off before, or is it just an impossible feat?

 

I did it pretty easily when I had the front bumper off, should be doable with it still on the car.

Each foglight is held on by two torx (t25?) screws. I believe foglights have to be removed first to get the grill out.

Grill is held on by a series of clips, pretty straight forward once you're in there.

 

I have a 2005 STR with the Mina grilles. A bit different from your 2003 STR but amazingly I also hit a large chunk of truck tire and broke the passenger side grille and the center grille plus the painted plastic piece between them. Cost over $450 for 3 plastic pieces!!! And it cut the passenger side tire sidewall (Replaced under Discount Tire's road hazard warranty luckily) and marked my nice chromed Vulcan rim!

I found the JTIS recommends removing the front bumper cover to gain access to the center grille but that was too much work for me especially by myself. Remove the plastic cover that attaches to the underside of the front bumper cover. Now you can get your hands up and behind the center grille. The front bumper cover can be pried out enough to remove the center grille.

DO NOT cut the center out of the factory plastic grille!!! The frame is not used at all for mounting the Mina unit! The Mina center grille has 3 studs welded to the backside of the stainless steel mesh. These studs go thru the existing plastic mesh. Then a small metal plate is attached that sandwiches the stainless mesh to the plastic mesh. This holds the stainless grille in place.

My big complaint is the design places the 3 studs where they interfere with the plastic mesh. So when I first installed it I had to cut my perfectly good center grille to install it!! With a little effort they could have placed the studs to fit in-between the plastic mesh. I paid $175 for these and the stainless mesh is nice but everything else is a POS!!!

I did not want to destroy my new plastic center grille ($187 from Jaguar. List is $227!!) so I took the old damaged plastic grille out and before I installed the Mina stainless grille I bent the mounting studs just a bit so I finally got the stainless grille centered on the plastic grille and did not need to cut any of the plastic mesh away.

One other thing about the Mina grilles and especially the center one. The stainless mesh is flat but the stock center grille is curved from side to side and from top to bottom. Spend a little time to hand form the stainless mesh with some VERY careful bending to follow the stock grille's contour. It's a bunch easier to do this off the car. I was never satisfied with how the center section looked but now I got it to fit nice!
.
.
.

 

Thanks guys! I have started to look at the damage a little more closely and decided to take the STR into the body shop today... :-(

I was hearing a strange noise coming from the front right side when I was turning turns out... The truck tire not only took out the grill and the foglight cover, but my lower skid plate is hanging loose, my right side front wheel well liner is broken (this is the strange noise when I turn hard right) as well as the left side wheel well liner.

Got the total estimate hope you are sitting down

Front Skid Plate / Air Dam $389
Front Drivers Side Wheel Well Liner $168
Front Passengers Side Wheel Well Liner $181
Front Passengers Side Fog Light Molding $61
Front Lower Radiator Grill $226
Front Bumper Cover $896
Paint $256
Shop Supplies $76
Labor $289

Total $2542 before tax!

Still think I will be replacing the lower grill with the Mina I just got it in yesterday looks pretty nice, but think I will have the body shop just do it all while they have the bumper off...

Oh well, the old girl will have a brand new shiney facelift!!

 

Sure hope insurance is paying for all that!! It was bad enough to just buy the parts and do it myself.
.
.
.