theres a plastic grill that is in place with two fasteners and held into place with some kind of adhesive. how did u manage to take it off? did u take it off despite the glue?

 

oh, i just noticed your car is a base. theres a grill in the way of the sport models.

 

The little clips were easy to pop out and put back in. You just pop up the center part to unlock them and then pop the body of it out. Just take your time and it will go fine. This car seems to be easier to take apart and put together than my Mitsubishi was. When you put them back in just make sure they are all the way back in then push the center to lock them in place.

All the other sticky mounts have held so far. I knew i had overtightened the bottom ones but was too tired of dealing with it to cut the zip-ties and redo them. I also didn't clean the area I stuck them. Yes that was dumb of me. If you really want to do the non-intrusive way with sticky mounts I would suggest replacing the foam adhesive backing with something stronger. I have some grey adhesive tape from 3M with red backing. I'll have to look up the part number for it but I know that stuff holds, maybe too well. I've broken a plastic box trying to remove it from a metal door after it was adhered with that grey 3M stuff. Those folks really know their adhesives.

If anyone else has creative ways of mounting the mesh grille post some photos in here. I'd like to see how creative other people have gotten.

Credit for finding the mesh comes from someone else's thread on FitFreak. But I have used McMaster for other things before.

Hope the install goes well for you!

 

Yea, I'm rocking the base model. If anyone has pictures/knowledge of the sport model grille he is speaking of post up some photos/info. Thanks.

 

Oh...I just noticed this is for a base fit too. Man, that install is a beautiful thing. I could only hope to get it done that nice.

Check this thread for the sport model. I have a sport, so I'm in for a slightly different approach too.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...l-removal.html

I don't think you HAVE to remove the lower grille though. I'm gonna try and avoid going that far.

Dan

 

well that works, but then one problem will be that the pillars in the middle will be gone as well. The base model fit has those pillars as part of the bumper. For some reason, the sport model fit just has that plastic grill, and once it is removed, there goes the pillars.

 

A bit off topic: After hearing about users having trouble with the horn install clips I tried looking for a way to avoid removing them when I installed the horn today.



I was able to unclip the bottom of the black plastic piece that surrounds the hood latch. The bolt that held the horn was easy to access with a wrench and the clips were spared. The photo is of the underside of the plastic piece and the part to unclip is on the left.

Also I uploaded a video of how to properly remove the main fasteners that hold the plastic grille containing the Honda H emblem if anyone had difficulty with them.
Honda Fit Fasteners

 

Looks great. Nice pics on the install. I'm gonna have to do that to mine too.

 

Did you unclip the black plastic by hand or with a tool?

btw, very clear video on the fasteners, thanks!

 

I just unclipped it by hand. I had first unclipped it by accident and was happy that it gave me enough room to get at where I needed. The two clips on the top, the ones everyone talks about damaging, just stayed in place.

 

Finally got around to doing this today. So glad it's done!

I did not use the zip-tie sticky mounts. As I said earlier, anything stick on worries me. I used black zip-ties and mounted the mesh right to the back of the grille. I have a sport fit. I was really contemplating taking the grille out and doing this job, but I opted to keep it in place.

This is a not so easy job, frankly. On a scale of 1-5 for difficulty I'd give it a 3.5. For the sport grille, the shape has tapered sides- not a true rectangle shape by any means. So there's some measuring to get right before you cut the mesh. After that, the only difficulty is on your body. In the hour or so it took me to do this, I managed to scrape up my arms pretty good, my knees look like a slid in shorts on a burbor carpet, my ass and my back are pretty sore from all the bending, and it was a royal pain having to do this with glasses on, which kept slipping down my nose! LOL! This job can be a bit of torture on the body. If I can recommend anything to sport owners, consider just taking the grille insert out to do the job. It will make sizing and cutting the mesh much easier and your body will thank you for it too. The only reason I didn't do it that way is because I wasn't completey sure where all the clips are on the grille and I didn't want to make a longer project trying to figure out how to get the grille off, and then back on. And I don't have great luck with that kind of stuff. But man, my body paid the price!

It's a worthy job to do and the black mesh suggested in this thread is excellent. I'll feel much better on the highway now, as well as when we get snowfall later this year. A LOT of crap can be kicked up and driven into in those conditions. So, I think this is a very worthy job to do yourself. And I'm sure my AC condensor is thanking me too, not to mention my bank account!

Dan

 

ROTF on comments about sore ass, scraped arms etc. I have to agree with this. My arms were scraped RED, for 5 days!!!!

 

I just did this today on my Sport and it was a pretty trivial install. I didn't remove the upper grille because I don't have any angle screw drivers, but there was still plenty of access space. I cut my mesh to 7", didn't touch the length of it. After installing, I would recommend using 8" so that no edges are rubbing your paint.

Placed the mesh in there and zip-tied everything so that the cut edges stuck out towards the inside of the car.

 

I'm torn between some cheap plastic grill. I'm starting to like the look of the aluminum billet grills. Anyone done those on a Fit Sport yet?

 

Great thread. Thanks a lot for the write up and the link. One thing I didn't like about the company you ordered the mesh from is that they charge you for the mesh first, and then say the applicable shipping and taxes will be added. I would like to know how much that will be before hitting the "place order" button.

I hope it will be around 6 $ like you said.

Thanks again.

 

I normally just call McMaster and they quote shipping. They have reasonable shipping prices, and they do ship immediately, VERY FAST arrival at least in MidWest!!!

 

How about some pictures?

 

looks great! i always love front-end enhancements

 

I like your MOD, great work!
can you buy me the wire mesh?
I can pay for the shipping.

 

you can buy a wire mesh from any home improvement store (best if they also have a gardening section too).

chicken wires!!!! or get 1/4" screens and cut them to size. it should cost you less than the shipping.

something like:
YARDGARD 2 ft. x 5 ft. x 1/4 in. 23 Gauge Hardware Cloth - 308231B at The Home Depot