[roo]

Hey all. Although happy to have found this place it's apparently a little slow with the talk in this group.

Amazing how I ignored this aspect of my new Impreza OS front end until the day after buying it!

I'm surprised Subaru sells these without any protection for the radiator, which maybe I had thought was a grille (or grill) itself!

I've looked at a GrillCraft:
http://www.grillcraft.com/installs/installs.asp?action=view&install=140
Also considering the upper part, since it should be better protected too.

First thing I did yesterday was drive on a long gravel road to check out this AWD stuff, since I've never had such a thing. Not 4X4, not even front-wheel drive.

So... most or all of you don't have a lower grille either? And this is a "sport" car....? hmmmm.
Heh-hehe-heh, please don't take the sport car comment too literally, I realize it's probably more like a family car.

 

[CPToversteer]

Bob--

for at least some of us, the "sports" aspect is exactly WHY we got the smaller one. it's 3-4" shorter wheelbase and turns a lot easier (my shrink's 3.0 OB is a pig by comparison). not exactly a Miata or even a WRX (altho many of the WRX parts do bolt on...), but yeah, it's a sports car of sorts. it qualifies on the best definition i know of: controllable when sliding and/or you have everything hung out but the wash....! the SCCA has an autocross class called "STS" which is colloquially known as "Street tire Subaru" because the imprezzies dominate class so thoroughly....

perrito enfermo

 

[BlueRidge]

Funny you mention the lack of talk here in the OBS forum. It is starting to pick up, but we need to spread the word more. When the site was first up it seemed all us OBS owners were going to overrun the place.

Anyway, I don't really see that it is that exposed, to be honest. At least not enough to justify the cost that is. I like the looks of the lower one though.

 

[CPToversteer]

not bad, at least in black, but i don't like it $154 worth. the gutter screen idea sounds better in light of $ factor... i have yet to have a flying stone do $154 worth of dmg to my radiator or a/c condenser in any vehicle i've ever owned.

as far as upper, WRX grille can be had on ebay or iclub or NASIOC for cheap, as the (ahem) younger WRX owners love to replace em. this will stop most stones for the upper. swapping it in takes 30 sec.

 

[roo]

---8<---have yet to have a flying stone do $154 worth of dmg to my radiator---8<---
as far as upper, WRX grille can be had on ebay or iclub or NASIOC for cheap, as the (ahem) younger WRX owners love to replace em. this will stop most stones for the upper. swapping it in takes 30 sec.

I see, so there shouldn't be a problem with a 2003 WRX grille on a 2004 OBS, I guess, because they look like they have the same design. Just a bit of a difference about how that Subaru emblem sits in there. It isn't easy to tell from photos, so I'm glad you told me.

I was looking at ebay yesterday and saw a bunch of those, not too bad looking, but then I got to thinking maybe I should try and leave the current one (upper) in place and just add something behind it.
Then add screen mesh for the lower... but I noticed somebody is selling billet ones (horizontal aluminum bars) there too, and a nice deal at about $85 shipped.
Only problem is that it replaces or covers the upper grille. Something I wanted to avoid. And using only the lower one could be strange without the upper to match. Plus, I'm not fond of those horizontal bars, liking the diamond mesh stuff better.

Something to think about anyway.

 

[roo]

When the site was first up it seemed all us OBS owners were going to overrun the place.
Anyway, I don't really see that it is that exposed, to be honest. At least not enough to justify the cost that is. I like the looks of the lower one though.

There's still hope for us OBS owners then, yea! I'll probably begin to taper off here myself eventually. Nothing quite like a human resource though, so should always be good to come back to.

I don't use a front license plate, so that lower opening is pretty wide. I've always had cars or trucks with very filled-in grilles or frontends, too, so it makes it seem all the more exposed, to me.

The upper one, being just a few vertical and, I think, one horizontal (I'd need to look again) thin lines of plastic also gets perceived as being unprotective. At the very least I'd like to prevent massive accumulations of bug debris directly on the radiator, which is probably much more likely to happen.

Just thinking of all the twigs and gravel I'll be going through someday, after I get (over) confident with the AWD aspect. I've already wished I had added the rear differential protector at the dealership.