Fitted my new gloss black grille upper and lower ,and even though the original had the parking sensors it was quite straight forward to adapt the new gloss product with the parking sensors.
I also managed to fit the upper gloss grille without fully removing it from the vehicle ,which again was relatively straightforward. I'll try and explain !
1, Firstly I removed the front wheels ,then I removed the front section of the arch liner from it's fixings.
I then with a piece of electrical wire tied the arch liner to the brake caliper ,this enabled easy access to the fixings securing the front apron to the wing.
2,Having un-clipped the front apron from the wings I then moved on to the upper grille. Whilst the apron was still attached to the front of the vehicle I preceded to un-clip the grille from the apron using a filling knife and some 1mm window glazing packers (white) making sure the packer was between the paint work and the knife !
3,Once the upper grille was un-clipped from the apron I then pulled the apron from the vehicle.
At this stage although the apron was loose it was still attached to the vehicle with cables and washer pipes , so I placed a bucket underneath the front splitter to support the whole assembly.
4,Now I was able to remove the upper grille without the need to continue removing the entire front apron assembly .
5, The tricky bit now was fitting the new gloss black grille in place ,which with a little patience wasn't too bad .
I was now able to re-fit the front apron back to the front wings and into the clips along the front ,fitting back the arch liners and wheels.
Next I removed the lower grille, which is in 3 sections ,the two outside sections have the parking sensors in which is a simple job of dis-connecting the plug in connectors.
Because my new grille did not have the aperture in it for the sensor I had to fabricate a elongated into the new gloss section of grille.
Firstly I removed the sensor from the old grille ,again the filling knife came in handy to assist in releasing the sticky tape holding the sensor on , I then marked the position of the elongated hole onto the new grille .
Then with a new 25mm spade bit in my cordless drill ,from the rear of the grille I drilled the hole. then with a circular rasp file I had to elongate the hole in a horizontal fashion until the sensor fitted. Once this was achieved I fitted the sensor's into the new holes with double sided tape , re connected the plug in clips and fitted the new 3 piece grille into place.
I've included a few pic's to try and show the procedure and hope this may be of assistance to fellow members who contemplate doing this conversion on their vans.
I also managed to fit the upper gloss grille without fully removing it from the vehicle ,which again was relatively straightforward. I'll try and explain !
1, Firstly I removed the front wheels ,then I removed the front section of the arch liner from it's fixings.
I then with a piece of electrical wire tied the arch liner to the brake caliper ,this enabled easy access to the fixings securing the front apron to the wing.
2,Having un-clipped the front apron from the wings I then moved on to the upper grille. Whilst the apron was still attached to the front of the vehicle I preceded to un-clip the grille from the apron using a filling knife and some 1mm window glazing packers (white) making sure the packer was between the paint work and the knife !
3,Once the upper grille was un-clipped from the apron I then pulled the apron from the vehicle.
At this stage although the apron was loose it was still attached to the vehicle with cables and washer pipes , so I placed a bucket underneath the front splitter to support the whole assembly.
4,Now I was able to remove the upper grille without the need to continue removing the entire front apron assembly .
5, The tricky bit now was fitting the new gloss black grille in place ,which with a little patience wasn't too bad .
I was now able to re-fit the front apron back to the front wings and into the clips along the front ,fitting back the arch liners and wheels.
Next I removed the lower grille, which is in 3 sections ,the two outside sections have the parking sensors in which is a simple job of dis-connecting the plug in connectors.
Because my new grille did not have the aperture in it for the sensor I had to fabricate a elongated into the new gloss section of grille.
Firstly I removed the sensor from the old grille ,again the filling knife came in handy to assist in releasing the sticky tape holding the sensor on , I then marked the position of the elongated hole onto the new grille .
Then with a new 25mm spade bit in my cordless drill ,from the rear of the grille I drilled the hole. then with a circular rasp file I had to elongate the hole in a horizontal fashion until the sensor fitted. Once this was achieved I fitted the sensor's into the new holes with double sided tape , re connected the plug in clips and fitted the new 3 piece grille into place.
I've included a few pic's to try and show the procedure and hope this may be of assistance to fellow members who contemplate doing this conversion on their vans.
