[Euro] Mugen Grille Install

[Matell]

Well after a long wait I finally received my Mugen Grille a few weeks ago, had it painted last week ($86AUD) and installed it this weekend after I replaced my front brake pads. I also fabricated a ram air duct to help force air behind the fog light to my CAI, and also installed some black mesh in the lower grille to held keed the copius amounts of crap I've collected with my air-con condensor lately.

It's very simple to do, but there always seems to be plenty of questions so I made a step-by-step photo install consisting of 40 images that I'll post when Imageshack decides to acknowledge the credits I've purchased. No way am I uploading 40 images on at a time!

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/5154/img31679ba.jpg
Genuine Mugen, not a knock off ;)

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3043/img31707vg.jpg
Ram Air for CAI

[spoon fit]

genuine mugen not painted?

[Matell]

genuine mugen not painted?

Yep. Graphite Pearl was never an original colour for the Euro R in Japan. Hence Mugen doesn't supply Grilles or body parts painted in Graphite Pearl, so you must get it painted yourself.

[as001]

looks the good's mate

[Matell]

looks the good's mate

Cheers :o

[stephen8512]

lookin good mattell
few q's though

1) the mesh u got for ur lower grille, did u buy it black or did u spray it black? and if u sprayed it black, what did u use?

2) wats the colour match like? is the grille the same pearl graphite as the car? (reason im asking is because i was told by a panelbeater that current honda cars esp. euros use A LOT of pearl mettallics in their paints)

3) more overall car shots please!!! :D

[EuroAccord13]

Well done mate... Good Job... Love your ducting to the CAI, not too obvious but it works!

[yfin]

Looks good mattell :thumbsup: With the lower mesh - did you need to remove the bumper to install that or did you install it from under the car? I thought that was the radiator there - is that the air con condensor? Whatever it is mine is totally full of bugs.

The ram air looks good. For people with the icebox - I am not so sure ramming air makes a difference. Even though it has a huge horn to the fog light area - I get almost precisely the same increment times (eg 60-90k) whether it is rammed air or not (rsm, g sensor). I checked it out today. Maybe the air from under the car is sufficient? There are plenty of holes near the horn from under the car. UNless this whole ram air idea is a myth :rolleyes:

[learner]

hey matell... did u install the euro-R
front grill inner cover/Radiator Cover as well??

[spoon fit]

Yep. Graphite Pearl was never an original colour for the Euro R in Japan. Hence Mugen doesn't supply Grilles or body parts painted in Graphite Pearl, so you must get it painted yourself.

thx! :thumbsup: :D
ur car look great~:thumbsup: :)

[Matell]

lookin good mattell
few q's though

1) the mesh u got for ur lower grille, did u buy it black or did u spray it black? and if u sprayed it black, what did u use?

2) wats the colour match like? is the grille the same pearl graphite as the car? (reason im asking is because i was told by a panelbeater that current honda cars esp. euros use A LOT of pearl mettallics in their paints)

3) more overall car shots please!!! :D

1) The mesh comes in black. It's just SAAS mesh from Autobarn and cost about $30. Unfortunately it's not a flat black so it's not a perfect match with the mesh in the Mugen Grille, but it's close enough.

2) It's nearly a perfect colour match! I just gave them the Honda paint code and that was it. They didn't even want my touch up paint, or the OEM colour coded bonnet strip to colour match with. I think if anything it's slightly more blue green, or the strip is a little more grey. But you really have to look for it.

3) I'll try to get some more shots in nice direct sunlight as soon as I can :)


Looks good mattell :thumbsup: With the lower mesh - did you need to remove the bumper to install that or did you install it from under the car? I thought that was the radiator there - is that the air con condensor? Whatever it is mine is totally full of bugs.

The ram air looks good. For people with the icebox - I am not so sure ramming air makes a difference. Even though it has a huge horn to the fog light area - I get almost precisely the same increment times (eg 60-90k) whether it is rammed air or not (rsm, g sensor). I checked it out today. Maybe the air from under the car is sufficient? There are plenty of holes near the horn from under the car. UNless this whole ram air idea is a myth :rolleyes:

Yeah I did a full bumper removal. When I get around to posting up the DIY you'll see why. I've no desire to cut corners and risk breaking bits, besides it's really quick and easy to remove the bumper!:p:thumbsup:

Yeah I'm pretty sure the front heat exchanger is for the air-con, so if you were unfortunate enough for it to be cored you'd lose air-con, but the car would still be drivable, and the radiator for engine cooling ok. Mine looked much the same....bugs galore and heaps of little stones that have got in and crippled the fins between the tubes. Hence I wanted to mesh it in, and didn't want it to look obvious or ricey.

Your right, there's more than adequate room for air to flow in where both CAI and Icebox draw air from. However I felt on the last few high speed runs I've done it's been struggling for breath. And If you think about it it makes sense. The faster you travel the more direct or straighter the airflow becomes, so proportionally less will find it's own way to the intake. The ram air set up I've got effectivlely will just gulp (in theroy) 833cc of air per second @60kph, 1388cc of air per second @100kph etc and dump it into the area behind the fog light so it'll act a little more efficiently like a big airbox with a little more positive pressure.


hey matell... did u install the euro-R
front grill inner cover/Radiator Cover as well??

Yep, most certainly did!. Once again it'll be in my DIY. You're still required to make a few mods to it, but they're a lot less significant than would be needed with our original cover, and it looks a lot better.

[stephen8512]

mattell, sorry but can u tell me what the honda paint code for graphite is?

[baboo]

Dang Matt, the front of the car look like a million dollars!! so tough looking now.

Bet all the cars infront of ya will move out of the way to let you pass.

[Matell]

Dang Matt, the front of the car look like a million dollars!! so tough looking now.

Bet all the cars infront of ya will move out of the way to let you pass.

hehe makes more noise now too as I put the twin cone BMC filter back on the CAI so I could clean the K&N. Bloody headlamp blew this morning too so I had the foggies on...maybe that also contributed to people moving :P

[kam]

love the grill man, looks good :)

[PNR888]

Another masterpiece DIY by Matell. Man, you are a genius!

[Zdster]

The grille looks great. Is the mesh the same in the grille as in the bottom? Looks like a good match if it isnt :thumbsup:.

[Victor1982]

that looks GREAT

[Matell]

Another masterpiece DIY by Matell. Man, you are a genius!

lol haha well it will be soon....

[Matell]

The grille looks great. Is the mesh the same in the grille as in the bottom? Looks like a good match if it isnt :thumbsup:.

Mesh is nearly identical. Mugen mesh is a flat finish, and SAAS mesh is a gloss finish.

[Matell]

mattell, sorry but can u tell me what the honda paint code for graphite is?

PM'd you but its NH-658P.:thumbsup:

[SSML]

hoho! Matt, those 2 items make a big difference on the look of ur car.
definately great mods.

is light bulbs covered by manufacturer's warranty?

[Matell]

is light bulbs covered by manufacturer's warranty?

No, I wouldn't think so, and I'm not that much of a cry baby anyway as it was an aftermarket Phillips Vision Plus 50 bulb that blew. I still have all my original bulbs in the car, so I just pulled over at a servo (in the rain :() and changed it. Grabbed another from Autobarn at lunch today and all is good again.

[Tobster]

Are you replacing the radiator cover? I love the grille, but it looks like you've got the old gap issue which tends to spoil the effect (sorry)...

I still don't understand how there are two different sized parts for the same place on the same car!

[Pum[Z]]

Noice...

Effective and not ricey at all...

[Matell]

Are you replacing the radiator cover? I love the grille, but it looks like you've got the old gap issue which tends to spoil the effect (sorry)...

I still don't understand how there are two different sized parts for the same place on the same car!

If you haven't alreapy check this thread out.

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27627&page=1&pp=12

hopefully it'll give you the answers to your questions.

[Tobster]

Yup -- I saw that... Cheers.

I read your reassurance that it looks better in the metal -- and I'm sure it does.

I just think it would annoy me (personal taste)... I find it an odd piece of design and I'm intruiged as to why the gap exists: surely there'd be enough airflow with the mesh? Is it so there's no damage to the grille when closing the bonnet?

Otherwise I'm a big fan of mesh, and I think the rest of the job, particularly the air duct is really well done!

[Matell]

Yeah to be honest I'm not sure either, that's just the way it is. Obviously the guys at Mugen (M-Tec) thought it the best way to do it. You could close the gap up I guess using some sheet plastic or even thin aluminium sheet, but then the top member would look rather fat.

The Mugen instructions also show where to chop up a radiator cover similar to ours, unfortunately then you'll have an odd crescent shaped gap over the centre of the grille. I can scan them and post them if you'd like.