Front Grille Mesh Replacement

[Dragonheart]

As the bumper was off today, said we'd fit some of the black mesh to the grille instead of the standard mesh.

01 - View of bumper with the standard mesh. (Got stuck behind a lorry carrying a load of round bales of hay the day before and the evidence is in the grille!).


02 - Back of the bumper and attachments for the mesh. Its only held on with screws and small metal plate things.


03 - Mesh removed.


04 - Mesh that was to be put in.


05 - Mesh fitted using the same screws but with large lorry hubcap washers in the bottom part, and using cable ties on the upper section of the bumper. The mesh was then trimmed back slightly from the bottom of the bumper.


06 - View of the bumper from the front with the new mesh fitted. Sorry for the poor quality of the image, flash was turned off.


All in all I like the way it turned out. Gives a nice look to the front of the car now. It seems easier to clean, and the cloths won't get stuck in the sharpness of the metal grille anymore when waxing. Easy to wash it too as its nice and smooth material. One thing which will really make the front look better now is a small rectangular number plate on the front, will show off the mesh a lot more too.

[Sebastian]

Nice work Marty ,
I remember when l did mine

[Dragonheart]

Theres a fair few FTOs going around Ireland I reckon with front grilles with that form of mesh in them.

[TopCat]

Looks great Marty, really like that mesh. You, Seb and Bernard have it anyway, and I was meant to do it on my old car, but never got round to it.

[Bernard]

06 - View of the bumper from the front with the new mesh fitted. Sorry for the poor quality of the image, flash was turned off.

Snap!

[Dragonheart]

Haha.
I notice you've powerwashed the yard outside the garage since you done your one too.

[colm_mcm]

Off to the FTO knowledgebase...

[crayzidane]

Yea iv had this mesh for a while really brings the car up to date

[Myfeckin FTO]

Where did ye guys get hold of the mesh?

[Bernard]

Ebay, good quality too.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/HIGH-QUALITY-RS4-PLA ... dZViewItem

[WelshFTO]

good job matey, my only worry is.... looking at the pic's/mesh, the holes look abit big, just big enough for sizeable stone to fit through and hit the radiator

[StewyD32]

Im just going to spray my one i got on at the moment black, as I was thinking the exact thing. I only bought the fto in Jan and had to replace the window and got 2 body chips because of stones.

[Dragonheart]

[quote="WelshFTO"]my only worry is.... looking at the pic's/mesh, the holes look abit big, just big enough for sizeable stone to fit through and hit the radiator[/quote]

Good point I suppose, the holes are definitely bigger than the standard mesh, but the mesh is also a lot deeper, its not made out of wire, its like a molded plastic type mesh instead, its probably just under half an inch thick maybe? Not 100% sure now off hand. But I would imagine that the added thickness and the angle that the stone would be coming at the mesh would cause the stone to rattle around a bit more first, losing its velocity before going inside the mesh, instead of just flying straight through at speed?

And thats what you call either an educated guess or a good bluff. :)

[paul2508]

slighty off topic, how did you remove the front bumper, i have removed the screws at the wheel arches ,the two main ones on top near radiator and the two under neath,where else is it being held. its doing my head in...

[Dragonheart]

Theres 2 large bolts underneath, presume you got them, you need a rachet spanner with an extended handle, you have to have the car jacked up to get at them, think its a 12mm rachet that gets them. Other than that, the only other thing to watch is giving it a good hard tug around the lights area, it comes away as its held on with little yellow plug type fixtures, its a bit duanting at first cause you dont know if its safe to pull it free or not but give it a good hard tug and it should come away.

[paul2508]

[quote="Dragonheart"]Theres 2 large bolts underneath, presume you got them, you need a rachet spanner with an extended handle, you have to have the car jacked up to get at them, think its a 12mm rachet that gets them. Other than that, the only other thing to watch is giving it a good hard tug around the lights area, it comes away as its held on with little yellow plug type fixtures, its a bit duanting at first cause you dont know if its safe to pull it free or not but give it a good hard tug and it should come away.[/quote]
where exactly are these bolts situated??

[Dragonheart]

You've got to lie under the car and look up, hard to describe exactly where they are, with a good light you'll see them no problem though, they're sort of half way between the centre of the bonnet and the wing and probably on the line of the front wheels (not a great description but cant do any better without jacking it up and getting under there sorry), I haven't any pics but maybe one of the other lads has, they're not hard to find though if you know their rough location.

[paul2508]

cool,cheers mate