I got all but the last bolt off on the passenger side tow eye at the last tech day. Finally got the last one off today - had to drill a hole through the air dam to get an extension bar through to it as the spanner was doing nothing. It took brute force to remove the bolt right to the last mm of thread!
I’ll get some better pics once I’ve washed the car and driven to a better location, and I’ll report back on what it does to the air flow. I’m not proposing leaving it on all the time (just high days, holidays and photographs), but if the airflow isn’t affected I might leave it on.
I’m still considering either painting or using vinyl to mark out the Jap naval flag on it. But it does need a ruddy good polishing.
From blank:
To cut:
To car:
I like 
All hail the Pollyana for cutting it out and drilling it - I’d still be on in 5 years time if I had to do it. Good job mate 
Looks excellent - certainly a job well done to both of you [Y]
Nice halli, looks really splendid. I reckon masking the suns rays in red stickey would be the next step. WRT the running temp. Remember that your gauge is only a very rough/poor guide to what is happening in the cooling system. From normal to hot can happen in an instant, and we don’t want to go there
I’ll keep an eye on how the fan is behaving, but like I said, I don’t think it will be staying on for the Monday to Friday commute. It’ll need to come off again soon for a damn good polishing anyway as it is filthy and has some light scratching I need to get rid of.
I might also see about drilling some of the holes a little wider to let more air through. I just need to get my hands on a decent drill bit as the cheap ones I have are made of cheese.
That looks nice Halli, different from the norm, and blends in well with your japanese caligraphy on the bumper [:D]
You will be needing a one with the Tyne Tees Club Logo cut out next. It would be good if all the TT members who were going to the Spring Rally had a Tyne Tees grill on. Mind I am not offering.[:D]
I’ve driven to school and back twice now with it fitted and the temp gauge hasn’t shifted from the normal “just below the mid line” so it looks like it doesn’t affect airflow even at a constant ahem-ity mph. I’ll need to see what it is like in the hotter weather (yea, right - like that’s going to happen!)
As is usual, it looks a lot better fitted to the car. I am quite impressed with how good it looks.
That looks the Mutz. Was there a template somewhere on the forum for making ones own grile?
Great look and very original.
A question about your number plate if I may? where can you get them done? I’ve been wanting to take my no plate mount off for ages and fit a decal one as I think the mount ruins the lines of the bumper but a friend of mine says they are illegal (he should know, he wears a blue uniform!)
Craigsplates make them, but I got mine from “Shadowchaser” over on the nutz forum.
I’m not getting into the legal or not issues. There are plenty of threads on here and elsewhere regarding them.
Cheers Halli,
Wow, just searched ‘number plates’…quite an evocative subject the old number plate thing isn’t it?
Sorry if I sounded like the ‘fun police’ checking up on you, not the intent…
Not how it was taken, don’t worry about it
Got home early from school today so I took some more pics
I think these grills would look great with some sort of lighting behind them halli. You know more about such things than me so if you ever come up with something please let me know.
Hi Halli, like the grill, looks good. I’ve just fitted a mesh one and it really transforms the front of the car. Can I ask, do you know what the Japanese writing is on your front edge??
Hi Hedge, the Kanji script says “Mazda”