Home Made Speed Grille

[TarHeel085]

i had to break down and buy a haynes manual. its very hard to explain what to do. your better off goin and buyin a manual.

 

[X24]

haynes manual

I looked through a haynes manual but didnt see anything about removing the grille. What part of the book was it under??

 

[Stephen S]

I've got a question for all you guys that made your own speed grill. I just came from every hardware store and metal fab shop in town and the only thing I found that would work is the aluminum mesh gutter cap at Home Depot. The problem is, it's only 6 inches wide. Well the grill is taller than 6 inches so I'd have to cut it, splice it together and hide the seams to go across the whole grill. I've taken the front end off my truck before so I can get the grill off, no problem.

I would like to know exactly what mesh you guys used and where I can get it.

Campo, you said it took 2 pieces of the gutter cap to cover the grill right?? Did you use the 6 inch wide stuff? How did you hide the seam?

Curtis, I really like how yours looks. What did you use for the mesh?

 

[Campo]

I used 2 of the 6" mesh for the grille and 1 for the bumper hole, got it at ACE hardware.
the seam is hidden behind the middle Horizontal part of the grille.

hope this helps...

 

[Stephen S]

Campo,
I just finished putting mine on. I used the same stuff you used. To make the seam, I bent and about a half inch of the sides over all along the long side of two pieces of mesh. Then I hooked one piece into the other by slipping the bent parts into one another. I used a rolling pin to finish crimping the seam and to make it tight. The seam is in the middle so it hides behind the horizontal grill bar. Since mine is a 95, I had to cut a little bit out for the hood release to fit through. It breaks the pattern a little from far away but you can't even see it standing close.

Man it looks good!!! I've got it pegged down using all the little barb retainers holding the air funnel to the truck. I took the whole grill off to put the mesh on and that made cutting and fitting it really easy. The grill is still off the truck cause it got dark on me, but I am gonna try and figure a way to pull it a little tighter in the morning. It still has a little wave in it. Maybe when I put the grill back on it will tighten it up some. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for the idea!!

 

[X24]

grille removal

I removed the 2 screws for the parking lights but they wont budge. Help! I cant get them out and i dont want to break them by forcing them. Did the parking lights come out nice and easy for you guys or did you have to pursuade them? Please help me. I have been trying to do this for weeks but everytime I get a little further I run into another problem.

 

[TarHeel085]

disconnect the bulbs from them (if you can) and you HAVE to force them out!

 

[X24]

Finally

Ignore all my questions guys. I finally got the marker lights off.They were a B!TCH to get out. I had to pry on them and pull as hard as I could and then finally popped out. Anyway, I got it on and it looks good. Not a bad deal for 6 dollars.

 

[TarHeel085]

yeah i know it was, post some pics if you can.

 

[Stephen S]

Originally posted by yob_yeknom
Cool! I've been planning on doing the exact same thing myself. I'm just gonna leave the top two middle holes open so I can access the hood latch.

John, you don't have to leave the whole top holes open. I have a 95 too and all I did was let the screen fall over the latch release when I put the grill back on. Then I snipped the screen with scissors so the release stuck out. Then I just cut the pieces of screen away that I HAD to cut to let the latch move freely. The latch works fine and you can hardly tell that there is a hole there.

Got a pic of how mine turned out...

Dead Link Removed

 

[fords4life]

How long ago did you see this on the sportrac site?????

the reason I ask is that this "speed grille" commonly referred to as the "gutter guard grille" originated on www.rangerforum.net! Woohoo! Just had to giv'em credit, it's been around there for a minimum of 6 months prolly more like 8-10 monthns. Just glad to here that the word is spreading! It's a great lookin grille and cheap too.

Lata,
Nathan

 

[bigDerk]

Originally posted by fords4life
Just had to giv'em credit, it's been around there for a minimum of 6 months prolly more like 8-10 monthns. J

Try a couple years That was the first thing I did to my old Ranger, a 94 reg cab, back in early 1999. Since then I've done it on my Explorer, and now my 99 Ranger as well.

 

[fords4life]

wasn't sure, i've only been on the ranger board for about 10 months so it's been on there for at least that long. Reason I made the post is the original post on this thread was from a month ago. Where did you first see it??

 

[Campo]

Well let's make sure we give credit were credit is due, I've never surfed the ranger boards, there wasn't any around in 89 when I owned one... anyway I first saw this in Oct on the sporttrac site I guess it had been on there for a couple of months..

Damn they look good...

 

[fords4life]

Cool, I'm just glad taht the word is spreading bout stuff like this. One thing that's nice bout the explorer and ranger is that a lot of stuff is interchangable. Don't know bout you guys but even with us only having 2,000 members right now there are prolly 200+ posts per day on the site. We're growin everyday. Make sure and stop by. www.rangerforum.net

Lata,
Nathan

 

[Slick]

I've been wondering about this for a while, and this looks like a good place to post. I looked at your guys' speedgrilles and they look good, but i want one that goes all the way over the grill opening, like the speed grilles on the GMC sierras and like that? do you know what i am talking about? so you cant see the bars in there, just all grill across the front. let me know any info thanks

 

[fords4life]

If I understand you correctly, what you want to do is cut out the inside part of the stock grill so all you see is the gutter guard. right? If so all it takes is a little patience when cutting the plastic so it is clean and such. I know of at least one guy on the ranger board that has done this. If you go to www.rangerforum.net or .com, you can use the search option to look for stuff on gutter guard grilles or just grilles, and it's there somewhere. Hope you find what you're looking for.

 

[diablo5969]

Alright, I'm thinking of making a speed grill for my Ex over this weekend, and I was reading this thread, and I noticed that pretty much every single one of you who's done it has a newer Ex. Is it possible to do with the first-gen Ex's? Does anyone know if the process is any different, and if so, how I would do it?

 

[alphasylum]

You dont have to cut your grill out.....im getting this one that goes over it:

 

[diablo5969]

Not too shabby, but I prefer the look of the homemade speed grills on a 4x4.