mrplow911

The radiator grills on the 986 sit very low and thus tend to collect quite a bit of debris and garbage faster than other cars. The design of the radiators and front air intakes is such a way that any debris which enters the grill get jammed between the radiator and the inside of the front bumper body panel. Cleaning out your radiators and the garbage stuck behind the front bumper should be done periodically as leaving anything in there can cause inefficiencies to your cooling (A/C and engine) and also rust your radiators once the debris gets wet. By adding mesh to the standard grill, using gutter guards for rain gutters, you can reduce the amount of debris which can enter your grill. This is a simple process and adds not only functional value, but I think it looks pretty great too. For me it took roughly 4 hours to access, clean the radiators and air intakes, and add the mesh to my front grills(not including painting the grills). Parts you'll need: • Gutter Guard (this is the same stuff you use for rain gutters on a house to keep leaves and junk from building up in the gutter) - Buy two sheets of this. • High gloss, black spray paint • Tiny black zip ties - nothing too thick, but don't go too wimpy either. You'll need about 4 zip ties. Tools you'll need: • Torx set • Vacuum • Aluminum shears • Wet rag and soap to wipe down the air intake duct which is likely dirty. I won't cover how to remove the front bumper, as that's available widely across Youtube, Renntech, and other DIY sites. Here's the Youtube video I used (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=280&v=X2q54XtupVo). So we'll get started with this tutorial once you have the front bumper cover removed. 1. The first step is to remove the grills which are held in place with 4 plastic tabs and pull out from the inside of the front bumper cover. This is fairly straight forward – just be sure to follow the general rule of not trying to force anything! Use the images below to help. From this image, you can see 4 plastic tabs are used to secure the grill in place, while 3 tabs on top are flat and just used to align the grill. 2. With the grills out, it’s time to trace them on paper so you can cut your mesh correctly. I used a big sheet of painters drop paper, which I’ll later use when painting the grills, to trace around the whole perimeter of the grill piece. It’s important to trace around the whole piece rather than just the vent portion, because the grill is rounded and so the mesh will need to bend in order to make this a tight fit. If your mesh is too small debris will be able to make it past your grill. 3. Now it’s time to cut your gutter guard. Using the metal shears, cut the mesh to match the outline you traced in step 2. I found it easy to use a box knife to score and transfer the tracing from the paper to the gutter guard (since the gutter is painted, you just use the box knife to score the paint). Your cuts don’t need to be perfect. Mine aren’t rounded, but you’ll see that they still create a great seal for stopping junk. 4. This next step is optional, though it makes a big difference in terms of looks! I painted by grills. There’s nothing fancy you need to do when painting them. I applied three coats of paint just to ensure it was solid. Let them dry for at least a day or two or else the paint will easily chip. 5. The next step is to cut a whole out for the outside temp sensor which is sticks through the left grill (when looking at the car head on). Before cutting the hole for the sensor, be sure to test out your mesh by holding it against and fitting it (bending it to form) with the respective grill it’s for. This doesn’t need to be an exact science, and in this case it’s always better to cut less and test it rather than cut too much. I determined where the hole needed to be cut by holding the fitted mesh against the grill and scoring the part of the mesh which aligned with the hole on the grill. I cut a small rectangle that is about a half inch, or in my case three snips of the mesh. I probably couldn’t gone a bit smaller, but you can’t really notice. 6. Next step is to adhere the mesh to the grill. I did this a bit differently than others have since I didn’t’ want the mesh to be permanently attached to the grill. I used small black zip ties which aren’t visible when viewing the car but hold the mesh securely in place and allow it to be replaced if they become damaged or a future owner doesn’t want them. In the picture below you can see I used 4 zip ties for each grill. Two on the very bottom which help support the mesh from sliding down, and two at the very top which help the mesh from being pushed back into the intake duct. 7. The most difficult part of reassembly is aligning the outside temp sensor with the hole you made. Prior to having mesh installed this was simple because you could just put your fingers in the grill and guide it. There’s no trick to this, just take your time aligning it as you put the bumper panel back on. It doesn’t need to be aligned perfectly since you can use needle nose pliers to adjust it after the bumper panel is in place.