I just picked up a set of Aero grills (bonnet grill and upper bumper grill) for my MC. I wanted to do it myself because it would cost me $480 at the dealership to get them installed

I did a search and found the website r53w11.com....but came up empty.

TIA
-chris

This look is totally what Im goin for!! AWESOME! (i hope its ok to post this pic of someones car)




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Mods: tint (35%)
Soon to be Mods:
black aero grills,
Enkei RPM2 17"

 

Recommend you do a search for aero grille or grill. There are many threads about the process.

Here is but one, Smokey's Aero Grille install

 

Hey, that's my MC in the picture!!! Ooooh, I'm so proud!

2perCooper, there's lots of install information, but non of that helped me. What helped me was taking off my bumper cover and taking a look at what I needed to tackle. it was much easier than I thought. I took some pictures of when my car was apart, but they came out really bad.

let me gather some of my thoughts, and I'll reply to this post again (maybe with some pics from when my MC was apart).

 

When I first thought about doing the install, I read http://www.bridger.us/mini/howto/MIN...ll_install.pdf and found it to be very helpful. But I still have the "take the bumper cover off and look for yourself" attitude, because before I took mine off, I couldn't imagine what they were talking about in the article. Things really came together when I took it off, and looked at how the new aero grille peices would fit and where/why it would need to be cut.

Just to give you an idea, I decided against cutting off all of the tabs and glueing. I decided to cut new slots into the bumper cover instead. In doing so, I created a super tight fit that didn't require any glue. I cut about 1/4 inch off of the top (if I remember correctly) and used a dremmel type tool to grind little by little off until I was happy with how it fit.

In the picture you posted, I have a painted lower grille, so if that's the look you're going for, you'll need to also paint it, or buy the M7 grille. As I posted before, I just used regular car spray paint found at an auto parts store....about 4 coats, plus about 4 more coats of clear coat.

PM me if you have any questions. Good luck, you'll love the way it looks! I'm so happy someone posted my mini's picture!!!!

 

>>Hey, that's my MC in the picture!!! Ooooh, I'm so proud!
>>
>>2perCooper, there's lots of install information, but non of that helped me. What helped me was taking off my bumper cover and taking a look at what I needed to tackle. it was much easier than I thought. I took some pictures of when my car was apart, but they came out really bad.
>>
>>let me gather some of my thoughts, and I'll reply to this post again (maybe with some pics from when my MC was apart).


hey can we see some more pics of your car, i think it looks great!
which color black is it? also when you get a black cooper, do you have to get the black bumper inserts or not? silly question?

 

2perCooper.

There are two parts to the aero grill look. One you can do yourself easily and it is the part that fits into the bonnet. Remove the existing grille in your MC's bonnet by removing gently the self tapping nuts that fasten the grill in place and keep all of the washers and nuts to reuse with the aero grill.

The upper front bumper aero grill is supposed to fit perfectly into the front bumper of the aero kit. It does not fit into the front MC or MCS bumper without cutting the bumper to make slots and cutting the grill piece because the slots don't line up. Further the front bumper behind the grill part may need some trimming to get things to fit and it needs to be painted black with spray paint or body color paint will show through the aero grill.

It is up to you to choose which slots to create and which pegs to trim or keep or cut off. I had a body shop install my front bumper grille and it cost about $185 in labor but it took them many hours like 4 or 5 plus they had to use a dremel or grinding tool.

>>hey can we see some more pics of your car, i think it looks great!
>>which color black is it? also when you get a black cooper, do you have to get the black bumper inserts or not? silly question?

The MC in this picture is the metallic black. The black bumper inserts are an option on any MC but in this case there are no inserts. The black inserts look best with a light color MC for contrast especially with a black roof.
Note as she said the lowest grille is supposed to be silver but was spray painted black for the full black look.

see this thread
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...mp;topic=20659


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Send a PM to minihune Mele Kalikimaka & Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

 

mininune is right about my MC being metallic (cosmos) black. He's also right that the bonnet grille is a piece of cake. Did it myself in a few minutes. Be real careful with the self tapping nuts....and save them because you will need to reuse them to install the aero bonnet grille.

One of the things the articles don't mention, is that I needed to remove some bolts from the bottom of my bumper cover.

I don't have any current pics of my MC....but maybe I'll scrape together enough money to get some new wheels/tires.....then maybe i'll have more of a reason to take pics. For now, gotta pay the rent and feed my kid!

 

c'mon...
i want to see the pic's of your car with the tint....
i'll show you pic's of my PW CVT with tint before it was totalled!
you don't have to wait for new wheels, your car is wicked now!!!

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-1 PW/MC

 

I just did mine last weekend. It's not as tough as it looks, just a little scary cutting slots for the tabs on the lower grille. It took me about 3 hours. It's very logical once you see things apart.

 

You guys are the best!!! Thanks!

Im gonna tackle this project once it gets nice out...it raining cats and dogs here in Chicago...


Thanks again to all who responded!

I hope i can do this w/o fooking anything up.