REAR GRILLS

The rear grills come as a kit containing the 2 rear grills that sit behind each radiator and the single central one that sits in between the rear light clusters. I have to admit that the Parallel ones really are made very nicely from aluminium then powder coated black to ensure decent longevity.

RADIATOR GRILLS

As with most things on kitcars you will find that fitting them is again not exactly straightfoward and fettling was needed to make them sit correctly. They are secured at the top by 2 screws and at the bottom by 2 lugs. I found that only one of the lugs was anywhere near the body on both grills and theres not really much you can do about it other than bending the grills or body about. To start with I got the tops sitting right and screwed them to the body. I then had to fibreglass a bracket to the body which would then pull the grill and body together. The only problem with this is that the grills are now facing slightly 'outwards' instead of in line with the rear end but it's either that or live with the large gap as shown below. I took the route which I think looks far better. Note that in the pics below the support straps are not painted black yet. Also, while you're in the area tidy up the openings for the grills and the bumper holes. Any work you can save the bodyshop from doing will mean you come away with a heavier wallet.

Above left- grill before modification. Centre-after. Above right-strap support

REAR ENGINE GRILL

The rear grill supplied by Parallel really is a nice bit of kit. It is curved along it's length just right and looks a lot like the original. When I offered up the rear grill to the body it was clear that there was a pretty large gap between the top and bottom and it just didn't look right. However, after looking at Parallels car I'm sure it's right but you have to mount the grill with a gap at the top and bottom and paint the surrounding lip on the body black to match. Personally I would just have had the grill made deeper to fill the hole completely from body to rear deck but there you go. To get anything like a reasonable gap fit I had to make up two support straps from steel strip to hold up the rear body panel section. It was hanging far too low as standard which not only made the gap between the bottom of the grill and the body look huge but also meant that the edge wasn't straight- it 'bowed out' in the middle. This is purely a mould problem in my opinion, and is an area where I think that Parallel could improve the design, either by inserting steel reinforcement into the fibreglass before curing or making the rear panel section from thicker fibreglass. The only real way to sort it was to hold the rear section up with something. You can see the straps in the picture below, which will eventually all be painted black. This way of holding up the valance is far from ideal due to the fact that the small 10mm head bolts are exposed and can be seen if you look closely, even once the area is painted black. However, there is actually quite a bit of tension required to hold up the valance and fibreglassing in some steel strap, although removing the bolts, wouldn't really be strong enough. I'll just have to live with the solution I did.

The grill itself was mounted to the rear chassis rail at the 3 points dictated by the pre-mounted studs. However, although being held firmly enough not to come loose, the lower (unsupported) edge might vibrate a bit when the engine is running so it might need a support there too.

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