How To: My 45-minute eyebrow fix

[rickjames8]

So I'd read the awesome threads and write-up by members who came up with the idea of fixing the eyebrows with the fascia on the car. I figured as I had a couple days to wait for a part for another project to arrive, I'd try this.

I was going off of this post.

However, 3 out of 4 screws on my low beams were rusted bad, and stripped on top of that. I want to re-do my headlights someday, just not today. The idea of drilling everything out would have made this become a much bigger project. Add to that, I do need to remove/adjust my fascia at some point, I decided to pass on the lights for now.

But then I had an idea. With the hi-beams out, I felt there was pretty good access to where the metal re-enforcing bar needed to go. I could test-slide it in there by hand. Most of the way, anyway. I just couldn't get a long 2x4 clamped to my fascia with the lights still on.

So I improvised.
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Now, before you gasp, my fascia is in need of a paint job. It's by no means in good shape. I wasn't worried about damaging the paint, and in the end, it's no different than when I started. All the same, I still wouldn't try this with a mint fascia.

My eyebrows were pretty severe, but I did notice that if I put enough pressure on one spot with my thumb, I could flatten them out. So, thumb/strap, what's the difference.

So, I put on these straps, heated it up, let it cool, heated it up, let it cool, several times. The straps are attached to the lift supports inside the hood (it's passed around the hinge which keeps it in a relatively good position. On one side, I used a small block of wood inside the frunk to get it in perfect position. The lower straps were attached to the sway bar. The strap did touch the lower lip of the air dam, but it took a surprisingly light amount of force to pull the eyebrows in, and nothing else really moved. All the same, I put 2 tiny pieces of wood between the hood and the fascia, the only potential pressure point that worried me. With the wood scrap, the load there goes forward, not down.
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Then I took off the straps, took my 2 pieces of bar, and put them in place. They're about the length of both lights, so what's that 12"? There is a 'fold' under the fascia above the lights, and there is a 'cavity' under the fascia above the grille area. The trick is to wedge the metal in to the fold (above the lights) and then slide it over so a few inches of it are inserted in to the cavity. This worked so well, I would not have been able to get it out for photos, so here I will illustrate what I did using a piece of scrap wood. (yeah, I've got a lot of wood projects going on, can you tell?).

Imagine this is the metal bar under the top of the fascia. Cut a small notch out of the back of the bar and wrap string around it. Now drop the string and push (pull?) the bar forward with your fingers as best you can.
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Then once you've pushed the bar far forward to the front of the car, pull both ends of the string towards the center of the car.
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Once the bar is firmly in the cavity, grab one end of the string and pull it out.
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That bar is now wedged in there so good, I couldn't get it back out if I tried.

I got some of the recommended black windshield adhesive, put a dollop on the end of a disposable putty knife and got what I could in and around. I was so satisfied with how firm the bar was in there, the adhesive was just preventative to make sure it didn't vibrate out.

I put the straps back on, heated it back up, and let it cool overnight as the adhesive dried.

The next day, I had this.
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There is still a small 'rise' but it's barely noticeable. I may try a couple more treatments, and might even try combining some towel-wrapped pieces of wood and putting them under strap tension to see what happens. Right now, I'm 97% happy with the results - looks so much better than before.

In case you're wondering, yes, I did chop off the bottom 1" of my licence plate. I didn't like the way it looked hanging down, and I wasn't about the mount it to the front bumper. I then chopped a metal plate frame along the sides, epoxied it all together and it looks rather normal, yet slimmed down.