GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Okay, so I get my Mr. Grille in today, and I'm all excited! I strip it out of the packaging, run out to my car, pop the hood, and hold it up for inspection. What do I find? The insert has WAY too much curve in it! It touches the grille on each end, but has a good 1/2" or better space between everywhere else. That doesn't sound like much, but when you look at it, it's painfully obvious. Not to mention, it sticks out so far in the middle that I can't close the hood properly! Has anyone else had this problem??? If so, what can I do? I'm sorely tempted to just send 'em back. Pretty sorry craftsmanship for nearly $100. ~ Z600

Quote, originally posted by Z600 »Okay, so I get my Mr. Grille in today, and I'm all excited! I strip it out of the packaging, run out to my car, pop the hood, and hold it up for inspection. What do I find? The insert has WAY too much curve in it! It touches the grille on each end, but has a good 1/2" or better space between everywhere else. That doesn't sound like much, but when you look at it, it's painfully obvious. Not to mention, it sticks out so far in the middle that I can't close the hood properly! Has anyone else had this problem??? If so, what can I do? I'm sorely tempted to just send 'em back. Pretty sorry craftsmanship for nearly $100. ~ Z600WOW, I've never had this problem...and I'm on my THIRD set. I would contact them and let them know. They should make good on it.

SOrry for the partial hijack, but where do you guys get your Mr Grille grills? That sucks about yours, but I still want one. THanks, and now back to the original topic.

run a "Vibe grille" search on eBay...you'll find 'em with a pic of my Vibe

Maybe it would help if you tell Mr Grille that you have the entire on-line vibe community paying close atention to whether they make right on this or not.

Quote, originally posted by Psychobroker »WOW, I've never had this problem...and I'm on my THIRD set. Why are you on your third set bro? Something wrong with the first 2? And at $100 dollars a set, for $300 total has me wondering. I think they look awsome, but why did you need new sets after the first?

he had the 3 piece set made to fit his vibe. it was the proto type. and looks sweet! i'd get it if i were keeping mine.

Dude,Mine did this as well before I zip tied the hell out of the grills to the stock grill. Now it looks really good. I have the four piece set.Inder

Quote, originally posted by Flip-Side »Why are you on your third set bro? Something wrong with the first 2? And at $100 dollars a set, for $300 total has me wondering. I think they look awsome, but why did you need new sets after the first?1st set I swapped out for the first one-peice lower grille set (so I've actually owned 2 1/2 sets...didn't change the uppers)I then sent this 3-peice set to merzbrow and swapped in my black setI paid only for the first set, the 2nd and 3rd were free for "prototyping" the 3-peice grilles he sells on eBay. I've been nothing but happy with them

How do you get all these hook-ups?!? I'm jealous!

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »How do you get all these hook-ups?!? I'm jealous!I'm a broker by trade, so I sold myself Actually, I sold Mr. Grille on the idea for the one-peice lower grille. Oh, and drove out to Norco

Well, I emailed Ted, and he said I can bend them straighter without cracking the aluminum. My initial attempts have failed... this aluminum is extremely springy! So, right now I have one of the upper inserts sitting in my shop with 90 lbs.-worth of dumbells squishing it flat, with a heat lamp on it to keep the metal warm. If this doesn't fix things by the end of the day, I'll have to contact Mr. Grille about a replacement or a refund. It still irks me that a $100 part that attaches with zip ties ( ) requires this much extra effort. ~ Z600

Quote, originally posted by Z600 » $100 part that attaches with zip ties enough said......

Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »enough said......exactly, thats like a kick in the nuts!

Many of us have them and many of us like them. No need to talk crap about them. Why don't you come up with a better way to install it! Personally I like not having to drill holes in my front fascia to put it on. I can take it off any time and you would never know it was there! I don't kow what was wrong with yours, but I have never heard of anyone else having any problems installing theirs and there are quite a few people on here who have them.

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »Many of us have them and many of us like them. No need to talk crap about them. Why don't you come up with a better way to install it! Personally I like not having to drill holes in my front fascia to put it on. I can take it off any time and you would never know it was there! I don't kow what was wrong with yours, but I have never heard of anyone else having any problems installing theirs and there are quite a few people on here who have them.I agree! Zipties don't water down the product itself, NOR their effectiveness...ahem, just look at cops using zipties instead of handcuffs. The point is: They get the job done.1) zipties are extremely strong2) they won't loosen over time (screws/bolts WILL)3) they won't RUST over time4) a simple snip with a scissor and they're off. screws/bolts require a screwdriver/wrench5) zipties are CHEAP 6) you don't have to drill any part of the car to mount themI don't see the problem Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »enough said......Obviously, I disagree...enough hasn't been said.You chose to buy them, and I'm sure his product description states they attach via zipties.

sorry, I just don't care for zip tied accessories. it just seems to cheap to me especially when it involves $100.00 accessories. JMHO

those were my initial reservations too, but once i got the grills, they did look damn good on my vibe! plus i needed to hide the ugly pink/red paint job i did a couple summers ago! lol right now, my lower grill has NOTHING in front of it since i hacked it up...before:after:

I wasn't to thrilled about the zip ties but then I held them up to the car and thought "D*mn I don't care if this is held on by hot glue it looks bad @$$!" So I got them in and first off you cant even see the zipties or anything but secondly I get SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many compliments for my grills...even people that dont care about cars think it looks awsome.Now with the 3-piece Christian sent me it looks even better.BTW mine was a perfect fit top and bottom, both sets. Also now that I'm in metal shop I deal with these kind of materials and understand how these were made. This kind of aluminum is not cheap and the labor involved in cutting these is not easy so that is a very resonable price I think. Disregaurd the ugly anoying road salt and snow residue.

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Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »sorry, I just don't care for zip tied accessories. it just seems to cheap to me especially when it involves $100.00 accessories. JMHOAnd ya know what? I completely respect your opinion It's all good

Nice pic Merz!

looks very nice Merzbow.

Quote, originally posted by Z600 »Well, I emailed Ted, and he said I can bend them straighter without cracking the aluminum. My initial attempts have failed... this aluminum is extremely springy! So, right now I have one of the upper inserts sitting in my shop with 90 lbs.-worth of dumbells squishing it flat, with a heat lamp on it to keep the metal warm. If this doesn't fix things by the end of the day, I'll have to contact Mr. Grille about a replacement or a refund. It still irks me that a $100 part that attaches with zip ties ( ) requires this much extra effort. ~ Z600If your trying to bend that aluminum to take out some of the curve, you'll have to go past making it flat. Also save your electric, a heat lamp isn't going to do any good. I have the 4 pc. set and the ties work great.

Well, after much flexing and tugging, I finally managed to get everything together. And of course, they do look cool as hell. After cranking it down and using a few extra ties, I managed to get the gap down under 1/4", closer to 1/8", so not so bad. The biggest problem now is my bolt-on bug deflector. The clamps actually hit the top of the inserts when I close the hood, so each insert now has a nick chopped into it, but you can't see it unless the hood is open. When the hood is fully latched, they touch just ever-so-slightly, but the hood has to drop past that point to clear the latch, hence the damage. So be it. I'm still happy with it.I'll admit that the zip ties work well, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. Would you want a car that was held together primarily by zip ties? No. They may be strong, and cheap, and versatile, but there's something to be said for precision, which zip ties lack. Of course, after seeing the way the inserts fit, I can understand it a little better... they're not really precision-fit pieces either (like the way the bottom two inserts are roughly 1/2" too short to completely cover the original grille). But like I said, I'm happy with it now. It was just a little more work than I expected to run into (I'm lazy like that ). ~ Z600

Post pics so we can see how it looks!

Quote, originally posted by Z600 » Would you want a car that was held together primarily by zip ties? No. They may be strong, and cheap, and versatile, but there's something to be said for precision, which zip ties lack. Which is why the only zipties attached to my Vibe happen to secure my grilles. I don't think anyone implied that zipties can hold an entire car together lol.I'm happy you like them now pics?

I'll post pics as soon as I can get the darn thing clean long enough to snap 'em. Seems like it's been raining every other day around here for weeks. ~ Z600

Here's the deal with the zip ties... Each one has a tensile strength of 50 lbs. or so. If you use four or more on a grille piece it would take 200 lbs. of force to pull it off... not too easy to do.Also, I suppose you could use Titanium or Stainless Steel brackets to attach the grille pieces but it's a wasted effort when you're attaching the pieces to Plastic.