Does anyone know of any quick, easy ideas for a grille block?

 

Cardboard and duct tape, crude but effective.

Corrugated plastic (coroplast) and zip ties is more popular and more weatherproof.

 

Thanks Charlie, I'll take a look at it and see what works best and is also convenient to remove and replace at least twice a year. What do you have for a grille block on your Fit?

 

A sheet of coroplast and a backlog of projects. It'll get in someday.

 

@GoBucky, since we have the same car, could I see a picture of your grill block setup?

 

I haven't made one yet. With the warmer weather here, I wasn't motivated to do it quite yet. Maybe towards winter I will start to think about it again.

 

Think about it while it's nice out. Working outside and lying on the ground in the cold sucks.

Mine is coroplast (painted black) dropped in behind the grille. The top is zip tied to a radiator bracket and the bottom is just seated in front of the push pins that hold the air dam to the fascia, then held in place/sealed with duct tape.



The effect was magical at first... but time, warmer weather and lots of sunlight softened the tape and let the bottom and one side get pushed back somewhat- the tops of those push pins weren't a very good backstop. Now it's not so magical, but I get better cooling at least.

It's got a date with some L brackets and some Q-Bond in either September or October.

 

What for a grille block? I live about half way between Wisconsin and Florida in Tennessee. Sometimes it gets hotter here than it does in Tallahassee and sometimes approaches as cold as Wisconsin (15 below last winter). Makes sense in Wisconsin (across the hall neighbor from Mosden), but Florida??

 

Aero. The GE makes a shoebox look aerodynamic, and blocking the lower grille makes it a lot cleaner.

Cleaner aerodynamics, better mileage.

 

I read that the underside of the GK was smoothed for that very reason and the over all body is much slicker to begin with. (Go away, Conan the Grammarian). Here in the mid-South cardboard in the grille area of any car is used to prevent the radiator from freezing, or so I've heard.


It would require a lot of highway miles and speeds to help gas mileage.

 

Up here, I would primarily use it to help the engine warm up faster and retain it's temperature better in the winter. For that reason, I will probably look into something I can mount on the outside of the lower grille that I can easily remove in the summer. It looks like it would be much more difficult to access the area behind the grill on the GK, like Charlie did on his GE. If I left it on during the warmer months I would worry about the engine overheating. I'm also not convinced there is a much of a benefit from any increased aerodynamics that may come from it. If there were, I'd jump on it immediately.

 

I've got downhills that the car, left to its own devices, used to decelerate on. Now it picks up speed. That's a whole lot of slick from a 2x3 bit of plastic.

In the winter it's even going to let me take my hat and gloves off before I get to work.