I wanted mesh to keep rocks from beating the hell out of my radiator, but I like the louvered grill that my RA came with. So, I decided to just put mesh behind the louvers.

First off, removing the grills. There are two fasteners on the top of each grill, with a pin in the middle of them. I used a knife blade to get under them and lever them up a little, then pulled them up the rest of the way up and out by hand. Then comes the fun part. There are four plastic barbed tabs that hold each grill to the bumper cover. You have to pull pretty hard to get them to come off. It helps if you start on one end.

Anyway, once you get them off, the rest goes like this:

All pics are clickable for a 1280x960 version.

Cut the mesh (this is gutterguard, available at most hardware stores) to length.


Lay the mesh on top of the back of the grill, and trace a line along the edge with a marker, so you know where to cut.



Cut along the line you drew, and you should end up with something like this:



Here's where you would paint either the mesh or your grill, if you want purty colors. I didn't. I just wanted mesh.

Mix up the adhesive of your choice, in this case, nice, black, industrial epoxy.



Apply the epoxy to the edges of the louvers where the mesh will touch it. Since you can't see the stuff I used in the pic, I highlighted the area in red.



Put the mesh on over the glue. Make SURE you line it up right the first time. If you have to adjust it (like I did on the first one ), you end up with epoxy on the visible part of the mesh. Then, either weight the mesh down, or wire it, however you want to do it, and let the stuff dry. I used a layer of cardboard, then a couple shop rags, another layer of cardboard, and a 10lb weight on top.

You should end up with something like this:



Here's one done, the other not:



And here's the final result:



Enjoy. I'll try to do the lower opening this weekend, but that'll probably be another thread.

 

that looks bad *** man, very nice work.

 

thats crazy!

 

Very, very excellent! I wanna do that,

 

That looks very cool! My only concern is losing the mesh at high speeds or maybe a high powered car wash spray. How did that epoxy turn out strength wise? If you really like it, what was the name brand of it?

 

I don't think it'll ever come off. Even if I wanted it to. It's on there that well. The epoxy I used was Conap Easypoxy, but JB Weld would probably work just as well. I like the Conap stuff because it mixes up black, where JBW mixes up gray.

 

Looks good, I like it! This member did it to:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/at...chmentid=35943

 

That looks SWEET on a red car. He did the lower mesh different than I did, though. His is more up front. Mine hangs back a few more inches. I cut the stuff to fit, then ziptied it to the plastic supports that are back in there. I'd post pics, but my flash card reader died a couple days ago, and the USB cable for my camera is at work.

That front bumper cover is a PITA to get off the first time. Now that I know how, it'll be fairly easy if I ever want to take it off again.

 

Nice work man!!!!

That looks awesome!

Gotta say

 

I really like the way that looks good job. What is the best way to get to the lower opening, do you need to remove the bumper or does the black plastic piece pop out somehow. i am interested in doing both.

 

You have to remove the bumper, then the piece comes off from the inside.

 

^^^^^ What he said.

I suppose it would be possible, if you had 11 elbows on each arm, and a stubby phillips screwdriver, you might be able to get the piece out without taking off the bumper cover.

Really, the bumper cover's held on by 6 bolts, and 30 bazillion plastic clips. There's also a wiring connector about in the center, underneath you have to disconnect. Once you get all those out, slide the whole thing forward about 3/4", and drop the ends of it down a little. Then the whole thing comes right off. You don't need to take out the headlights.

 

I took my front bumper off and did it that way, came out a lot easier.. in my eyes because i tried doing it without removing the bumper. There's another forum out about it right now listed below

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=92845

Enjoy

 

Well, I didn't feel like starting a new thread, so here's a pic of my completed mesh, and me in one of many tie-dye shirts. Clickable for 1280x960 version.



As you can see, I put the mesh all the way in the back. I used small, clear zipties to fix it to the plastic supports that are back there, and you can't see them unless you get REAL close to it. I know what I'm looking for, and can hardly see them in the larger pic.

Oh, and just for grins, here's one of my car sans front bumper cover:



Enjoy!

 

yea that's the method i tried the first time.. but being me with my inability to cut things to fit into slots without a template it didn't work. heh, so instead i went ahead and did it the hard way. I gotta say though Myszkewicz it came out really nice with the top and bottom. Props to ya