seikx8

I bouth a roll of this grill from home depot a year ago that I was planning to use for my Teg, but ended up putting in my 8 instead :D

A whole roll can cover the entire 3 cars (Two oils cooler + Front air damp) which only cost $24. Look like aluminum, but I think it's some type of galvanized metal.

seikx8

This is the result:

seikx8

This is my design for the oil cooler.

seikx8

Test fitting . . .

seikx8

Make sure it fit in the OEM plastic cover. . .

SiMplyBluE

How about the air dam?? Any pics of how you mounted that?

seikx8

Red circles are threaded with screw. Blue are tap and tied with wire. One can do away with wire tie by have access bends overlap to the bottom and use OEM screws location; Which I didn't find out until I cut the piece, so ended up using wire tie :p

seikx8

This is the first attemp to mount the screen on the bumper, but didn't like the way it look around the fog light.

Omicron

VERY nice contribution, seikx8!!! :D

SiMplyBluE

Great work seikx8!!

Nubo

Finally took the time to do my grille project, both lower air inlet and oil coolers.

After agonizing between bronze and stainless steel mesh (here), I finally settled on the stainless steel, at 2 openings per inch. This can be purchased online in reasonable quantities from TWP INC. .

To fit the mesh I first followed the excellent instructions for front bumper removal here

The mesh itself was cut fairly easily with dual-pivot tin snips. It is stiff but bendable enough by hand to be workable.

There are several locations for the openings that present ideal locations for attachment - hollow posts along the openings. I used short self-tapping metal screws along with brash washers where needed to hold down the mesh. The oil coolers have 2 posts above and one below the opening and these seemed sufficient for mounting. For the larger lower opening there were only 2 posts, but additional attachments were possible along the top edge. The bottom edge was more involved. There is a triangular (rotor-shaped?) tab at the mid-point that was larger than a mesh opening. I cut a small notch which allowed me to press-fit the screen down until it locked upon the tab. Zip ties can be used at the bottoms of the 2 vertical struts. I happened to have "lightning yellow" zip ties but will probably change over to black . Finally, at the bottom outside edges I fashioned some hooks from thick copper wire and secured the mesh to some bolts that lie just outside of the opening.

All in all it seems fairly sturdy. It's not going to stop tiny stuff but my main goal is to stop things that would otherwise threaten rupture of the AC coils or oil coolers, while keeping airflow as high as possible.

Here are the attachment points for the oil-cooler openings

Nubo

Note - the lower post for the oil-cooler opening is not that deep. I used 3/4" screws and I would recommend even shorter for the lower posts.

Here are the points for the lower opening

Nubo

I haven't taken any pics of it installed outdoors yet, so for now here's a "flashlight pic" to give you an idea. It does have a bit of a rough look, which is actually what I was going for. Difficult to follow the lines of the fog lights with a mesh this large so I opted to keep a straight panel. The other option would have been to attach closer to the cooler itself and not to the bumper.

Anyway, here she is. I'll try to take a better outdoor shot maybe when she gets her Saturday bath.

Omicron

Another great job, Nubo! Well done, and a nice DIY too! Thanks for the contribution! :D

WHealy

Thanks for posting the pics. It's nice to see what's already present in the stock bumper. Great job.

Parmer8

I took off my bumper again to redo my oiler cooler and condenser mesh. I also removed my front grill and added a mesh. This is my cheap mod.

Parmer8

Another shot

Parmer8

I cut out the inside portion and formed the mesh inside the grill. It's zip-tied to the frame.

yanklemywankle

Now that looks cool!! Great job! In my opinion, regardless of the grill material, our front ends look best when all grills match. Because you changed the center grill, it freakin' looks awesome!!

Yankle

Omicron

NICE JOB!!! This is EXACTLY what I've been thinking of doing!

Could you do us a favor though and show a close up of how you zip-tied it to the frame? Thanks...

Parmer8

Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the zip tie location, but hopefully you can visualize what I'm saying. The last picture is of the back of the grill and mesh. The grill is about one inch deep. I formed the mesh to the interior of the grill. The edges of the mesh are bent to the shape of the interior contour. Imagine pushing paper down a bowl. The paper's edge conforms to the interior's shape.

The zip tie location is at the back edges. I just predrilled holes where I think the mesh could be push in. I moved the zip tie head where you can't see it at all. The heads of the zip ties does not touch the bumper at all since the grill does not fully insert through the opening. Hopefully this explains it.

I also pushed/hammered the center of the mesh out so it's not flat to give it a contour shape, like the original grill.

Of course you have to spray paint the foam piece black. Remember use a primer first so the paint will stick or each through the foam.

Nubo

Here's a daytime shot of the 1/2" mesh. Had to photoshop quite a bit to get the mesh out of the shadows, but gives a pretty good idea. The yellow zip ties have to go.

mikeb

damn
thats thick

Zoom2X

Did mine a while back and finally got around to taking pics. Here's the Oil Cooler Screen. The edging by the fog lamp is door edge molding. I got the screen as scrap from work.

Zoom2X

Here's the lower screen.