67-68 Billet Grille Installation
Here’s a before shot. This is actually a 68 grille. Years ago I only wanted a black grill and only the running horse, but the running horse on a 67 grille attaches to a coral, which I didn’t want.
You obviously have to remove your old grille in order to put the new MTF grille in place.
Years back I upgraded my headlights to halogens and added a weatherproof 4-relay box to my inner apron. One relay drives the low beam, one the high-beam, and now one powers the aux lights in the MTF grille. Anticipating this mod in the future, much of my relay wiring was already in place. If you don’t have this already, you’ll want to use a relay for wiring the aux lights.
The lights that MTF sends with the kit have LED halos, so I wired those up to be ON whenever the car is on. I wired the projector portion of the aux lights to a toggle under my dash.
You’ll need a couple of these light sockets from your local parts store to plug into the aux lights:
Then start your wiring (remember to put some cardboard in front of the radiator so your hands/tools don’t dent in the cooling fins).
The install is very straight-forward. THE MTF grill sits on top of your grille molding, instead of behind it like the OEM grille. The new MTF grille fits perfectly, with virtually no “gaps” anywhere – a sure sign of excellent build quality. There are six attaching points available to use, but I only used/needed two of them, located on the top/middle of the grille, to attach to the hood latch support. The grille itself is pretty stout, so I didn’t feel the need to use all of the attaching points.
I had to “clearance/grind” some of the bottom material off of the support to make it fit, but that’s no big at all (although I clearanced both sides, here’s a shot of the support with one side clearanced, for reference).
Once installed, enjoy!
I had a couple concerns in doing this. First, I was worried that blocking air flow to the radiator would cause cooling issues. In the week that I’ve had this in daily L.A. traffic, I’ve noticed my temps went up only 5 degrees and only for a very short period while on the jammed L.A. freeway. But what this really means is my water temp went from 190 to 195 for about a minute, and then back down to stay at 190, so no big deal at all. I also have a Taurus electric fan, which likely helps with the cooling. Also, there's still several inches of room between the body of the aux lights and your radiator for air to flow.
I was also concerned that the aux lights, which are single beam (i.e. no low/high beam) would be too bright and would blind drivers (and cops) approaching me. This concern is removed for a couple of reasons. First, the aux light beam isn’t all that bright to begin with. Second, the downward sloping angle of the grille causes the lights to shine toward the ground more than your standard headlights. You can adjust them (MTF made adjusting screws) and shimmy them to shine higher, but I kept them as is. My main concern is others seeing me, not me seeing miles ahead, and having a unique 4 headlight setup like this grabs people's attention when you approach.
Here’s the 67 with just the aux lights on (no headlights):
In the end, I could not be more pleased. Thank you MTF for a great product!
