OK so I would like a black billet grille for my 2008 GT, and I would like to mount my foglights in the center behind the grille.

Rousch 9 Bar Grille - Ok so I saw this on American Muscle and I love the way it looks. My question is what the difference between the Rousch 9 bar grille and the Modern Black Retro Billet Grille (05-09 GT) are. For some reason, just when looking at the pictures on AM.com, the Rousch 9 bar grille looks better. Do you know how many bars and thickness for the retro grille? Is the Rousch grille really worth double the price?

Also, I have read posts on here in the past about mounting the foglights behind the grille. Apparently you have to move the horn too. I know a company named dgcustoms (I think) had made mounting brackets for the relocation of fog lights and the horn. However, it looks like they are no longer in business. Does anyone have old installation instructions from them or pictures of the hardware they fabricated? I was considering having a shop create custom brackets for me. That being said, I'm an engineer in a large steel fabrication yard, and I was thinking of designing some myself. Only problem is we deal with heavy steel and what I have would be over kill for some small brackets. But my goal is to maybe do a write up for mounting the foglights behind the grille with store bought materials.

 

Looks like the biggest difference I can see is that the "Modern Billet Black Grille" is set back in the bumper a little where as the Roush is nearly flush with the rest of the bumper. That and it looks like the Roush may have a little thicker bars, but that may be an illusion. That and the Roush version has the Roush name tag, that's most of the mark up right there. I will say, the Roush version does look like it has a little better fit and finish, but I don't know if it's nearly $200 more fit and finish.

Personally I'll be going for the Modern Billet with fog lights. I want to keep my fogs, and not behind the grill. Not sure about mounting behind the grill, though I assume with your experience it wouldn't be too difficult to fabricate something. You can buy your own lighter steel at a hardware store. I guess it depends on how difficult it would be to remount them since I know they mount directly to the stock grill and you'd have to find a new mount spot.

Oh, and I count 9 bars on the "Modern Billet Black Grille" as well, though oddly the version with the fog lights is far more. That kind of bothers me now because now I like the 9 bar more.... hmmmmm.

 

I feel your pain. I wish I could see a picture of someone with the Rousch 9 bar grille and someone with the "modern Billet Grille" preferably on the same colored car.

 

Check the customer photos section on the page for each product. There are a bunch of photos for both.

 

One word: overlay. The real Roush grille replaces the actual grille, as where some of the chaper ones are just overlays that stack on top of the existing, thus making it stick out farther. In my opinion, and again, opinion, is that overlays are pieces of ****. Ford already fills about 40% of the honeycomb in the stock grille with plastic (for god knows what reason) and putting an overlay on will only block more wind from getting to your engine. My friend has a V6 Pony and he bought a 9 bar expecting it to be a real grille but it instead turned out to be an overlay and he was very disappointed.

 

OK, just to clarify. You are saying that the "Modern billet Grille" is an overlay and that the "Rousch 9-Bar" is an actual grille? You threw me off when you said "Your friend ordered a 9 bar and it was an overlay". I would not pay $300+ for an overlay!

 

That's definitely good information to have and I would have never thought about that unless you said that.

Thankfully the "Modern Billet Black Retro Billet Grille" on AM does specifically say it is a full replacement. I'd be pissed too if I got a clip on on top of the existing honeycomb.

 

No no, Roush's grille is definitely not an overlay, and as AJ just stated above me the modern is a full replacement so that's good. I was just stating that he bought a 9 bar from another company and it was an overlay.

 

I want the roush grill too but I like my fog lights.

I would have to get the roush bumper to keep some fog lights up front I guess.

 

This is next on my list, I want this grille but want to keep my fogs. This is why I would like to mount them behind the grille. I have 3k HID's on my fogs so not worried about losing too much light. I have yet to get behind the grille and look for a spot to mount my fogs, and I think I will wait until I actually have the Rousch grille to ensure proper clearance. If and when I get this figured out I will probably sketch something up in AutoCAD so you guys can replicate the brackets.