The iconic grill of a DB9 is one of distinctive and signature looks of any Aston Martin.  The shape is immediately recognizable to any car enthusiast.  The early DB9’s were fitted with the distinctive 7-bar grill that has 7 horizontal bars.  Later models received an updated 5-bar grill.  Same grill shape, just fewer bars.  The 5-bar grill can even be retrofit to the earlier models.  The grill in the Vantage is similar, but absolutely not the same (8-bars and a different construction).

From what I’ve learned grills came in different finishes.  The grill in my DB9 is an anthracite grey color.   I’ve seen that a ‘polished’ finish was also available as an ~ $1,000 upgrade.

What I’ve also discovered is that the anthracite grey finish is merely paint applied to the same polished bars.  In my car, that 14 year old paint is beginning to fail horribly, and is flaking off.   You can see in these photos that most of the paint has failed off the middle bar (and others).   As the issue was starting to appear it merely looked like the finish was chipped from a stone or something.   Soon there were multiple spots, and on multiple bars.  Now it’s epidemic.

I asked Aston Martin if they could sell me a new 7-bar grill.  “No” was the answer.  Apparently they are permanently out of stock and their plan is to supply the later model 5-bar grill only.  The 5-bar grill also requires you to fit a completely new plastic support surround for it, which requires removing the front bumper cover too.   I had a look at the cost for a new 5-bar grill and surround (Aston Martin part number 9G43-71-11098), and ScuderiaParts.com has it for around $1,540 USD.  Ouch.

Personally I prefer the look of the 7-bar grill and I’ve decided to refinish my grill (and that will be another article).  The first step is to actually remove the grill, and that’s what this article will cover.

The good news is that the process is fairly simple and will only take a few minutes.

To get ready to remove the grill you need to accomplish another relatively easy task.  You need to remove the Engine Slam Panel, and you can learn how to do it in this article and video here.

Tools Required

You only need a couple of tools to remove the grill:

• 7mm box end wrench
• 7mm socket and ratchet/extension
• Nut driver to use with the socket
• Magnetic pickup tool
• Inspection light

Really you can do it all with just the 7mm wrench.  The other tools just make it go quicker/easier.

Procedure

I couldn’t find any documented procedure in the Official Aston Martin Workshop Manual, just merely a mention “Remove Grill” as part of other steps.

Removing the grill will only take you about 10 minutes once you have the Engine Slam Panel removed (again, check out my other article on how to do that).

The grill is actually two parts, the decorative 7 bar grill portion (we are trying to remove), and the black plastic surround frame it mounts to.  We are going to leave the plastic surround in place.

• There are ten (10) 7 mm nuts to remove
• Use the 7mm socket and ratchet/nut driver to remove the central six of them that are easy to reach.  There are three to the left and three to the right of the hood catch.
• The outer two nuts on either side are more difficult to reach.  They are positioned in front of the plastic air inlet ducts.  There is only a few inches of space, not enough to get your fingers and the socket into.
  • Use your inspection light to be able to see what’s going on
  • Use the 7mm box end wrench to reach in and start to loosen the nuts.  Once they are loose a turn or two I found they were really loose.
  • Use the tip of your finger to spin the nuts to speed the process up.
  • As the nut comes to the end of the stud, you won’t be able to hold it (with just a finger tip).   If the nut drops off, it could fall into an unreachable location.   I used the magnetic tool to reach in and be stuck to the nut as I spun it off the last turn or two.  When the nut came off the end, it was safely attached to the magnetic pickup tool.  Tough to describe in writing, I’d recommend that you check out the technique by watching the video below.
  • Remove each of the four remaining nuts using this technique.
• With all the nuts removed, the grill will be free to pull straight forward and out.

  

• Be very careful to extract the grill straight out.  The painted portions of the front bumper, fender and hood are all right there, and you can easily scratch them with the ends of the grill bars if you aren’t paying attention.

That should be it.  You should now have the grill in your hand and you can move on to whatever your next task is.

If you are interested in refinishing your grill I have covered the process in another article and video you can check out here [Coming Soon].

When it’s time to reinstall the grill check out my article and video on how to do this properly [Coming Soon].

Video

I made a short video showing the steps and it might be helpful to watch.