DIY for the NRG carbon fiber grill for 06-08 Civic Si coupe

[xtv-sidecar]

DIY for the NRG carbon fiber grill for 06-08 Civic Si coupe

First, a few before install pics. And yes, I painted the lower part of the grill gloss black.





The Part # you will need is CARB-G110.





Pop open the hood and pull the radiator frame cover off.
Using a small flat head screwdriver gently pry up the head of the 2 retainers on the top center of the cover and pull them straight up to get them out.




Then gently pry up the first front retainer clip on each side of the car. Be very careful doing these as they can break easily.




Now push the cover back a little to get it from under the front grill and pull it forward to remove it from the car. You may need to lift the hood latch lever to make it easier.




Next you will need to use a T-30 socket to remove the 2 upper grill/bumper bolts.






Use a phillips head screwdriver to remove the 2 screws in the wheel wells that hold the bumper on to the fenders (one on each side).




Use a 10mm socket to remove the two bumper bolts just in front of the wheel well under the front bumper (one on each side).




Next, using a small flat head screwdriver gently pry up the head of the 6 retainers on the bottom edge of the bumper. Pull them straight down to get them out. Road grit gets stuck in the clips so you might need some pliers to pull them out.








Place some towels down to protect your bumper and pull your bumper off. A few light tugs near the lights will break it free. You might want some extra hands to make sure you don’t drop the bumper and scratch the paint. If you have fog lights, don’t foget to unplug them behind the bumper.




Now you can use a phillips head screwdriver to remove the 9 screws holding the grill to the bumper. Use some pliers to pinch the tabs marked in red to pop them through the bumper. Now your grill should be free from the bumper.





Now to remove to upper grill from the lower grill. Use a phillips head screwdriver to remove the 8 small screws from the back of the grill. The last 2 hold the “H” on so once you take them out the grill will come apart.






Now you can test fit the carbon fiber grill. Take the nuts and washers off the post on the back side of the grill and push the post through the lower grill section. The posts on my grill did not line up perfectly so some modifiying to the holes on the lower grill section was needed. I will touch on that in a little bit.




This is the point that I noticed some thing wrong. Did you catch it?
No not that it is sitting slightly to the side. Look at the H part. You can see the towel through the H cutout. The back part to the H is on the stock upper grill section and there are some small holes for the stock H under the big screw holes.






Ok , lets get to the modifying part to get a better fit. We will start with the post alignment that I touched on first. Find a drill bit close to the same size as the holes that the posts slide through and using a drill elongate out the hole in the lower grill that the post slides through in the direction you need to let the post clear the hole and line up properly. Remember that there is a washer that you need to put on the back side so don’t make the hole to big or you will have to find bigger washers. Do this to all 4 holes that the posts slide through as needed to get a good fit.




With that part taken care of, let’s turn are attention to the H part. I highly recommend the JDM badge H so you do not have to do the next steps to retain the factory H. But I know that not every one wants the look of the JDM badge, so here we go.
Start by cutting the center H part out of the factory grill using a box cutter/razor blade. Be careful not to cut yourself. Follow the small groove around the H on the grill.





Now with the backing of the H out, use it as a template to drill the 2 small holes under the 2 big screw holes for the stock H to fit right. Or you can just break off the 2 little pins on the back of the factory H. If you drill it out, find a drill bit the size of the factory holes and make sure to let the drill bit do the work for you. Do not push it through or you could break the grill/crack it. Also make sure you do not have any part of your body under the spot that you are drilling. It will hurt if you do. I have had a drill bit stuck in my hand before (Not doing this, I was holding something for someone when the drill dit snapped and went through my finger nail. Not fun at all).
Your H should sit flush after doing this.





Now the H backing is going to sandwich between the two grill parts so I wanted to shave it down a little so it would not push the grill outward in the middle.
I started this by removing the 2 small rings on the lower grill section near the H location. Use a box cutter to trim them off and then sand them flush.





Then, on the back of the H backing, I trimmed out about 1/16”-1/8” off the fins on the pin-like thing that holds the part in place on the lower grill part and shaved the same amount off the screw hole post just below the pin-like thing.





With that done, test fit everything one more time before putting everything back together.



Ok, let’s start putting things back togther. Start with the H, as this can be tricky to get the screws back in holes and lined up right with the screw holes on the H. A magnetic screwdriver helps a lot.



Then, put the washers and nuts on the back of the 4 posts that come through the holes of the lower grill section and tighten them down a little. But not too much or you could pull them out of the grill or crack the grill, and not to loose that the nuts back off from vibration. You could put some silicon on the posts to help make sure they do not back off the post.




Now I did not like the ends of the grill being loose so I decided to drill some holes for the factory screws to hold the ends in place. You have to be really careful doing this, too small of a hole and you will crack/chip the back of the grill when you put the screws in. To large of a hole and the screws will not hold at all. If you drill to deep you will come through the grill messing up all your hard work, better to drill too shallow then to slip and drill all the way through. So do this at your own risk, but if you are careful with what you are doing it can be done right.





Now you are ready to put the grill back on the bumper, but I did need to drill some holes for the posts to clear the bumper as the posts were hitting the bumper slightly.



Make sure you got all the screws back in and then mount the bumper back on the car. Go back over all the screws and bolts and clips that were removed and make sure you got everything. If you have fogs make sure you plug them back in. You should only have 4 left over screws that were replaced by the grill posts when you are done.

Hope this helps some of you out.

Finally finished pics.
With factory H.




With JDM badge H.

[Dasllamas]

Great DIY. Im thinking that its very close to the same for the FA5? Did you have the finished product? Dunno if I just missed it

[xtv-sidecar]

Still working on the rest of the DIY. The finished photos are coming.
Ok one to tide you over....lol

[PK-]

nice DiY! but i dont think you need to take off the bumper to get at the grille =) unless you're shaq

[xtv-sidecar]

No you don't have to take the bumper off to get to the grill, but your radiator will thank you if you do (and your knuckles too).

[chrisfrofro]

are those neon lights under your car??

[xtv-sidecar]

LEDs for car shows. Yes they are.

[maximus20895]

nice DIY. Easy Instructions.

Great car too

[FastTimesAtFGHigh]

great DIY!

[freakvision03]

habi krew HOLLA

[1chin3s3_b0i]

nice DIY

[civicsifg2]

i like the habi grill better, but thats just me

[blk06cvc]

Originally Posted by xtv-sidecar

Still working on the rest of the DIY. The finished photos are coming.
Ok one to tide you over....lol

looks awesome! & great DIY

[civicsifg2]

paint the H in habi, i think that would look pretty good

[xtv-sidecar]

I now have the JDM H badge. You will see why when I finish the DIY. I am going to try and get it done tomorow, as tonight got away from me.

And civicsifg2, both ways have different pros and cons in the look of the car. The carbon looks better in person but the Habi looks better in pics.

[xtv-sidecar]

Updated DIY finished it.

[jspecFG]

Nice write-up. Looks awesome, complements the hood very nicely.

[Demisedgabe]

is all that drilling required if u buy the red H with it?

[xheartcore_boyx]

wow, some nice looking car there, love the cf hood,grill combo a lot !

[xtv-sidecar]

Originally Posted by Demisedgabe

is all that drilling required if u buy the red H with it?

The JDM badge has tape on the back to hold it in place so any thing I did to the H backing could be skipped but you would still need to do the other drilling reated to just the grill ((to get a good fit) the drilling for the post to clear the lower grill holes and to clear the bumper).