DIY: Coupe grill swap and hood compatibility

[(/O^O\)]

This is a photo record "proof" to what is already pretty well known in the community.

The starting question is "can a hood and grill from another coupe work on my car." Admittedly I am ONLY addressing the grill swap with pictures. I do not have an older hood to photograph on my later coupe. But I do this because I have tried to get a west-coast manufacturer to manufacture a carbon hood for coupes - and maybe you sedan folk will want one to be made too. I propose here that the best edition hood for coupes is the later 89-90 to allow the widest audience of coupe owners as potential carbon hood buyers.

Here is the 89-90 grill - sometimes referred to as the '90-only' grill - but my car is a late '89 build and has the so-called '90 grill and hood. \/ pix here

Here is the front underside of the '89-90 hood that is needed to allow the later grill: the key is the 6, bolted 'hard-points' for attaching the grill to the hood. The extreme R&L two are out of sight This is why the older 87-89 hood cannot support the newer grill: they have no bolt inserts prepped in the hood. But it is also why the newer hood CAN work on the older cars. \/ pix here

Here is the '87- early 89 grill assembly - notice I refer to it as an assembly because it requires 3 pieces to be installed:
- an '87- early 89 crossmember above the radiator that has 4 sheet metal tabs on the front with nylon inserts to attach the grill (hidden in photo). It is otherwise identical to the later 89-90, and a simple bolted R&R.
- two "wish-bone" brackets - one for each end that attach to the side of the headlight "bucket" - yes the attachment points with preinstalled nuts are there on an 89-90.... spotwelded into place.


Steps to install the older grill on a newer coupe are as follows and it is so easy your little brother or sister could do it - and you might want them to.

First, remove the top cross-member over the radiator by removing the four attach bolts and also popping out the three plastic inserts that support the hood latch cable, and remove the 3 upper safety latch bolts and nuts and the two AC radiator/condensor retainig nuts.

Second, using the 8mm bolts that you removed from your donor car install the wishbone brackets to the headlight buckets. This is a step you might want your little brother or sister to do because you need to reach down between the engine radiator and AC radiator/condensor to get the bolts in. I ended up using a magnetic wand to set them into position and a 1/4" rachet with extension to reach the bolt head and tighten it. It's not "hard", just a bit of a reach in a tight place.

Third, place the older style cross-member into position and attach it and the other items as the previous cross-member was.

Fourth, place the grilll in position and attach it with the 8 wide-headed sheet metal screws you removed from your donor car into the 8 nylon inserts.