walight01

here are pics of my grill. when i put it on the upper left corner decided to fall off of the bottom grill. i was so pissed. its just the cheap rain gutter mesh but i think it looks good, anyone know where i can buy some 16ga wire mesh or something???

N4GIVN

Hello NewB here, this is my first posting YEAH!
I've got the same stuff (rain gutter meshfrm Home Depot) sitting in my house waiting to go on my 2003 P5 grill. Quick question about the installation. For the front upper grill did you have to take all the plastic stuff out (tool tray looking thing right behing the grill between the grill and the radiator stay) or does the grill section just pop out? Thanks for the help in advance and take it slow.. \\mn//

walight01

i put the mesh over both grills, but i took them both off to intall it, the top piece was extremely easy but the bottom is a pain. the top grill comes off with only a few screws but the bottom grill sux, it hass alot of clips(which i broke b/c i'm impatient). i used black ties but a silver wire is much better to use b/c its not visible. the top grill i put the wire over the entire grill and tied it in the back, the bottom grill is too big so i put the ties through the front grill and tied it like that, if you look close you can see the black ties on the bottom grill.

walight01

the only thing i don't like abuot it is that its a thin mess that bends and breaks way to easily, so when using the wire or ties, becareful and be gentel.

N4GIVN

Sounds good. Thanks for the info. Will probably work on it this weekend. I hope the weather gets better.

browntrout

I couldn't find anything that great at home depot for a grill. They only had chicken wire and some other square stuff. As much as I hated doing it, I shelled out the 40 (CDN) for thicker grill material. It's such a rip off. The cost of making this stuff I'm sure is like 50 cents for the amount they gave me. I got it at a local performance parts store. They all had it. Some were asking 70 bucks for it!!!

Anyways, it looks good. I have a 2000 Protege. It has 2 little plastic supports. I guess that join the upper and lower part of the lower opening. I was going to cut them off but the way I did it, it would leave a gap. It still looks really good.

Anyways, as far fastening the grill, I took the bumper off and bent around in the inside and then used a shitload of polyurethane to glue it on. It's holding up pretty good.

tttP5

does the more dense mesh from hd reduce air cooling compared to the stock grill, since less air is going in??

also how do you treat the sides of the grill so that it doesn't scratch the paint in your front bumper due to minor vibrations and shakes?

walight01

the cooling isn't affected, i mean it possible could be due to less air flow, but it still gets plenty of air flow to cool the system, also on my bottom grill i cut ir fit on the origanal black mess so it can't move.but the top piece i didn't go anything, one i'm getting my front end repainted soon anyways, second the only place it would scratch is under the grill were noone sees it anyways.