The custom Grille so far...

[SLAMMED_C]

Well I had high.. real high hopes of making a grille for my car some time ago!.. and I started differently by modifying the stock chrome frame, I cut the bottom off and started to work the bottom so it looke dlike it was meant to be only 3 sided.. ive kinda gone away form that idea now and concentrated on a different approach.. although done by others. I did mine slightly different. instead of just putting the mesh in the opening of the chrome frame, I completely made the grille out of mesh. no chrome frame.. just mesh for the entire opening.
I have plans for another grille soon too, but need to buy some material for that to start building it.
and this one isnt finished either.. need to do a couple things to it to finish it off, so I can mount it.. and of course paint it BLACK!
It started off as flat piece of mesh.

The begings, taking shape:




Test Fiting:

[Cru328prod]

looks great.......i wanna make oneeeeeeeeee........hey do u still have those sills for sale still....whats all needed for them?

[jnolte]

if somehow the mesh coould be of higher,thicker quality. The concept is great i just keep on seeing chicken wire, ive been looking for good mesh like on benltleys and strut grills

[tinter101]

I think it looks pretty cool and very well made. Nice job.
How do you open the hood now?

[SLAMMED_C]

Originally posted by Cru328prod
looks great.......i wanna make oneeeeeeeeee........hey do u still have those sills for sale still....whats all needed for them?

Thanks. youre talking about the lighted door sills?
you just need to buy the light up pad part. the kit includes the fornt sills for illumination, the chrome rear sills, and the wirirng harness.

Originally posted by jnolte
if somehow the mesh coould be of higher,thicker quality. The concept is great i just keep on seeing chicken wire, ive been looking for good mesh like on benltleys and strut grills.

yes i agree.. the quality of mesh could be of higher grade.. but I dont know where to get it. this mesh I used is actually the same mesh supplied in aftermarket body kits, to fill the openings.
but indeed the mesh could be of higher quality, just help with the look. it may look better when its painted?.. or if I were to use some sort of thicker coating on it to kinda hide the pooper quality of this mesh?

Originally posted by tinter101
I think it looks pretty cool and very well made. Nice job.
How do you open the hood now?

Thanks! lol.. havent figured that part out yet. still in the R&D stages!.. Im either going to cut a small slit in the mesh for the stock tongue to pop through.. or Im going to cut down the stock tongue slightly and drill a hole into it so I can insert a hook through the mesh to pull the latch. not sure yet though.

[c280nz]

Originally posted by jnolte
if somehow the mesh coould be of higher,thicker quality. The concept is great i just keep on seeing chicken wire, ive been looking for good mesh like on benltleys and strut grills

what he said^

i used to have a grill sortof similar to this on my car,
but i left the very outside chrome surround.
to open the bonnet all i did was put a small piece of tie wire out and did a loop over one of the little cris-cros bits in the mesh and then back. and you couldnt see it at all, even when id pop my bonnet to the intermediate stage were the wire poked out just enough to grab the loop it was still hard to see cos the wire was only fine and the same colour as the mesh,
this worked well

it might look alright painted black tho.
and you should keep going with the three sided one, that sounds cool!

[Section 8]

i dont like it but thats just my view it looks to "dun up honda civic" but its a breath of fresh air to al these advatergrades and black numbers
peace

[DRM]

nice idea! not a big fan of the chicken wire but good for R&D like you said, I guess you could contact some places that restore old british cars and see what kind of mesh they use?

some continental mesh would look excellent!

[trymonlam]

i think a closer knit mesh, like the ones on jaguar XJR's would be great. yes painted would be nice. in you can make it sit a little further into the car might be good as well.

[Section 8]

mabee if it was black?????

[jnolte]

okay if you paint it black its going to blend in with the negative space behind it and all your gonna see is that support bar behind the mesh, that would be ugly

[kevinzorz]

paint that black too

[RemoLexi]

im sorry if I sound negitive but im not feeling this at all. its just missing without that center piece there.

[NEA-4311]

You really cant rice up the grill more than that. This is it. Please reconsider it dude. It doesnt look good at all IMO.:dead:

[SLAMMED_C]

thanks for all your input.. good or bad!!
but I will follw through with this and see how it looks when its done.

and I do have plans for another grille.. different route with my next idea.

[NEA-4311]

Thats good for me then! Experiment all you like!

[benzofanatic]

i wounder if you could buy that Bentley grill insert and then cut it to fit the 202?

might be difficult or costly to be practicaly though.

[jnolte]

Originally posted by benzofanatic
i wounder if you could buy that Bentley grill insert and then cut it to fit the 202?

might be difficult or costly to be practicaly though.

im sure the oem bentley grill costs as much as a 1994 c180 with 200k on the clock

[strictlyspeakin]

For what ever it might be worth.
I found this in my travels



Here's what they say about it.

Honeycomb Mesh Grille Kits. This is not the cheesy mesh you can buy at the hardware store. This is 1/4" Perforated Aluminum. Available in milled aluminum or powder coated black. Contact us for Applications from $40.00 and up

[Cru328prod]

im sorry but honey comb would look ugly on a benz.......i don't care what anyone says........thats why there on fords

[LeftCoastBias]

Originally posted by Cru328prod
im sorry but honey comb would look ugly on a benz.......i don't care what anyone says........thats why there on fords

and audi's and several other sports cars.

[SLAMMED_C]

Originally posted by strictlyspeakin
For what ever it might be worth.
I found this in my travels



Here's what they say about it.

Honeycomb Mesh Grille Kits. This is not the cheesy mesh you can buy at the hardware store. This is 1/4" Perforated Aluminum. Available in milled aluminum or powder coated black. Contact us for Applications from $40.00 and up

thats pretty cool.. but thikn the gaps are too big for the 202, if they had something smaller? whats the site you saw that on?

[rman]

Originally posted by Cru328prod
im sorry but honey comb would look ugly on a benz.......i don't care what anyone says........thats why there on fords

lol my ford vs your 202 any day of the week. HP, TQ, performance, resale value, exclusivity. It's got leather, climate control, moonroof, etc.

Only thing the 202 will ever be better at is handling, but my ford ain't no slouch either.




p.s. the honeycomb grille on my first ford truck looked 100x better than the stock "file folder" grille on the 202



vs.

[K_Sport Driver]

this looks exactly like what I did on my car for which I was massively flamed. Good to know people have become a bit more receptive on this forum. I took it off because there wasn't really a good way to route the hood release through it and it didn't look that great after 2 weeks of having it on.

[rman]

Originally posted by K_Sport Driver
this looks exactly like what I did on my car for which I was massively flamed. Good to know people have become a bit more receptive on this forum. I took it off because there wasn't really a good way to route the hood release through it and it didn't look that great after 2 weeks of having it on.

come on man, don't give yourself that much credit.