RX8Club.com - MS front bumper fog light install impressions

Installed the MS front bumper yesterday, using the MS fog light brackets as well. I imported the MS kit from japan before they became available stateside. The jdm kit has a blockoff plate for the passenger side oil cooler since they don't have one there. I don't know if the us kit has two air ducts or just one and the blockoff plate as well. Can someone confirm?

I ended up fabricating a matching passenger side air duct by vacforming ABS plastic. I took the driver side air duct and made a mirror image mold. Yeah it's a lot of work but I had the tools and the talent. :)

The install process involves a lot of assembling, removing and assembling again in order to map where to cut the covering grill mesh. Kinda tedious.

Suggestions:
1. Before removing the mesh grill, place some masking tape next to each retaining tab and mark which section the tab is folded over. This will make it easier to reposition the grill later on. You remove and reposition the grill several times during the install.
2. When you attach the bracket to determine where to cut the air ducts, put some masking tape along the top edge of the bracket. This will show you where to cut the top notch out of the mesh grill.
3. You can use wire cutters to cut the mesh grill.
4. The air duct is secured with four screws. The fog light bracket blocks two of those screws, but the instructions only mention removing one of them for reuse. Remove both blocked screws and drill new holes top and bottom. That will hold the air duct more securely.
5. I believe the instructions call for a slight gap between the air duct and bracket to eliminate rubbing noise. I used black silicon caulk to join the two parts. I thought it would help prevent the duct from deforming under wind pressure.

Observations:
1. The fog lights do not fit flush in the bracket. There is a gap on top. I don't know what the proper alignment is; I aimed them as far down as possible simply for aesthetic reasons. They seemed to fill the hole better that way.
________
Wendie 99