I was wondering has anyone taken off that black plastic part on the ms front bumper. Does it just come right off? Thanks Daniel

 

no, you need to unscrew something from behind, and if u take that off, ur grill won't fit because it won't be big enough.

 

Really? the grill won't fit? I heard some people took it off and it was fine. Some of the early ms body kits didn't even have the black plastic. Anyone else tried to take it off yet? thanks daniel

 

i have the same exact question about removing it. i stuck my fingers up behind the plastic and it feels like the grille stops right at the bottom of the piece of plastic. did they do this for the MS bumpers that came out later? i just got the bumper 2 months ago. if the grille isn't complete, can i get a replacement grille? i attached some pics of my car with the piece on it and some other 8's without them.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there two different versions of the MS front? One for the U.S. and the other for everyone else in the world. I seem to remember something about this before. Something about federal crash ratings. AND, isn't there a big ugly piece of white styrofoam behind the plastic?

 

if that's the case, i'm really dissappointed. i chose to go with the mazdaspeed kit cause it looks the cleanest out of all the other kits. with that piece there it looks watered down. now i'm kinda wishing that with the money i spent on the mazdaspeed kit i should've spent on the auto bahn kit or maybe invest it in a turbo.

 

ok, went outside and checked out behind the plastic piece. there is in fact a piece of ugly *** styrofoam behind it and the grille stops right where the plastic piece is. this really sucks. has anyone had any luck in removing the styrofoam and replacing the grille? granted that it's there for crash reasons but i wish they had noted that before i purchased it.

 

There's a guy who makes and sells several custom products for the 8, and you might ask him if he has, or can think of anything that may help. His handle is DMenac7 or something like that. (A little help??) I know he painted the styrofoam black, but I'd be careful what paint you'd use, since a lot of paints will "melt" styrofoam.

 

I highly doubt you'd get hassled by anyone if you did remove the styrofoam. It's just safety stuff, and who needs that, right? Plus, styrofoam isn't going help a whole lot past 10mph. I think your best bet would be to make sure everything behind the nose is painted a flat black, and then find a tighter mesh to put in the opening. It'd give you a more unique look too, especially if you used a silver mesh to match your paint. I'm thinking of doing that with my "normal" front...oil cooler covers AND the grille.

 

the black plastic covers the rebar on the bumper. that bar is not present on the JDM models, so if you get a JDM MS Bumper, it doesnt have this piece.

 

No, that is pretty much correct... If you go with an OEM japan MS front all you have to do is spray paint the styrofoam black. I wouldn't remove for the sole reason of looks but to each their own...

 

any fix for the grille tho? the US MS grille doesn't go all the way up.

 

I have the fake ms front with no bar and I just removed the strofoam bar with two screws

its easy

 

taking out the styrofoam piece is no prob. is the grille that's the prob. it's like they cut the grille on the top leaving about 3 inches of nothing. that's where the styrofoam piece is.