Front Grill Holding Clips - Weekend DIY Job.

[ceejay]

As ordinary as they may seem, these little clips do a great job of
holding the wire intake grill securely in place... but before you ask
where to buy them, they are a DIY fabricating job.

The Project:
Source a strip of thin sheet metal to make the brackets, buy or
scrounge some small machine screws, nuts and washers.

Employ a short piece of flat 1/8" thick metal as a former to shape
the "U" shaped clip around, centre punch before drilling the hole
for the smaller screw, braze (Silver solder) the larger screw
to the back of the "U" shape clip, paint or zinc plate the parts
and the job is about done... now you have a set of neat looking
clips to hold the intake grill without resorting to other less
attractive methods.

Of course, the grill is not shown here because we are not
ready to install it yet, but just thought we would take the
opportunity to show the "How To".

This is what I like about lotus elans, there are so many
hard to get parts that can be fabricated from readily
available, economical materials.
Ceejay.

[oldelanman]

Very neat Ceejay as always.

My solution is slightly different and uses fewer components.....more added lightness !

My grille wire surround is slightly smaller than the grille opening in the body so I used the standard long reach U nuts at the top two fixings where they can't be seen and made up a couple of adjustable clips for the lower two. I used left over kitchen cabinet fixing angle brackets to make the hook part - already had the slot in.

[elansprint71]

Chatting with Ron Hickman some years back we both agreed that black plastic cable-ties were the way to go.

[oldelanman]

Chatting with Ron Hickman some years back we both agreed that black plastic cable-ties were the way to go.

To me that would look like a temporary 'get-you-home' method of fixing. Each to his own !

[garyeanderson]

These were temporary almost 14 years ago, but until I cut them to access something I guess that they are permanent. Lighter, cheaper, easy to install. All of the good without the bad.

[gordont]

Hey I like my cable tie solution, and super easy to remove when you need to access!

[69S4]

Chatting with Ron Hickman some years back we both agreed that black plastic cable-ties were the way to go.

I had this "great minds think alike" flush when I read that as I used them as a temporary fix some years ago and they're still there.

Oldelanman's post soon put me in my place though

[Bruce Crowthorne]

I must admit I like the simplicity of a cable tie!
I have used the original clips at the top and I keep meaning to fit a white (ie colour matching) cable tie to the bottom of the grill