BRZ front grille mod
 

How likely is it that a simple aftermarket BRZ front grille mod will be available to replace the black plastic strip with a metal grill like the FR-S in the near future? I find the BRZ limited as pretty flawless...excluding the front fascia.....

Sigh...

the black strip is no more structurally sound as the FRS as both bumpers are made from plastic. As far as your question, very unlikely. That plastic bumper strip looks to be part of the front bumper design..aka integrated. and not a separate unit that you can mess with.

Guess we're gonna need a group buy on some JDM tuner bumpers...

If you happened to see my review of a dealer visit to a BRZ yesterday I would agree. That thing has got to go...it is fugly.
I reached up underneath and found it to be backfilled with a loose piece of styrofoam...but I didn't have the time to explore what was behind all of that. My assumption is that there's a structural member of some sort...although I hope not. If not it should be an easy replace...if so then it will need to be "covered"
I love everything about this car compared to the FRS EXCEPT that spot...I'm gonna hate having to replace the whole darn thing with an FRS bumper

You know an FR-S bumper is probably not going to directly fit because of the headlights....nobody has tried it yet.

I think the side fender piece on the BRZ is ugly too, but that is easily replaced.

Besides the bumper & mustache being one molded piece, removing the mustache will create an even bigger maw. We'll have to solve the aesthetic proportion aspect before getting the saws-all fired up. I for one don't want the front end to look even more like an Audi/Hyundai with their obscenely huge grilles.

Or forced to buy Wing's Aero kit :bellyroll:

I have to disagree. I think it can be snapped on/off. It'd be a manufacturing dilemma to have it integrated as one piece requiring it to be masked off to paint the bumper. Front grilles or black plastics on others car I've tinkered with were always secured by clips/screws.
I thought there was already a debate on the headlight fitment and we concluded that the way the bumpers wrap around the headlights (particularly the innermost corners of the headlights) are different but the shape of and the way the headlights mount are identical. It doesn't make business sense to manufacture the same looking headlights with 2 different mounting schemes. If they're going to make them different they would have made each distinct (like Levin v. Trueno).

Regarding the front plastic beam, you could carbon fiber wrap it or repaint to a metallic color or wait for aftermarket snap-on grilles to be made.

Couldn't you just paint it to match?

Cheap and dirty example with a bit of black on the inside of the lip to expand the opening visually:

http://i.imgur.com/Pqqef.jpg

i didnt like the mustache till i saw it in real life... it really doesnt look that bad, the car looks better in real life... i was astounded...

Looks like a mouth guard to me...but it is not as bad in real life as it is in photos...especially the way Subaru has it lit in that photo...they have light shining directly on the darn thing...
I am 99% sure it is not a molded part of the bumper...it even has a different texture to it.
We'll know more when we get the chance to dig into it obviously

I wish I had taken a closer pic yesterday but these show how diff it is from the rest of the bumper

Sorry, the mustache, grille, and bumper are all one molded piece. I spent considerable investigative time looking at the front bumper cover for this very reason. You can clearly see the mask tape line for the paint, and the mustache texture is very simply molded-in. There's nothing stopping anyone from having a variety of surface textures for one part.

Was this in person that you saw it? I'm not doubting you one bit, don't get me wrong. Just curious

I've seen some close up, high res photos of that area between the mustache and "colored" parts, and i could've sworn i saw some paint lines too. I'm asking because if what you're going off of is from online pictures (like me), then it's possible production brz's are different. If it's in person then i believe you.

It was in person. Look at the pics he posted from seeing it in person.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3992

Thanks tranzformer. Specifically, Post #15 in that thread is where I mentioned my findings.

I stand corrected then...I could have sworn that they were two different pieces and not just because of the diff in texture...:iono:
Just may have to dremel the freakin' thing out of there then!... :)
we'll see....

I also thought it was two pieces also...but I didn't look that close, it just felt like a different material, a much softer plastic then the rest of the bumper.

i can see how the middle portions are integrated, but the fog light shrouds as well?

people getting the fog light kit as an option on their limited needs to replace the whole bumper then???

idts...

lol;) I can see it now. "Fog light Kit for WRB - $1200"

I bet they are 2 pieces not one whole piece.

Don't we have a member that saw it in person and confirmed it was one piece? He also metioned the hole behind the side fender....

It was a Lightning red BRZ... Lemme see if I cn find it...

Edit: Found it

from: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3992

Why don't we just look into the parts catalog. There is a member (not sure who) that was posting part schematics, I'm sure if it is two pieces it will be shown on these schematics.

I think that red car was repainted. Check the engine bay pics. There is no way a piece will be masked for factory line production. Ill bet one of these guys :bow: if I'm wrong. How are other Subaru bumpers, manufactures usually keep things pretty similar.

Lol, i thought you were being sarcastic until you did the edit, that link you just posted is literally on the first page of this thread :D

But yes, let's get a parts diagram to end this! Even if it is one piece, I guarantee, there'll be options for aftermarket carbon fiber and color matched overlays to go over it.

If you just don't like it being there..go buy a dremel and lay off the caffeine..lol

That's entirely possible. Cars that have been pilot run through the production line sometimes get repainted due to paint defects. I've seen this firsthand. It's possible that red BRZ on display was an example of that. Members on here have also seen other BRZs with orange peel that would normally fail QA inspection production standards.

Yea agreed, the trapezoid thing is just too big in proportion to the rest of the car. I like how the FRS has a slightly smaller trapezoid.

I think it looks acceptable though, it's a good license plate mounting spot.

For what it's worth my, '06sti, and '11 WRX Both have had a "Masked" section of the bumper that clearly are one mold with the Rest of the bumper. I've had the bumper off of BOTH my subaru's multiple times, and i made a point of checking the inside of the bumper when they were off to look for that.

http://www.subaruwrxparts.com/shop/p...626_detail.jpg
http://www.wrxparts.com.au/Oil%20coo...%20cooler2.jpg

I'm gonna lean toward it Being ONE piece...my old doubts stem from the fact that the "black" section is so large on the brz

i recall it being one piece as well on my 06, so the brz is most likely similar...

Oh well, I guess the options are complete bumpers or painting sections of it. Forget cutting it up that is a lot of work, nearly impossible to do correctly and it just wont ever look good. :bow: I was wrong ( I think)

I didn't look closely at the fog light bezel, however at a quick glance it looked like a separate plastic insert due to its shape with the little lateral slats overlapping the bumper cover. Also, it would make sense for it to be a separate piece as Subaru need the insert to be modular for cars with and without foglights and with and without the DRL LED strip.

Dunno, when I saw that plastic strip, it looked pretty cheap and sorta ugly to me. It definitely isn't for everybody that's fo sho.

It would be nice to make that piece carbon fiber!

I think that people are forgetting that for the majority of us this is where our front license plate will be mounted. It's going to look ulgy no matter what you do.

I think it really depends on the color of the car, too. Those of you with the lighter colors will think it's more of an eyesore because it contrasts with the car so much. Those of you with the darker colors won't notice it so much. I'm going with Galaxy Blue so I don't think it'll bother me as much, but hey, there's always the aftermarket!

+1, dgm here :D

Does the third video in this thread help to answer any of the questions posed here?

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4299

We can make some direct paint match spray cans for the most popular colors. Like stated above, I believe it is most important(painting it) on the lighter colors as it is such a big contrast. We will need some random body parts sent into us to be able to get the color match though. Our is white so we have that taken care of. Other colors we would need you guys to send a piece in(usually tow hook hole covers are easiest)

Justin

From my experience at a body shop, the black bumper piece looks separate. Only a few companies have trim like that attached and it's usually SUVs only. As for the WRX/STi's that have the trim that's attached, that's because it's a small piece.

And it's usually on most cars: front bumper cover, foam and/or plastic absorber (somestimes fiberglass too, actually), and then steel reinforcement bar (kinda the real bumper).

Is it me, or does the BRZ look like it's grinning and that piece looks like a mouth guard? And the FR-S looks like it's scowling.

Lol yes. the frs looks like its planning something evil, while the brz looks like its ALREADY done something evil, and is trying to hide it with a giddy grin