Front license plate screen

Been looking at hoods in catalogs, but so far I just haven't seen one that makes me think "Wow! THAT's the one I want on my car!"

This one caught my eye on the corvette forum as he's working on ones for the C4 now. http://corvettecreationz.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=20_27&product_id=92

Yeah, I saw that one, and others real similar, but there's too many nooks and crannies for wax and polishing media to get caught up in and be a problem getting out. Plus polishing and buffing will be more difficult by machine since you have to be careful of all those sharp edges so you don't inadvertently damage them during the process. So I'm looking for a rather smooth surface.

Ah well. Probably need to go to some car shows and just look firsthand at the hoods other people are using to see if something catches my eye that will work for me.

That's a good point. Never thought about the extra PITA to wash and wax would be.

Well, still haven't seen that replacement license panel show up yet. :toetap05:

Well, the replacement finally showed up today. I just laid it in the front bumper without positioning it and screwing it in, but what do you all think?











Of course I haven't opened up the panel behind the screening yet....

Two things I don't like. The gap at the top seems excessive. But more so I think it would look better if the carbon fiber frame was either painted to match the car, or matched the vents on either side of it. (Like the metal trim around the screens.) Just my two cents....

85vette said:

Two things I don't like. The gap at the top seems excessive. But more so I think it would look better if the carbon fiber frame was either painted to match the car, or matched the vents on either side of it. (Like the metal trim around the screens.) Just my two cents....

Click to expand...

The observed gap at the top is because the plate is not screwed into the bumper the way it is supposed to be. It's just laying on the bottom rim to be photographed "as is". It won't look like that when it is actually mounted. The only color option that had that would have been close to my car was a blue carbon fiber look. The chances of it matching my Electron Blue paint were remote enough that I felt black carbon fiber was a safer choice.

I wanted the rubber trim around the screen, but was told they don't make it like that any longer. So it was not an option.

I agree. I think it would look better painted body color. as sacrilegious as it is to paint carbon fiber, unless you had other carbon fiber accents like a hood, roof panel, spoiler, splitter, side skirts, painting it would look better IMHO.

Well, I could live with the carbon fiber. It appeared to be the better choice out of the options available.

However, what I CANNOT live with is the fact that the guy used the wrong screen yet again.

Here is what the screen looks like that is currently on the front of my car on either side of that front license plate panel:


The way these screens are described is by the openings in the mesh. This screen is a 5x5 mesh, meaning there are 5 square openings per inch horzontally and vertically.

Now here's what I got in this new license plate panel:


Obviously not the same. This is a 6x6 mesh. And the wire is thinner, too.

I SPECIFICALLY stated that I wanted the mesh in this panel to match what was already on my car. FAIL!

This is all explicitly described in the McMasters catalog, where that thread on CorvetteForum shows as a source for this kind of stuff -> http://www.mcmaster.com/#wire-cloth/=l6xfkd

And on top of that, the screen was not put in correctly. It was not straightened before being cut and fitted into the frame. The upper left hand corner slopes upwards instead of being straight across.


I noticed all these things yesterday when I opened the box, but I figured I would just wait 24 hours and see if it grew on me and I could accept these flaws. But honestly, no, I cannot. Yeah, I'm picky as hell, and expect more than just "acceptable" from people I spend my money with. Unless I'm being told I am buying "seconds" at a discount and agree to that beforehand, then dammit, I want what I paid for. Not ALMOST OK. Heck, this isn't even made in China, so I can't blame that on this blatant display of lack of attention to detail and workmanship.

So I'm done messing with this. I contacted Pinnacle, who I actually ordered this from, and asked for a refund. The manufacturer obviously cannot get this right, and I'm just tired of this damned burr underneath my saddle. I'm going to just put the original license panel back on and forget about this.

If you could get some of that mesh that's already on your car you could probably make one yourself Rich. Get some fiberglass cloth for the edges.

Nah, I'm just going to put the original one on for now and put this behind me. This turned out to be a big pain in the ass, and I've had my fill of them for too long now. It's wearing on me......

Rich, have you seen this body upgrade yet? Looks pretty good to me. Copy and paste if the link doesn't work.

IVS - Tiger Shark Full Body Kit

I don't see a link in that post at all. :shrug01:

I can't link it, but if you copy and paste this:

IVS - Tiger Shark Full Body Kit

it will take you to the site.

Yeah, I've seen that sort of front end before, and that might be the ticket for me. Mike (vetteguy61) has that front end on his car. I don't think he has the lower spoiler, though, and I certainly wouldn't want it on my car. I already scrape the front end sometimes going in and out of driveways where the slope is too steep. I'd be scraping that thing off in nothing flat. There are an awful lot of places that just are not very Corvette friendly.

I'll probably wind up getting a new hood anyway to try to do away with the airbridge clearance problems I've been having, so a new bumper might be in the cards as well. With the paint cracked on the hood, there is a new paint job in my future any way I look at it. But have to build the cash reserves back up before a new paint job will be in the cards for me.

Well, I contacted Pinnacle Corvette about a refund and Patrick says he contacted American Hydrocarbon about sending me a return tag. But it appears that someone is dragging their feet about getting that return tag to me.

Sorry to hear about more feet dragging. On the tiger shark front nose, I simply LOVE that look for the C5.

Yeah, I've always had it in the back of my mind to consider that front end look, but it's always been on the back burner. But since I am looking at a paint job anyway, makes sense to move this to the front burner.

Unfortunately, it appears that Starcraft might have stopped making these, as they are listed as being on national backorder on sites I have looked at.

The CarID website says they will be available April of 2013. They also have them listed at $1550.00, marked down from $1923.00.