homemade mesh grills....

so I've been searching the forums and most people who have done it themselves have just zip tied it to the already existing grill in the front or back. I dont like that look. I would like to have something similar to what JarvisB or NHarris had on theirs.
What I would like to know is if anyone has a write up for how the cut out the grids from the stock grill, smooth and fill, and then attached their own mesh grill( this is the main how to part im looking for).

Also, as far as the mesh goes, what would I use to 'hem' the edges in order to cover all the jagged edges?

so I'm sitting here thinking about this really hard (maybe too hard) and I'm thinking if I cut out the entire center grid, file and smooth, then cover with a filler, I can just sand, primer, and paint along with just installing the mesh from behind. Does that sound like it would work?

Sorry I missed this until now. The picture u actually have for my truck has a billet grille, but I do have a mesh grille now.

This picture was before I got my chrome strip painted. You can see how I dremeled out the center of the grille, and then I just drilled out mounting holes for the screws. I didnt file it down so if you get up really close it looks like crap behind the grille, but I don't care. All you need to do is paint the back black and no one will ever know.

Here's another good picture of my mesh grille. I love the look, and it looks really good with a ford emblem slapped on the center too


I took my emblem off because I realized it was crooked :

Good luck with your grille

Just the man I wanted to hear from! Thanks so much Nate! It's $50 for a replacement grill from the junk yard if I screw mine up too bad. Does your grill have a seam around the edges?

If your talking about what I call the chrome strip as the seam around the grille in picture 1, then the answer is yes. Not fully understanding what you mean by the seam

If you need more pictures of the grille and how i did it, I'll take some tomorrow afternoon.

notice the edges on here are exposed and jagged?


and Here they have a seam around them.


I've been trying to figure out what to use in order to clean up those edges.

ninobrn99 said:

notice the edges on here are exposed and jagged?

and Here they have a seam around them.

I've been trying to figure out what to use in order to clean up those edges.

Click to expand...

I bought mine commercially so I never had to deal with anything but dremeling, but I definitely understand what you mean now. What I think I would do (in this situation )is get some kind of a pattern drawn out (on wood or a plastic) that matches the grille for all except that outer edge of the OEM grille. The center of the grille is slightly recessed from the outer trim and right before the main "guts" of the grille, there is a little lip, if you cut that mesh exactly to match the size of the grille that's right in front of the lip, you will have an almost seamless or seamless look. I wouldn't worry too much about that outer seam, unless that is what you really want to do. In that case I may have to swing a few aisles over if I go to Home Depot soon and see what they would have to make a seam (to help you with ideas).

EDIT: Looking at my grille it looks like they have a very slim tube of easily bendable metal that went around the back of the edges.

For future reference, how are you cutting that mesh stuff? I tried to cut some today and it took me about 30 minutes to cut out two 6x8 rectangles. I was using tin snips and they made the edges very not straight. Thankfully it wasn't something that had to look pretty.

Thanks for the help Nate. Ill update my progress. Right now Im cutting out some wood to replace my broken visor clips (the ones that always break).

Nino

AlexSport'00 said:

For future reference, how are you cutting that mesh stuff? I tried to cut some today and it took me about 30 minutes to cut out two 6x8 rectangles. I was using tin snips and they made the edges very not straight. Thankfully it wasn't something that had to look pretty.

Click to expand...

I am just using wire cutters like these:

Now I feel dumb for not trying those... they hang on the wall just a few feet from the tin snips. haha I'm smart
Thanks!

You had both to choose from. i was going to buy the tin snips, but figured I'd try what I already had instead of buying them and not needing them. I have standard and mini sizes, so I can be a bit more precise.

Good call on your part. The tin snips were clumsy and hard to use because of their size, and the metal seemed to want to bend and slide between the blades. Getting it to work was hard; I finally found a grove though where the mesh seemed to be cut easier. The Little cutters woulda worked great now that I think about it. Even though it'd only cut 1-2 little mesh strips at a time, it would work better than cutting through nothing 90% of the time. And much more precise.

I bought a whole sheet, so I'm playing around with how I want to shape and bend it. I might try to find some flexible metal rod to use as a seam.

I bought the sheet cause the other crap they wanted to sell me was like $30 and was a 2' by 2'. This is like 3'x8' and was $9. I did this

Keeper0311 said:

I did something similar.

Click to expand...

air box mod? I would do it, but I wash my engine and Im scared water or the chemicals will get in.

Yeah. I was worried about that, but after looking at the set up and realizing I'm too lazy to probably ever wash the engine bay I figured it'd be fine.

A sawsall would be awsome to have right now!! At least I'm making progress:










Once I'm done with cutting out what needs to go, them i'm going to sand, smooth, and spray paint everything black except for the chrome lip and the Ford emblem. I'm going to grab a small hacksaw tomorrow and hopefully that does the trick. I'll also be doing a light spray tint on my rear taillights since I've already done my bug guard and 3rd brake light.

Well, this is the progress so far. Spraying a few more coats of black and clear, then back on the car it goes.

And there she is all said and done with. It's not nearly as nice as the production aftermarket grills, but for the price, it will do for now. I've also considered doing the rubber/plastic coating in order to keep it from chipping.