New grill block mounting method
 

Last year, my grill block on the Prius worked pretty good. However, on a windy day towards spring I did have one of the thumb screws back off and I ended up loosing it and kinking the coroplast. So, I thought up a new way to mount the grill block that I think makes a lot of sense and is incredibly easy to do.

I started out with some left over 1x4s I had laying around. These scraps worked perfectly for the project. I drilled a clearance hole for a 2.5" wood screw in two of the blocks and a pilot hole in the other two.

http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius062.jpg



I then drilled a countersink in the blocks with the clearance hole so the stainless deck screw I was going to use would sit below flush.

http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius063.jpg



Next, I stuck the block with the pilot hole behind the grill and screwed them together with the block with the clearance hole on the outside of the grill.

http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius064.jpg



And then I mounted the other. Now, the blocks provide us a place to screw the grill block to. It also positions the grill block much more flush with the bumper instead of being inset like most grills are. This should improve aero a little bit. Also, its very easy to compensate for different grill depths by using different thickness outer blocks.

http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius065.jpg



Lastly, I held my grill block up to the blocks, drilled holes, and used button head screws and fender washers to hold it on. It is much more sturdy than my last method of attaching the grill block and it sits almost as flush. A little tweaking will fix that though.

http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius066.jpg

i like the idea

is that black coroplast?

You blocked lower and kept upper open?

Yup, its really dusty, but it is black coroplast. :)



I have yet to block the upper grill. It'll be done eventually.

That's just to keep the snow out;)

...I found some "heavy-duty" Velcro™ squares that seem to be holding up well (so far) at holding things in-place behind the grill...in the space between the bumper-fascia and the radiator.

I haven't been able to drive the car since doing this. But, the wife reports back that the car is warming up and maintaining temperature much better now. Heat can be a real problem for her in the winter since she transports plants and they need to be warm.

Nice. I am going to have to install something again this year on our Prius. Last year it was clear acrylic and it worked well. I would use it again, but the acrylic was so thin that rocks punched holes right through it. If it didn't get thrown out, I could use it as a template for this years... I had used black electrical tape around the perimeter to prevent cracking/breakage along the edges and black zip ties to attach. it was kind of a pain to get done, but really didn't take that long. We had good heat even driving back to Alabama from Wisconsin in -6degF weather at night! Since we had nothing to compare against, I didn't know if it made a difference, so thanks for that tidbit!

Looks like a nice set up. If I had to make one for my car I think I would use the same setup.

thread added to the wiki section on grill blocks.

Nice job! Mine is McGyver'ed: Lengths of pipe insulation built up into chunks with duct tape, jammed into the grill slots. Not nearly as nice as yours.