Magnets (as attachment method)
 

My work was recently throwing out cases of magnets that are used for making fridge magnets. One side has an adhesive and the other is nice and magnetic. Has anyone ever tried to secure something like a grill-block with magnets so that it can be easily removed?

Those are too weak

Be kinda hard to magnetize the fake chrome painted plastic of my grill... ;)

Depends on where the grill block goes, and how much wind force it gets. The one I use on the Insight just sits in place. (Though magnets wouldn't be much use on an aluminium body anyway.) But if they will hold e.g. real estate advertising signs on doors, they should be ok to say hold in a grille block.

The refrigerator magnets aren't all that weak, since you can have a lot of area. Ever try to pull one straight off, as opposed to peeling it?

A sign on the side of a vehicle has a lot of area though. Each square inch of magnet only has to support one square inch of itself and thin vinyl sign, without much aerodynamic force acting on it. A grill block would be held on by the edges, with a lot of aerodynamic force

since the grill block is being acted on from the front, effectively adding force to the magnet, you might be ok. the fact that your bumper could be plastic is overcome by having an adhesive side on the magnet. If you make it out of coroplast or something just adhere the magnet on it with the adhesive (most refrigerator magnets will stick to each other in either direction), if that doesn't work, just attach a couple light washers that will stick to the magnet. Try to design your grill block to keep it from coming lose and hitting your windshield (or someone else's).

I find old harddrives and rip the magnets out of them. I use them to hold down windshield covers when it snows. So far only 40mph+ gusts have been able to "move" the magnets. I've never had the cover fly off. Even the small flat ones work well, but I prefer the thicker beefy ones.

If all else fails, order up some rare earth magnets from a website. $3-5 for ones strong enough to hold just about anything you'd need down.

Those magnets are REALLY weak. A little bit of airflow going under the block would blow it upward easily.


If you want to stick something on your car to attach something else temporarily, you could use Velcro. Don't count on being able to remove the adhesive from your paint though, although a heat gun may help.

For extra holding power or versatility, you can have a magnet on the addition meet another one glued to the plastic, al, or steel. Much depends on aero loads - I wouldn't use them for fender skirts; the wind can get behind those, unlike door signs.

Hm... I wish I worked for an employer that threw away cool stuff. :(