Just a little teaser for you.......

what you think??

mate ive been toying with puttin r32 grille mesh in there too

cant tell , need more pics from further away

maybe !!! 

need to see it further away, people are lucky to get a complement frrom me, its rare.  show us tomorrow, im offski.

No bothers taking out the grills now at all.

some better pics:

Go for it,keep us updated,i was originally going to do the grille like you but then opted to do the lower grilles instead,im thinking that having them all done might be a little bit too much mesh but would be interested in seeing the result all the same.

Shane.

i've been putting it off cos i was trying to work out a way of securing them to the bumper, but to also make them removable, on the outside vents, so i can get to the bumper screws. What i came up with was to drill some holes in the underside of the vent cavities, use some countersunk screws or just little plugs, with the structure of the mesh part folding over the top edge of the vent cavity behind the bumper, with a nut or some securing thing which the plug or screw goes into, to hold it into place, while also letting me remove them so i can get to the bumper mount screws.

as it involves drilling my bumpers i was gonna wait until i'd done my smoothed bumpers but thinking about it as i write this, i can drill my current bumper as the holes would be hidden by the standard vents anyway.

think i'll nip and get some mesh this weekend and get started on it.

just thought i'd let you know, eventually got my mesh, just working on the way i'm going to mount it to the back of the bumper now, i need to attach some 'arms' to come out over the back of the vent so i can attach the mesh. probably going to (semi)permanently glue the middle vent in, and use some small nuts and countersunk headed bolts to secure into the top edge of the outside vents.

actually, another thought is to use very small zip ties, cut a small slot in the top edge, and hook through one of the honeycomb peices, ones which line up flush to the top edge. actually that won't work cos you've got to be able to tie them off when the bumper is on the car.

another option is to glue some ridges to the outside of the vent (i'm talking on the back of the bumper here, so out of sight) and on the 'arms' cut slots to lock over them. only thing is you'd need to be able to get round to them while the bumper is on the car. shall have a good feel round tomorrow (i say!)

if the weather stays fine i might get something sorted this weekend.

little bit of a 'snooks' (to anyone who gets that, a free bag of cashew nuts)

got my mesh made up today, cut to size, and given a test fitting on my spare bumper (that i'll eventually get round to smoothing!)

i intend to cut out the vertical supports on that bumper when its ready, however, i'm in 2 minds as whether to do it to my current bumper. was going to try 1st covering them with a little black vinyl, see if they blend into it once its fitted. obviously they'll be less obtrusive as it'll be a lot darker behind them. Don't really want to start modding my current bumper as I want to keep it stock so I can either sell it at a later date, or keep it to put back on if i sell the car, returning it to stock. we'll see what happens tomorrow when they go on the car.

That looks good stevo

Could you post a pic/description of how you attached the mesh to the bumper?

The grills look really good

Rststevo - where did you get those grills from? look alot like the r32 ones...

finished the vents up today.

incidentally this is my 3rd attempt at this post! better not accidentally close the window AGAIN!

made a few changes to the design. when you look on the photos of the side vent mesh, on the outside top corner its got the mesh there, i cut this back to the contour of the vent hole as it was fouling the crash bar. also, its too tight to do what i initially planned, which was to be able to put the side vents in with the bumper on, so i could still use the lower mounting screws, but with the current design thats not possible. however, the bumper is perfectly secure without them.

decided to cut off the centre vent supports with a stanley (and my palm, ouch!), as it didn't look very good with them there. tested it on my blue bumper (that i'll smooth sooner or later!) and it was to no detriment to remove them. touched up the bare plastic bits with touch up paint, completely unnoticable, but they will be perfectly smoothed on the new bumper.

as i didn't want to permanently stick the mesh to this bumper, i used double sided foam on the tabs, and its holding up very well - very strong stuff.

as i didn't want any light bits showing through, i made sure i painted black both the lower mounting bolts below the crash bar and the temp sensor mounting on the bumper.

anyway, less talk more pictures!:

this is all the mesh for the 3 vents cut to size, with the tabs glued on. i also gave it a few coats of matt black to match the colour of my top grille mesh, and also as cutting the mesh leaves some whited areas.

you can see the centre mesh mounted here (and my lovely working shoes - deathtrap!) with the tabs snugly fitting round the vent.

and here where the double sided foam is

the passenger side

and the drivers side

and a few of the finished article on the car:

cd123:

The grills look really good

Rststevo - where did you get those grills from? look alot like the r32 ones...

yep, custom made from r32 centre mesh, bit of a how to above!

thanks for completely hi-jacking my thread stevo!

the first pic you posted up of the blue bumper (the test one) i thought mmmm looks good,im not sure if it works on green though,i think it would work better on the likes of blue,red,silver etc where the mesh is more prominent due to the contrast of the black and lighter car colour in other words i prefer my one   only joking - shane

yeah, kinda didn't mean that to happen!

Thats the thing with the green, not a lot of stuff shows up, but I'm not respraying it! (yet...). Most of the time you don't notice it, which is kind of how i like it, the top grille isn't that noticable, quite oem+ in a way. Think it ties them in together better, it being consistent across the front. The main reason for doing it was to match the recess of the top grille

that looks good man i think i might have to do this with the bumper and the grill