pdonket

Is it just me or are some portions of the design of this car so terribly set up for modification or maintenance that it's not even funny? I'm probably just steamed from wasting my time outside in the sun but I mean damn, it seems like some of the engineers came into this with no real grasp on cars. Either that or Ford wisely engineered their cars to take a large amount of time to perform even simple changes.

I was out trying to pull the grille surround out of the car so that I could have it painted (thank god I didn't ask the paint/body shop to do the work themselves since it's probably at least 45 minutes or more of labor), and at first I was hopeful that Ford would have it removable by taking off the radiator cover and then undoing the tabs so that the surround, grille, and fog lights would pop right out. Of course not, we couldn't have that. I haven't taken on the chore yet now that I realized all that has to be done to get it done. I mean just to remove the grille surround I need to

Place car on Jack Stands
Remove two front wheels
Remove under body deflector plate
Remove splash shields
Remove Radiator cover
Remove front bumper cover
Remove grille and grille surround assembly from front bumper cover
Remove grille surround from grille.

Maybe it's just me, because I'm relatively new to working with cars, but honestly that's a joke how much needs to be done to take one part off.

In total, I think there are about 29 screw/clips that need to be removed, 10 lug nuts, and 15 retaining "notches" that need to be undone to complete this lol.

LostBoyz

So they didn't engineer with modifiers' thoughts in mind? I can't really see a way to blame them for that. Is a grill a regular thing to change for the regular consumer? If that was the process to change the oil, then yes I would say they weren't thinking things through.

pdonket

My argument is that all parts should be relatively easy to remove without having to engage in trying to solve a 3D jigsaw puzzle. Some things have to overlap and be therefore in another parts' way, but things that don't NEED to overlap, shouldn't. For example with the grille, they have two clips put in places that cannot be reached without removing the entire front end of the car. Does that make logical sense? No.

There's no way to accidentally engage the clips whether or not you hide them, so why not place them somewhere to make even one more piece more modular. It's more so that for the sake of warranty work, they should by logic make all parts as easy to remove from the car as safely as possible. So while I don't think they should make the car only for modification, easily replaceable or changeable parts make everybody's life easier from the tech in the shop to a DIY'er.

As a side note, while it isn't hard to change the oil on the '11s, the whole new aero shield thing down there is one PITA. The way it hangs down in the way instead of being entirely removable is moronic.

Tanner05

That sucks, Pdonket.
But I'm glad to hear that you are getting the surround painted.
Can't wait to see pics, its going to look awesome!

pdonket

Should hopefully look awesome! I'm looking forward to getting it done. I think tomorrow I'll throw her up on the stands and get to work removing the surround so things can start to get underway And hopefully not long after my Brembo wheels will come in!

I suppose despite all of the work on the front end things should start shaping up great soon!

Falcon Fixer

The car is designed to be "Built" cheaply and efficiently.
Period.

Daniel98GT

I think the reason that any car is designed like that is to make the stealerships money. You go outside and try to accomplish a task that you think will be simple such as removing the grill surround. You realize that its going to be a very tedious task so you say screw it and take it somewhere to be done. Its just one big collaboration lol.

pdonket

Honestly it seems that way haha. A couple times I came close to saying that though, of course I wasn't going to think of bringing it to a dealership, but I thought of just having the shop that was doing the painting, to take it all apart.

I do like working on the car though so I suppose I shouldn't complain. But now that it's getting hot, I know at least for me after a while working under/with the car I work up a sweat hah. Not exactly the most fun situation after that.

LostBoyz

Except there are studies on cost to own, which things like common repair or service get factored into. Insurance prices will also be affected by this number, a car that costs more to fix are costlier to insure. In the warranty period, especially, ford wouldn't want to make a service cost more because they would have to pay for it. So I just fail to see how Ford would do this purposely, its not a common repair or serviceable part and therefore the goal is as Falcon Fixer said, its the cheapest way to assemble it in the plant.

So its unfortunate that it takes a lot of work, but I cannot possibly see how its an engineers fault for not looking out for the less than 1% of their consumers who want to swap their grill.

JWButler14

u can remove the grille/surround without taking all that off. i did mine when i put the center fog grille on