lucky644

Anyone who lives in a actually cold area with a boost bar/grille? My concern is it completely icing over, and blocking the intake. A very real concern where I live, not to mention I'm convinced the chrome one wouldn't last 1 year without being chipped all to hell.

phantomblackgto

Never had any problems with the one I had on my '12 icing over with slush, but it looked pretty crappy after it's first winter. It was the chrome one that matched the 2012 grill perfectly. It was chipped up and the chrome plating was stained and kind of peeling. I tried to polish it up before I traded my truck thinking I could put it on the '13, but I ended up just leaving it on the truck I traded in. Not worth $100 IMO, unless maybe you don't live in a snowy climate or want to take it off in the winter. I've got the black $35 one from Amazon. It is much more durable and protects about as good as you can without restricting air flow. We'll see how well it holds up this winter. Ford makes one now, but it's pretty much just to give it a finished look. Doesn't look like it provides much protection for the inter cooler.

lucky644

Yeah I think a black plastic one might work better, for me anyhow.

phantomblackgto

The boost bars are plastic. The $35 Amazon one is powder coated billet aluminum. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality when I received it. Only complaints people posted on Amazon were the installation instructions. The supplied hardware could definitely be better, but come on, it's not hard to figure that out. Zip ties work like a charm.

lucky644

what I mean is something that you won't notice chips on, anything shiny will probably show up, flat black plastic should be ok with our winters.

tomasulo

Here's men that I just installed yesterday. It's from Boost Bars (link below), and it's plastic, but the owner has told me to leave it on the truck and endure our Canadian Winter with it. If any chipping or peeling, he will stand behind his product and replace for free. That's the guarantee he have me, and product is great quality and super easy to install in minutes!

http://www.boost-bars.com

vozaday

I live in Northern Alberta, my boost bars still look like new.

kobayashi maru

I chose the Amazon billet over the boost bars due to price (got it via ebay). Both look great to me but I think the boost bars look a bit more stock.

The installation instructions for the billet grille aren't great but there's really nothing to it. The only hurdle for me was getting my hand behind the grilled to screw in the fasteners it came with (don't want to zip tie). First I tried removing the driver's side bumper/plate mount but unless you have super skinny arms the hole isn't large enough. So I removed the lower air dam (two 15mm nuts) and got to it from underneath.

mksmth

i built that for about $3.
Attachment 570774

my post of the parts list is on page 461 of the under $50 mods thread.

yanki01

2014 Ford OEM insert is the best IMO and pretty cheap.


photo 1 by Yanki01, on Flickr


photo 3 by Yanki01, on Flickr