- Messages
- 4
- Likes
- 0
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
- Country
- United States
- What I Drive
- 2018 Kia Stinger GT
A few months ago I was following a truck carrying a load of construction debris when a few pieces of lumber fell off the back and into the road directly in front of me. While I managed to avoid most of it, a piece of 2x4 splintered and a 6” sliver penetrated my lower grille and punctured my condenser. So after a $1,200 repair I started looking at ways to keep something like that from happening again.
As everyone probably knows, both the upper and lower grilles are made of thin plastic and offer very little protection to the important (and expensive) cooling equipment just behind the front bumper of the Stinger. This includes the radiator, condenser and intercooler.
While I could not find any off-the-shelf products to achieve what I was trying to do, I was able to fabricate a simple solution and thought I would share it here as sort of a public service announcement. If anyone is interested in doing the same here is what I ultimately did: I purchased a 24” x 24” flattened aluminum mesh panel with one inch openings and cut it to fit the lower grill opening.
I decided to install it on the outside of the existing grille for a couple of reasons; first, there really isn’t a good place to mount it on the inside as it’s mostly foam and plastic; second, I suspected it would provide better protection against impact if the force was pushing the panel into the existing grill instead of pulling it away. Finally, it avoids taking off the front end of the car for those not comfortable with that process. I simply spray-painted it matte black and attached it with zip ties. Also, unless you get right next to it the upgrade is basically invisible.
I hope this helps someone and certainly let me know if you anyone has questions.
As everyone probably knows, both the upper and lower grilles are made of thin plastic and offer very little protection to the important (and expensive) cooling equipment just behind the front bumper of the Stinger. This includes the radiator, condenser and intercooler.
While I could not find any off-the-shelf products to achieve what I was trying to do, I was able to fabricate a simple solution and thought I would share it here as sort of a public service announcement. If anyone is interested in doing the same here is what I ultimately did: I purchased a 24” x 24” flattened aluminum mesh panel with one inch openings and cut it to fit the lower grill opening.
I decided to install it on the outside of the existing grille for a couple of reasons; first, there really isn’t a good place to mount it on the inside as it’s mostly foam and plastic; second, I suspected it would provide better protection against impact if the force was pushing the panel into the existing grill instead of pulling it away. Finally, it avoids taking off the front end of the car for those not comfortable with that process. I simply spray-painted it matte black and attached it with zip ties. Also, unless you get right next to it the upgrade is basically invisible.
I hope this helps someone and certainly let me know if you anyone has questions.
