Custom Grille v3.0

[Subiel94]

i like that grill. i want it. but badgeless. lol

[originalcyn]

That might be possible. This one was still just a test. Depending on how the last one turns out this one might be up for sale. The badge is just double stick tape anyways, i can take it off pretty easily.

[SILINC3R]

I think it looks good. and try not to worry to much about what others think, in the end its about what you want.

[Subiel94]

im not saying it looks bad with the badge its nice. my car is badgeless tho. so therefor id want it without the badge. lol just saying.

[originalcyn]

lol, the badge is there for now. it's also a test. basically i'll run it around like that for a couple weeks and see if i like it. Then i'll try another configuration and see how that one goes.

[Subiel94]

ok great work on the grill tho. it looks professional. i wish i had the time a patience to do it to mine.

[Apex3]

Cool! thanks for the link Apex. have you ever used their stuff?

I'll prolly just get some double stick tape and roll around a week at a time with the different combination of badges and see which i like. this grille is still just a test, so most of the badges can't be permanent on it.

I haven't tried it myself, no, but it's really popular on other forums, tons of people on bimmerforums have used it, and I'm sure nasioc as well, you can google the name too and it'll show some cars that used it.

Grill looks great btw!

[originalcyn]

Thanks Apex, i'll prolly give them a shot next time around.

Here's a photoshop a friend did for me of the grille with body color:

[Subiel94]

if the car was clean it would prolly look pretty sweet. lol

[originalcyn]

lol, maybe. It snowed a couple weeks ago and i haven't washed the car since then. If i do the chrome strip on the grille as the body color it might look ok. photoshopping isn't really the same. In anycase, the current one will stay black and the next one i'll try body color on.

[Subiel94]

Haha I understand man. When it snows it's really a hassle to wash the whole car bc it ices over. Lol

[originalcyn]

Yeah, oh well, lol. Grille will go on when the alternator goes in, which is, hopefully, soon.

[magicmike]

Looks awesome!

[originalcyn]

Thanks mike, I'm hoping to have better pictures by mid next week. I'm waiting on a part to finish my alternator install, and i wanted to install the grille at the same time.

[originalcyn]

going on this weekend. pictures soon.

[originalcyn]

Newest reiteration:

Grille v2.5

All the paint on the chrome trim piece chipped off, but this time i used plastidip for it and sanded it down better, trying to get the chrome off. Hopefully it will stay painted this time...

Also, tried painting my LS badge, which kinda turned out like crap, but it could be worse.

[SILINC3R]

Looks good, might freak the STi guys out. They'll be like oh shit what's an LS!

[originalcyn]

Yes, because STi guys care about other subarus besides STis. lol.

[evolutionmovement]

Or almost any other cars at all. They're among the worst of the close-minded, blinder-wearing, uncreative, boorish and boring douchebag kind of so-called car guys that I hate, which seems to be the vast majority of people so labeled. There's a reason I have no close friends that are "car people" and that this board, though my wagon hasn't run in over 5 years, is the only car one I go on.

[beatersubi]

Yeah, they're almost as bad as Bowel Movement Wonder fanbois.
I once saw a C/L ad for a rebuilt-titled 318 rockin' a M3 body kit and an asking price higher than an equivalent, good-condition, M3. In the description, the seller even went so far as to say that the rebuild made the car worth more. Douchebags, indeed.

On topic, grille looks really good. Especially compared to my attempt.

[originalcyn]

Thanks, though, it doesn't look particularly fantastic in person. In any case, it's sufficient until i do v.3

[originalcyn]

Alright, the time has come to redo my grille. Hopefully I learned a few things from the previous experience, and this one will be better.

All we've got so far is cut out and sanding. It's a pretty rough cut out, using a small hack saw or something like that. It wasn't that important to get all the way down to the surface, as that can be dremeled or filed out.









Once it's cut out, I filed down the raised plastic parts until it was mostly flush with the remaining surface. It went a lot quicker this time as i used a dremel rather than doing it by hand.







Last time this post gave me a ton of issues with the mesh. As you can see in earlier versions (specifically v2.0) there's a hole in the mesh right in the middle. That was from trying to fit it around this post. This time i dremeled it out almost complete to avoid having the same issue.






Next I have to figure out a way to fill the triangular holes on the side. Last time I used fiberglass as a back and resin as the fill. I feel like that didn't work as well as i needed it to. Despite tons of finish sanding, the triangular holes were always visible through the paint as raised surfaces. It's almost like they were fine when i painted, and gradually worked their way up. This time I think I'm going to use some kind of mesh back and 5 minute epoxy, or maybe a glazing putty. We'll see.

[cj91legss]

Just an fyi, if glazing putty is more than an inch thick, it'll crack.

[originalcyn]

Thanks CJ, that's good to know. I was looking at evercoat glazing putty, but i'm still not sure which route to go. I can fiberglass and resin again, or i can epoxy, but i don't know what to use for the backing support. I was hoping glazing putty would let me build up a nice base on the back, but that's starting to sound doubtful. I can also try and make an abs slurry. So we'll see i guess.

[cj91legss]

I think fiberglass would be your best bet.

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