MAN I love when a plan comes together!
I've been a fan of the "gutter guard" supercharger grille ever since Kenchan made his last summer (I gladly purchased one and have been using it ever since). Even then, though, I was keeping an eye out for an alternate solution that would allow me to make the grille out of some other, more interestingly-shaped material.
I tried getting quotes on perforated aluminum and steel, but the prohibitively high cost and large size of the billet stock (a minimimum-sized peice would cost in the neighboorhood of $150+ and make several dozen inserts - not worth it unless I planned to become a NAM merchant) discouraged me for months. Then I ran across honeycomb-shaped plastic grille peices. These grilles, which come stock on some light duty trucks is the perfect material - black, rubbery plastic. The size of the hexes is even perfect for the application. As you can see, they came out quite nicely, I think:
I have enough material left over to make several more inserts, even after making a spare for myself, so if anyone's interested in getting a copy, let me know. The material fits snugly inside the supercharger scoop insert even though it's relatively thick (copmpared to the wafer-thin metal guttar guard stuff). I can't be 100% sure, but I would think that this could be painted with little trouble, or simply used as-is to match the existing OEM or areo grilles.
