Aftermarket Bumper Grills

[Hijack]

Oddly enough, I see a ton of posts talking about replacing or augmenting the plastic bumper grills on our cars, but I couldn't find any ready-made, high quality mesh grill listings in any of these posts (outside of one UK company that looked nice). Any how after quite a bit of Googling, I found a set that seems to be promising. Since I'm not exactly sure it's ok to post commercial links here, just google "Mina Gallery".

They offer both a chrome and black set of grills for most 911 (996 and 997) variants. I ordered a set of black and waiting on delivery. It appears they fully replace the stock plastic grills and, to me at least, look very good.

I'll report back on the fit and finish once I receive mine and install them.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Hijack

[Duane996]

Oddly enough, I see a ton of posts talking about replacing or augmenting the plastic bumper grills on our cars, but I couldn't find any ready-made, high quality mesh grill listings in any of these posts (outside of one UK company that looked nice). Any how after quite a bit of Googling, I found a set that seems to be promising. Since I'm not exactly sure it's ok to post commercial links here, just google "Mina Gallery".

They offer both a chrome and black set of grills for most 911 (996 and 997) variants. I ordered a set of black and waiting on delivery. It appears they fully replace the stock plastic grills and, to me at least, look very good.

I'll report back on the fit and finish once I receive mine and install them.

[Duane996]

Thanks for finding these. The look very high quality at an reasonable price. Let us know how they fit.

[biopsea]

FVD Brombacher also sells them. I was all set to install but was put off by the cost to have installed.

http://www.fvd.de/us/en/Porsche-0/-/-/-/qsearch/show/VID_25780736-VCD_77441740-sort_4-display_50/Porsche-Tuning-Search.html?SearchValue=grill+set&x=0&y=0

[Hijack]

Wow, I can't believe they're selling that. They just took a flat piece of diamond shape mesh and cut it by hand to match the intake shapes of vairous models. To install them, you need to remove the bumper and glue/screw it to the intake holes.

The bumper grill solution shown in the DIY section of these forums is the same thing...but for like $50 total.

[Hijack]

Well, I finally got around to putting these grills on my car. I was having the bumper refinished and repainted today, so figured I'd get these on while the bumper was off.

I must say, I am actually disappointed in their fit. They do not fit the grill openings very accurately. They will work, and will look better when the bumper is mounted, but I'd give them a C- grade for fit.

As you can see, the initial fit was terrible. Once tightened up, it gets better, but still not perfect.

The method of attaching them is even worse and they come with no instructions at all. I couldn't even figure out how I was supposed to attach the center grill at all. The side grills come with bolts affixed to the grills. You then insert scrap metal tabs into the OEM grill retention slots and then tighten them to the bolts with supplied washers and nuts.

Here's the final look of the side grills

The center grill has NOTHING to attach retention brackets to. The brackets supplied are L shaped and they give you 1/4 inch silver phillips head screws and longer 3 inch black phillips head screws. It looks almost as if they wanted you to drill holes into your bumper cover and screw them into the plastic!? Not going to happen. The screws would go THROUGH it! I just jerry-rigged the center cover by slotting the lame L shaped brackets down in the slots without affixing them to anything. This is actually good enough to hold the bracket in place, but is pretty stupid if you ask me.

Another problem with these grills is the fact that you can see the big, silver structural bumper support through the side grills on their upper, inner corners. The plastic OEM grills have a solid piece that covers this. I may have to fabricate a cover for that corner or paint the metal support.

I'll post final photos when the bumper comes back painted and on the car. Hopefull it will look better mounted, otherwise, I'm taking them off! I can't believe that there isn't a better option than these. The only others are the Zunesport grills, that actually, may be far better than these.

P.S. Just checked Zunesports site and while the fit seems to be much better there, you can also see the bumper structural support member with them as well. Looks like no aftermarket solution is perfect. I'll fabricate a cover piece myself and show it when the bumper is remounted.

Edited July 18, 2011 by Hijack

[wross996TT]

I think I paid $95 for the mesh when mine was installed 6 years ago.

[Hijack]

The only problem I see with straight DIY meshing behind the bumper is that on the standard 996TT bumper, there are noticable holes and ridges left showing when you remove the OEM grills. You need some sort of framing to cover them and/or seat into the same position that the OEMs were in, which is what I was hoping to get from these (which you sort of get with the rubber edging). Your DIY mesh looks great on the GT2 style bumper, as there were never any grills inserted into the bumper cover to begin with. In that case, seating it directly behind the bumper works very well.

Truth be told, probably the best option is to use the OEM grills, remove the horizontal plastic strakes and use the frame to house a DIY mesh. In this fashion you'd have a perfect fit, a cover for the metal bumper support structure and the mesh look all in one. I might try that, but it would require a leap of faith that I'd get it right in what would otherwise be destroying the OEM grills (which at last glance would cost around $500 to replace).

[jpflip]

Good job Hijack and thanks for posting these pictures and informations.

[kkswow12]

Good job Hijack and thanks for posting these pictures and informations.

are these grilles the ones from mina gallery?, they look great on the maroon tt in the web site, but there seems to be something lost in the translation...

[Hijack]

Yes, they're the Mina Gallery grills. Here is the finished result. Obviously, they look alot better when the bumper is mounted.

In all, they're not as nice as I would have hoped, but you really have to know what you're looking for to notice they don't fit as well as they should. For now, I'm leaving them on until I see if I can use the OEM grill frames to fabricate my own.

Edited July 25, 2011 by Hijack