Grille Mod

hey guys, doing some mods to a spare grille thought i'd take some pics and throw them up....

tools required: saws, files and a dremel

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now just needs bog/fibreglass and paint

u make it look easy.....

a dremel is seriously the best tool for this...

what you talking about fred!! :) you just did the waic mods that have taken me 2 months to even get my head around starting!

i'll send you a waic and a modded grille and we'll trade tha skillz yo :D

hmmm...its a pity I didn't do the welding, my engine guy did it for me for a few bottles of bourbon.... it took awhile, thou. so I'm not sure if he'd be interested in doing it again. Or my wife for the mess I made of the garage with grinding everythere in tooling it up. Can I get my turbo in and if you haven't done it yet, send it up.... maybe....

hahah yeah its all good mate :D

just glad to see the waic idea is working out! very inspirational... funny we were thinking along the same lines too as i'd only mentioned it to Yom once or twice

got some paint mixed up for the grille today gonna see how well i colour matched it (mixed it myself, first time! - learning experience that one...)

made some more progress on this today

finished the body filler and paint!

just clear coat to go now and a buff and polish next week...

mmm bog

and again

sanded down flush.... dremel is useful here again

autobarn can mix this up for you... i think its pretty accurate and easy/cheap to do...

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plastic primer... probably didn't need this but had some lying around

don't forget the wax & grease remover!

1st coat of colour

4 light coats later

i think i'll end up doing this again, not 100% happy with it but overall its not a bad job

will use fibreglass next time i think, bit stronger than bog as i nearly cracked it putting the clips back in!

i like the look of it though!

here are some pics

more..

original and modded...

Are you thinking of any mesh (to hide the intercooler?) like the snaps with the micra as a background...

yeah will definately black mesh it! this was a good experiment but i'll definately be re-doing it as well, need to make it a bit stronger... also thinking i might get it sprayed if i colour code any of the other stuff and bad-boy a bonnet... just need to get spares of the above :D

cool. apparently u can get a new grill for $40 (Non nissan of course).... if you're a perfectionist......

just meshed it... will get a pic later on...

i won't need a new one i don't think, i can fix this one and just sand it back and prime so it's ready to go...

i'll leave it on for a bit see how it goes :D

you should atleast use fibreglass reinforced bog, the normal shit is only really for filling, not really joining, but it sounds like you already knew that :) p.s, if your going to do it again, use a guide coat over the primer, wet rub it back with something like 4-600ish paper, (depends what paint your putting over it) if you use a guide coat you'll be able to see whether the middle part of the grille is flush with the rest of it

thanks mr march! i was on a mega tight budget for this one, the weekend project when you've just cleared every debt to your name and still want something to do till pay day :D

i was happy with the colour coat, but not with the clear... i got the middle part less than a MM off where i wanted it to be... the curve of the plastic underneath actually seems to determine how flush it will sit, as i did a few coats of filler and sanded it back over and over till i got it close

in daylight it looks pretty good!! will leave it on until i get my hands on another grille and do the same again

its all in the preparation! will probly get a shop to 2k it with other bits when i colour code..

if your unhappy with the clear.. ie, got bumps, runs etc, you can colour sand it using 1500-2000 paper, keeping it wet as all the time, till you rub out any imperfections, then get some good cutting compound onto it, and polish fuck outta it. 2k isn't very hard to paint, and personally, i think you get a better job everytime. just make sure you cover everything in sight, and stick something up ya nose, cause everything will turn the colour your spraying, no matter how far away it is :)

it seems I'm gonna go through your guide smidge ;) again

What were you unsatisfied about - so i'll try to go the right way first time mate?

holy crap blast from the past...

just the paint mate, but it was all out of a can so can only expect so much


if you got good painting gear or mates etc then you can't go wrong

i got a few spare grilles here still if you stuff it up :D

actually, no i don't cause you can't post them! dens i still have your ecu.. my bad :(

grills are only $40 new from a parts supplier anyway....

Haha.. I'd be more keen for the grill rather than the ECU at this stage - already got my wiring sorted for the loom so no need for desoldering a female plug ;) So when you getting down here hmm? Haha..

---dens

if only they were useful cut in two, then i could get the thing to you

either way you have a store credit you can use for whatever

chuck an extra hundred on and buy the sr20 adaptor thingo i never used!!

slice , Bumper filler / fibreglass, sand, wax & grease remover, plastic primer , wet sand , undercoat , paint layers.. this ok fellas?

nice job mate

this is what it ended up looking like meshed and finished

Already got an almost finished one that was snapped in two, but it doesn't have the top part - just the bottom and the sides that go up. No need for an SR20 TB adapter - got something better ;)

So you/your mate aren't coming down here anytime soon? :(

---dens

smidge what about those bumpys, have they been coloured ? I'm about to colour mine but am a bit concerned cos drying time should take around 4 days which I would minimize to 2 days but can't drive the car during such hours...which is devastating.. :(

The original grill is very difficult tu cut!

I cut it with an hot knik

I done a similar mod on my old k11, but i cut to the fron instead. Worked ot well, here is 2 pics

Good work, that came up well. :)

your micra looks happy.

sweet im had the same idea to do this now ive seen it been done gives me all the confidence to it now :) sweeeeeeet

When I did it I sticky taped the holes applied fibreglass on the underside, waited for it to dry then applied bog once I removed the tape and cut off all the excess. Fairly easily that way. No doubt the bog will break unless its the fibreglass bog.

Looks like a top job.

I have acquired a 95 White Micra LX a week ago and this, well similar, grille mod is the first DIY project. It is still in progress but should have it on the car by the weekend.

Rather happy with the end result that is featuring HSV grille mash! Now Im awaiting the arrival of the new badge... an Autobot logo. :)

ONG i hate the autobot logo's on cars. So many of them up here where i live. So all you did above was to remove the flutes yeah then clean and paint?

At first was gonna cut the middle piece out but then thought about the Autobot logo. Odd, I dont think I ever saw a car with an Autobot logo in Radelaide or may be I just haven't looked hard enough. You may have just given me a complex about my idea...

In the end end, horizontal flutes and Nissan logo removed, all patched, painted and the black mash (from a HSV grille) inserted at the back. Mash does not look as obvious in the picture as it is in real life.

I like it like that but its your car. Where i live in Darwin mate there is about 50 cars i know of with transformers stuff on them ranging from Commodores to Hummers. There is a VL commo turbo that has it painted on his bonnet in a pearl color so when it hits the sun you can see it. Another has the big cube thing on his bonnet with the crew standing around it touching it. Its been done to death up here but if its not down there yet go nuts. I like the grill but you do know that putting anything HSV or Holden on a micra does make it go slower and become very unreliable.

At first I was going to put the Bentley alike waived chrome mesh (like in the pic) but was way too heavy and cumbersome to fit. The piece to cover the openings was almost 2kgs in weight, no kidding.

In the end it was the light aluminium mesh that was as light as the horizontal flutes cut out so overall I have preserved the low weight of the car rather than adding to it. I guess that should make me go as fast if not faster... :)