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Custom Mesh Grille Project

CompO5.sl0w

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Since I bought the car I've been searching for a grille, but haven't really liked any aftermarket products. The only one that I really was in to was the RaceMesh design, but for almost $700 for just a stock grille w/ steel mesh I sought out to make my own.

Myself and [MENTION=18835]knightvision[/MENTION] dedicated a good couple evenings to make this happen. It's not overly difficult, however patience is key. [MENTION=11533]Project Whitemare[/MENTION] was able to give us some pointers and insight on his grille project to help us get started.

Here's a quick break down of the price:

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Steel Mesh SWAT 12"x48" (Link): $124.99

Dremel Plastic Cutting Wheel (5pk) (Link): $10.85

Dewalt Metal Cutting Wheel (HomeDepot): $3.57

Goop All-Purpose 3.7oz x2 (Link): $7.96

Powder Coat: $30

Total: $147.37

+OEM Grilles if you do not use the ones currently on the car.

OEM Upper Grille (FR3Z-8200-BA): $31.90

OEM Lower Grille (FR3Z-17K945-BA): $63.02

Total: $241.92

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Cutting the OEM Grille with the Dremel and Plastic Cutting Blade. The upper grille was fairly easy to cut without any type of taping for guidance. It has a textured line of the back of it that you can follow for your cut. The lower, has a little bit of guess work involved, but once you find the line, just simply tape along the line to give you some visual guidance while cutting.

After we were done cutting, we sanded down the edges to give it a more smooth and level surface for the mesh.
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With the steel mesh, we zip tied the grille to it and traced the grille to give us visual guidance on cutting. Both Grilles will not fit on the mesh together like this, so we cut the upper out, then tied the lower, traced and cut. There will be plenty of mesh in the sheet I linked above.
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Two sets pictured here for myself and [MENTION=18835]knightvision[/MENTION] .
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Once cut out, we did a quick test fit to make sure everything fit correctly.
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At this point we took the mesh to be powder coated. The next week when we got them back, it was time to adhere them. We used zip ties to hold the mesh in place tightly to the grille while we used the Goop to adhere it. We let the goop sit over night before we cut the zip ties off and installed it.
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We let the goop sit over night before we cut the zip ties off and installed it.
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Quick Pictures rolled out of the garage.
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All in all I'm very happy with the end results. Thanks to [MENTION=18835]knightvision[/MENTION] for the help to get this done, and [MENTION=11533]Project Whitemare[/MENTION] for insights and help. :cheers:
If anyone has any questions I'm open to PM or reply to this thread!:thumbsup:
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Built4Speed

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Nice job, love it!
 

plc268

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Nice result.

Was it difficult cutting the mesh? What did you use for that?
 
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CompO5.sl0w

CompO5.sl0w

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Nice job, love it!
Nice result.

Was it difficult cutting the mesh? What did you use for that?
Thanks guys! :cheers: We tired to use a Dremel, with a metal cutting wheel on the mesh, but we burnt through the first cutting wheel in under a minute. So we decided to resort to our Dewalt Angle Grinder in which we used a thin metal cutting wheel. We barely even went though a quarter of the cutting wheel and it cut through the mesh with ease.
 

plc268

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Thanks guys! :cheers: We tired to use a Dremel, with a metal cutting wheel on the mesh, but we burnt through the first cutting wheel in under a minute. So we decided to resort to our Dewalt Angle Grinder in which we used a thin metal cutting wheel. We barely even went though a quarter of the cutting wheel and it cut through the mesh with ease.
Yea, that's what I figured. No way a dremel could tackle that job. :cheers:
 

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brandonsmash

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Very nice! This looks like a decent project; how hard is it to remove the front fascia?

The steel cutting would go very quickly for me, as I have a decent plasma cutter that would make very short work of it.
 

Todd15Fastback

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Wow. What a great write up and even better job on the DIY.

Looks outstanding!!
 

Marvelous D S550

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Exactly what we did to mine. Looks Great!
 

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CompO5.sl0w

CompO5.sl0w

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Nice work! Looks sharp.
Thanks man!

Very nice! This looks like a decent project; how hard is it to remove the front fascia?

The steel cutting would go very quickly for me, as I have a decent plasma cutter that would make very short work of it.
Thanks Brandon! Not hard at all really, about a dozen bolts, push pins and 15 minutes. Yeah, a plasma cutter would have been nice to have lol!

Wow. What a great write up and even better job on the DIY.

Looks outstanding!!
Thanks Todd! It was very rewarding for sure.

Looks awesome!
Thanks man!

Exactly what we did to mine. Looks Great!
Thanks buddy! Yours looks great as well! :cheers:
 

Centurion07

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I'm in the middle of doing my own one and am finding it a total bitch to bend that mesh.

I noticed you haven't folded the edges over and have only glued along the edge of the plastic. Are you confident that's going to hold because I'd love to be able to do that rather than continue trying to bend it to fit.

Did I mention that stuff is a bitch to bend? :lol:
 

Marvelous D S550

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I'm in the middle of doing my own one and am finding it a total bitch to bend that mesh.

I noticed you haven't folded the edges over and have only glued along the edge of the plastic. Are you confident that's going to hold because I'd love to be able to do that rather than continue trying to bend it to fit.

Did I mention that stuff is a bitch to bend? :lol:
I've had mine on over 6 months now and no issues of the mesh coming off.. I did not bend the mesh. be patience and allow the epoxy dry.
 

Centurion07

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Awesome news.

Just need to find the right adhesive over here in the UK.

One question though: did you drizzle the stuff on to the plastic and THEN apply the mesh or tie it all down and put the adhesive on after and let it run through?
 
 




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