Grille project

[HOODY]

I wanted want to change the look of my grille so thought it would be fun to modify my own at home.

Then I thought if I mess it up i'll be grill-less and regret cutting it...

So I bought a second hand grille from ebay for £5

Heres how it went....

If never written up a 'how to' so this may be a little vague, but I thought Id give it ago......

so here goes........

tools.

Hand saw
sand paper
fibreglass
bit of metal x2, we'll call this the bridge piece.
small self tapping screws
screw driver
drill
1 x bottle of beer.
bird seed.



http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/grille1.jpg


1.First off all I cut out the plastic mesh , and then cut out the middle bit. as seen in pic. Had to be so careful as what plastic your left with was very thin indeed near the top.

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/grille2.jpg

2. Feed chicken..

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/grille3.jpg

3. Cut out 2 piece's of metal (or plastic, whatever you want to use) big enough to bridge the gaps. Drill holes on each side of the gaps on the grill, place bridge piece behind the gaps and mark the bridge piece.
Then drill a recess in the holes on the grille to counter sink the screws.


4.Now place the bridge piece in place and the holes should line up.
Going in from the top (so you wont see the end of the screws after its finished) screw in through the grill and through the bridge piece until the screws are right in.

5.Mix up your fibre glass, and spread over the gap and screws.

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/grille5.jpg

6. After fibre glass has set sand it all down to get a smooth surface, this takes aaages! once smooth nows the time to have a bottle of beer and look back at your homemade grille and smile.

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/grille6.jpg

NEXT DAY.

Spray with primer filler, sand down again ready for painting.
Paint/Laquer.
Cut out some mesh, your choice, I used black mesh from ebay.. £5
Fit VR4 badge.

DONE! :)

Heres the finished grille. Hope you all like. :)

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad16/hoody001/vr4/grille%20project%20VR4/DSC00026.jpg

[crazyken76]

need bigger pics mt

[HOODY]

oh yeah....is that better m8?

[HOODY]

I must say, its my first attempt so its a bit dodgy homemadey styley.

[John TheAntique]

I like it. What's the name of your bird?

[HOODY]

Thankyou :) Her names Tilly

[scott.mohekey]

Very nice.

[sodge]

Nice, I like it :)

[HOODY]

Heres another pic of the finshed grille..

[VR4WGN]

very nice matey!!!! i wouldav tried doing it with a FL grille,itd look so cool.. i made a mold of the fibreglass grille but im so lazy....

[pezza]

Looks good mate.. much cleaner... I miust admit the PFL front end is starting
to grow on me again.. I need two bumpers to swap over from time to time :-)

I am waiting for someone to try knocking out the middle part of the facelift bumper ..which, I guess gives it the PFL look. I tried a quick n dirty ms paint hack on my old VR a couple years back.

[MarkSanne]

Grille looks great Hoody!
But... such grille are (or were) for sale, see:

uploaded/1887/1268818682.jpg

[HOODY]

I was halfway through doing the cutting and came on here and saw pete thompsons grille for sale..lol i did think oh bugger...

Didnt realise they did an 'open mouthed' type grille.

it was fun anyway. Apart from coffing up silver paint all afternnon, next time ill invest in a mask..:p

[peter thomson]

I was halfway through doing the cutting and came on here and saw pete thompsons grille for sale..lol i did think oh bugger...

Didnt realise they did an 'open mouthed' type grille.

it was fun anyway. Apart from coffing up silver paint all afternnon, next time ill invest in a mask..:p

Yes but you don't see that one very often so still a worthwhile mod

[HOODY]

cheers for all your postive comments :) :) :) :) :)

[Davezj]

i think the quality of you work and the attention to detail is great and i think you are right to make changes and personalise your car to the way you want it, but my personal choice would be the original style. however i might change my mind if i see it in the flesh so to speak.

i take nothing away from what you have done, it is a really good job. if we all liked the same thing the world would be a dull place. keep up the good work.

[Turbo_Steve]

Looks Great, very professional, wouldn't choose it for mine, but as Dave says it'd be boring if they were all the same.

Loving your work, dude.

[crazydriver81]

like it too. Nice one and good work!

Btw, what kind of mods you did to your headlights? Very tempted...

[HOODY]

Dave i know what you mean, the wife prefers the original grille, she says it looked more mean.
I keep looking out the window wondering what is the best, I like both, may just chop and change throughout the year , unpredictable looks for meets.lol
still shocked on how easy it is to change the vr4 badge over! top marks to mits on that design, just two screws and a plate.awesome.

Remember if anyone is thinking of doing this, please do it on a spare grille. maybe thats just common sense?

Crazydriver:The headlights are Lantsun HID Bi-xenon projector light lens kit. (with angel eyes)

you have to take the actual car light lenses off tho , fit them and re-attach with the paste that comes with the kit.

you get controller/ballast/ projectors/angel eyes.

Luckily for me the car was imported with them already fitted. The box they came in was left in the boot with all the original bulbs.

Just found a link thats on the box for you.

http://www.lantsun.com/index.php?controller=lantsun&action=list&parent_id=24




They passed the MOT too. which I was very very very concerned about.

[HOODY]

oh the fog lights have been changed to xenon too, to match the headlights. :)

[scottie2hotti]

how did you stick the grill mesh to the grill surround?

[HOODY]

I cut the mesh oversized to fit with kinda flaps that all bent round the bits on rear of the grille, holds itself in place. can use fibreglass on the flaps if you wish

[HOODY]

I wasnt happy with the paint, it didnt excatly match an annoyed me.. little things eh! so back to original grille now, at least until i find a paint match

[Ghost_2008]

I wasnt happy with the paint, it didnt excatly match an annoyed me.. little things eh! so back to original grille now, at least until i find a paint match

It will be highly unlikely you'll be able to match the silver any closer than it already is....... looking at the pics it seems very close........ however I tried to colour match a panel on my miss's FTO, which is silver....... no mater how hard I tried it wouldnt match....... I spoke to a friend who paints for a living, he seems to think that even in the factory, if a car which has just been sprayed needs a touch up, simply just respraying will not match the colour......... same paint same conditions.......

His reasoning for this was the angle at which the paint is applied, this is especially noticable with silver..........

Good luck but it looks good as it is.....

[HOODY]

cheers ghost, I did kind of guess colour match ... forgot to say that, kept running in and out of shop with a different colour silver to put up against the bonnet, I had 6 cans then it was down to elimination..and ended up with the best match by my eye. Car has had full respray (i think) found over spray underneath. Also close up the finish isnt very good as i sprayed it in my cold shed..lol ... may give it another go.

[Ghost_2008]

cheers ghost, I did kind of guess colour match ... forgot to say that, kept running in and out of shop with a different colour silver to put up against the bonnet, I had 6 cans then it was down to elimination..and ended up with the best match by my eye. Car has had full respray (i think) found over spray underneath. Also close up the finish isnt very good as i sprayed it in my cold shed..lol ... may give it another go.

So you dont know the paint code?

That will make it very difficult to match, as above silver is difficult at the best of times......... good luck...... I did manage to colour match my alloys which are gold by eye........

[HOODY]

no paint code. purely by eye. then going by the caps on the paint.
maite take it to a sprayer in the new forest to see if he can match it, dont really wana spend too much money on such a little project. however it would be nice to get some touch up paint anyway

[HOODY]

update... tilly passed away :(

[kiteman]

Firstly, great work on the grill.
RIP Tilly, what happened.
Though I'm thinking theres a windup here,
what with grill + chicken in the same post.

[HOODY]

grille still going strong however its not on car now, not happy with paint match.
Tilly not so strong, a fox found her. nothing left but a garden full of feathers.

[kiteman]

Have some rep for the good work on the grill anyhow.

[HOODY]

thanks kiteman!