How to fit a custom front grille on your car

Materials needed:

  • Phillips screwdriver
  • Flat head screwdriver
  • Dremel tool (nice to have, but you don’t really need one)
  • 8mm socket
  • 10mm socket
  • 1/4″ expanded steel (you can get this stuff from just about any welding shop)
  • Something to cut the mesh with (I used tin snips)
  • Some cardboard to make templates of the grill openings
  • 1/2″ screws (You’ll only need about 2 or 3)
  • “Liquid nail glue (you can get this in the shower caulk aisle at your local hardware store)
  • Simple Green or any other VERY GOOD cleaner
  • Wire brush (or other hard bristle brush)
  • Primer (If the paint you are using requires it. I used Rustoleum brand)
  • Paint (whatever colour you want the grill to be)
  • Clear coat

NOTE:

Before you get started and start tearing into your bumper, I would like to say that I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information below. I’ve done this to the best of my ability. I did this about 3 months ago, so some things may have been lost. I’m only human

1) Ok, first of all you’ll need to remove your bumper. There’s nothing to it. If you look inside your fender well, you’ll see a screw holding the bumper in place. You can use either an 8mm socket or a Phillips screwdriver. There’s one on each side.

2) Now use the flat head screwdriver to pop out the plastic plugs that run along the top of your grill. There should be 8 of them.

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3) There are 4 screws/bolts under the bumper that you’ll need to remove. Towards the middle of the bumper there are 2 10mm bolts that you’ll need to remove. They’re about 12″ back from the front of the bumper. The 2 screws you need to remove are on the outside of the bumper. If you’re not sure which ones, you’ll find out when you try to pull the bumper off.

4) If you’ve done everything above, you should now have a bumper in front of you that looks something like this…

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5) On the back of the upper grill you’ll see some screws. Remove these to pop off the top grill. Around the grill you’ll see a lot of small screws holding the 2-piece grill together. Remove these.

6) You should now have 2 pieces of your top grill. You can either keep the factory mesh or cut it out with a dremel or wire cutters. Don’t cut it out unless you’re sure you want to replace the grill with the mesh. Once it’s cut out, you’re stuck with it.

7) Since you’re in a cutting mood anyway, go ahead and cut out all the horizontal and vertical plastic things in the bottom grill. You can even take out the number plate holder, as the s screws that hold the plate to the bumper itself are more than enough to hold it in place for those of us unlucky enough to have to have a front number plate. I left mine in, don’t ask me why.

8) Next up are the brake ducts. The brake ducts are a real tricky thing to cut out. Again, a dremel would be nice, but if you’re careful you can use a razor knife. Be VERY careful with the razor knife as you can (and if you’re not careful you will, like me) slip and cut a gash in the bumper. Do this for both brake ducts.

For anyone worried about water and their engine …. I don’t have an AEM BUT I do have my u-tube cut and I have NEVER had any problems with rain (VERY heavy rain) or car washes. And yes, I leave my engine running in the carwash. If you have an AEM, you’ll probably need to clean the filter a bit more after this mod to you bumper..

9) Now for the fun part of actually cutting the mesh. Someone told me that they use cardboard to cut templates of the grill openings and then transfer them onto the mesh. I never thought of this when I was making mine, so I pretty much went with the trial and error method of cutting off a little here and a little there until it fits. I strongly recommend the cardboard template method though. When you transfer the template to the grille, make sure you leave a couple of 2-3″ long tabs around the grille so you can attach the grill. For the bottom they should be about 2″ wide. For the brake ducts and the top grille, about 1″. These will be VERY important in holding your grilles in place, so don’t forget them.

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10) Test fit to make sure they fit. The top grill can be a little tricky. The grill should be placed over the front piece and the tabs bent around to face forward. The back piece will hold the whole grill in place when it is put back together. You need to make sure that the tabs you leave don’t get in the way of the factory screw holes.

11) Once everything is lined up and in place, you can clean and paint the pieces. I used plain green and a wire brush to get rid of all the grease and other crap that might have come from the welding shop. You want these parts as clean as possible. I used Rustoleum paint, which doesn’t require primer and is a very tough paint. This step should take some time because the more coats you use, the harder it is for rocks and bugs to chip the paint on the grill. I applied between 8 and 10 coats of paint and just as many coats of clear coat over the paint.

Leave everything to dry for a few hours before handling the parts. Again, don’t be in a hurry.

12) To secure the brake duct grilles, take the grill piece, push it through from the front and bend the tabs you have left up and over the plastic piece on the back of the bumper as shown above. As you can’t use screws to hold this in place, use A LOT of the liquid nail glue. I found this stuff to work great. Do the same for the lower tabs. The bottom grill CAN be a bit tricky. Make sure the grill is perfectly lined up along the front and then use a screw to secure the bottom tab in place. Do the same for the top tabs as you did for the brake duct tabs. Make sure you use plenty of glue.

13) Now for the top grill. You should place the mesh over the front part of the grill with all the tabs facing forward. Now take the second piece and place it over the first piece and the metal mesh. Screw the two pieces back together using ALL the screws you removed at the beginning. You shouldn’t need any glue to hold the whole thing together.

14) Allow the glue to dry, preferably overnight, and screw the bumper back on. If you have done everything right it should look something like this ….

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When you put the bumper back on, don’t forget to put the piece of polystyrene from the back of the bumper back in. I’ve done this and it sucks. Your bumper will have no support and will start to sag in the middle. Use electrical tape to hold the piece in place as it WILL NOT stay in place by itself.