Well, after the horrible winter-weather in toronto lately, i decided to put on a custom grill kit mainly to protect the radiator fins but also to make the car look nice.
So i first started by buying 2 sheets of gutter guard (made out of aluminum so it wont rust). I also got 2 tubes of white epoxy to stick the mesh to the front bumper.
When i got home, i took started to take the bumper off (special thanks to those that walked me through this process, you know who u are!). It actually wasn't that hard, just about 8-10 pop rivets that can be pryed off with a flathead screw driver and a couple screws.
After the bumper was off, i cut the mesh to the size that i needed to fill the holes (i thought that the foglight holes would match better if they were filled with mesh too). *note* Most people cut the 3 verticle bars between the bumper off, but i wasn't sure if they were supporting bars, so i decided to leave them on. Anyways, i found a way to weave the mesh through the back, infront of the 3 bars and behind the licence plate mounts, so it seemed to hold it perfectly (i probably didn't even need epoxy, but thought that it would hold it just in case, so i just put on a bit).
After that, I used a cardboard cutter type of exacto knife to cut out the foglight holes. People say that they are hard to cut out, but i found that it was quite easy. The material is actually almost a rubbery-plastic, so it cut quite easily.
Once the foglights were out, I sanded the edges with fine-grade sandpaper to smooth out the edges. Then i cut 2 more squares of mesh and put some epoxy on each corner and let it sit for the night with weights on top of it.
The next afternoon, the bumper was ready to be put back on. It really did not take me much time at all now that i was framilliar with it (about 20 minutes to put back on). And then I was done! I think it looks pretty good considering this is the first time I have ever worked on a car. Tell me what you guys think (i will try to post more pictures when it is bright out)
Oh yea, some things to watch out for:
1) make sure ALL the screws are out before you pull off the bumper
2) Be careful with weaving the mesh in the front grill part; it can scratch the paint easily if you are clumsy
3) Dont put the epoxy to the very edge of the foglight mesh pieces; if you look closely, on my left foglight space, you can see a bit of white stuff at the corners, that's the epoxy. If this happens it isn't the end of the world, I am just probably going to either try to sand it out or if i can't, use some touch-up paint on it.
that's about it! tell me how you like it!!
Any questions are welcome!
So i first started by buying 2 sheets of gutter guard (made out of aluminum so it wont rust). I also got 2 tubes of white epoxy to stick the mesh to the front bumper.
When i got home, i took started to take the bumper off (special thanks to those that walked me through this process, you know who u are!). It actually wasn't that hard, just about 8-10 pop rivets that can be pryed off with a flathead screw driver and a couple screws.
After the bumper was off, i cut the mesh to the size that i needed to fill the holes (i thought that the foglight holes would match better if they were filled with mesh too). *note* Most people cut the 3 verticle bars between the bumper off, but i wasn't sure if they were supporting bars, so i decided to leave them on. Anyways, i found a way to weave the mesh through the back, infront of the 3 bars and behind the licence plate mounts, so it seemed to hold it perfectly (i probably didn't even need epoxy, but thought that it would hold it just in case, so i just put on a bit).
After that, I used a cardboard cutter type of exacto knife to cut out the foglight holes. People say that they are hard to cut out, but i found that it was quite easy. The material is actually almost a rubbery-plastic, so it cut quite easily.
Once the foglights were out, I sanded the edges with fine-grade sandpaper to smooth out the edges. Then i cut 2 more squares of mesh and put some epoxy on each corner and let it sit for the night with weights on top of it.
The next afternoon, the bumper was ready to be put back on. It really did not take me much time at all now that i was framilliar with it (about 20 minutes to put back on). And then I was done! I think it looks pretty good considering this is the first time I have ever worked on a car. Tell me what you guys think (i will try to post more pictures when it is bright out)
Oh yea, some things to watch out for:
1) make sure ALL the screws are out before you pull off the bumper
2) Be careful with weaving the mesh in the front grill part; it can scratch the paint easily if you are clumsy
3) Dont put the epoxy to the very edge of the foglight mesh pieces; if you look closely, on my left foglight space, you can see a bit of white stuff at the corners, that's the epoxy. If this happens it isn't the end of the world, I am just probably going to either try to sand it out or if i can't, use some touch-up paint on it.
that's about it! tell me how you like it!!
Any questions are welcome!
