northdublin
Petrolheads
this is the second one i modified and its quite easy with the right tools. listed below is some of what is needed.
hacksaw blade......preferably one that has a handle or grip
stanley knife
rough grade sandpaper
light grade sandpaper........p1200
hot glue gun
firstly you have to separate the centre part from the outer surround. the small vertical fins can be cut with a snips and sanded down later but the main inner body of plastic has to be cut using a hacksaw blade or if your luckey to have an air saw use that. the difficult part is cutting the plastic round the whole circumferance evenly. there are various tabs and little ridges of plastic that you can use to line up a piece of masking tape to get an even cut.
where the badge holder and the vertical fins are cut away from the surround they leave the circumferance uneven and have to be filled. if you glue a thin strip of plastic to the underneath first it give the filler something to sit on and make it easier to get an even finish.
these grilles come coated in chrome and i found the only way of removing this is with heavy grit sand paper, even the black parts of the grille have the chrome underneath. i did this dry but when i had sanded right down to the plastic i wet sanded the whole grille with p1200 paper.
the more time you spend wet sanding the better the finish will be when painted.
then with the grille face down put the mesh over the back and take an outline with a marker. i used a snips to cut the mesh leaving enough spare to be bale to bend 1 row of the honeycomb over the back of the surround. when i had the mesh in place i bent a few parts over the surround and spot glued it with the hot glue gun. make sure the mesh is the right way up and when its where it should be bend the rest of the edges of the mesh over the surround and hot glue along the whole lot. becarefull when bending the mesh not to distort the shape of the grille because before its glued its quite flexable.
grille half way trough cutting
grille and surround separated
grille sanded and mesh bent to shape of surround prior to gluing
edges of mesh glued to back of surround
mesh glued and cleaned with pre-paint wipes
grille primed
hacksaw blade......preferably one that has a handle or grip
stanley knife
rough grade sandpaper
light grade sandpaper........p1200
hot glue gun
firstly you have to separate the centre part from the outer surround. the small vertical fins can be cut with a snips and sanded down later but the main inner body of plastic has to be cut using a hacksaw blade or if your luckey to have an air saw use that. the difficult part is cutting the plastic round the whole circumferance evenly. there are various tabs and little ridges of plastic that you can use to line up a piece of masking tape to get an even cut.
where the badge holder and the vertical fins are cut away from the surround they leave the circumferance uneven and have to be filled. if you glue a thin strip of plastic to the underneath first it give the filler something to sit on and make it easier to get an even finish.
these grilles come coated in chrome and i found the only way of removing this is with heavy grit sand paper, even the black parts of the grille have the chrome underneath. i did this dry but when i had sanded right down to the plastic i wet sanded the whole grille with p1200 paper.
the more time you spend wet sanding the better the finish will be when painted.
then with the grille face down put the mesh over the back and take an outline with a marker. i used a snips to cut the mesh leaving enough spare to be bale to bend 1 row of the honeycomb over the back of the surround. when i had the mesh in place i bent a few parts over the surround and spot glued it with the hot glue gun. make sure the mesh is the right way up and when its where it should be bend the rest of the edges of the mesh over the surround and hot glue along the whole lot. becarefull when bending the mesh not to distort the shape of the grille because before its glued its quite flexable.
grille half way trough cutting
grille and surround separated
grille sanded and mesh bent to shape of surround prior to gluing
edges of mesh glued to back of surround
mesh glued and cleaned with pre-paint wipes
grille primed