I got this idea for my car that will look really cool, I just don't know exactly where to go to get the product I need to do it.

I am going to take off my fog lights and spray the grill a semi-gloss black or flat black, to cover up the red bowtie in the middle. Then I am going to find a thick mesh material (chicken wire or something of the sort?) and spray it black, and cover up the grill area with it. Then I will top it off with a Z28 emblem offset on the driver side somewhat like what you see with the 4th gen guys running a 1st gen badge on the driver side of their grill, except I want mine to be a silver 3rd gen Z28 rocker emblem.

Rough MS Paint example of my idea (obviously doesn't show the detail of mesh):





So the question is, where do I get a thick metallic mesh material that will look good with this? I kind of want to steer away from the cheap products offered at AutoZone, but if that's all I can find that will work I might have to try it.

 

try a hardware store. Home hardware, home depot, that sorta thing.

 

Do you think they might carry a chicken wire that would be thick enough to cover up most of the area behind the grill, and maybe when painted black it would look like an automotive mesh?

 

Here ya go

http://www.spwindustries.com/newprod.php

Scrol down, they have black diamond shape mesh and black honeycomb mesh

I like the diamond more than the honeycomb, unless I had a trans am.

 

Hmmm I wonder how small the diamonds are per square inch. I found another website thanks to a friend, I think it's customcargrills.com and they have a ruler at the bottom of all the pictures. I want to make sure I get something with a small, tight pattern to cover up the inner grill. I want it to look well thought out.

 

I know that it will be done right Nick but I am just not feeling it, now how about putting the it behind the grille, and remove the fogs? There was a tread on here were it was done and it look pretty cool. Put like I sid I sm sure what ever you deside to do will look good

 

I used gutter guard from home depot that comes in rectangles to do what you want to do it is sortof like a diamond shape.

 

what about doubling up cheap stuff and offsetting to tighten the pattern?

 

I thought about that as well. I'm going to hit up AutoZone and Lowe's this weekend and if I don't find something I think will look good I will order something online.

Sean, you know how I do. I'll make it right, even if it's not right on the first try. And I didn't want to do it where the fogs go because I want it to be different from anything else you'll see.

 

now deside and get it done!!!! LOL

 

I can't do anything till this weekend. My schedule is pretty busy today and tomorrow.

 

Just post up the progress pics once you start

 

Yeah definitely post pics, I'd like to see how this comes out.

It'll make me decide whether or not I want a grille or just straight open for airflow.

 

check on ebay for mesh grille material. I bought one for like 20 bucks i think and it was NICE and i built a grille for my first camaro with it.

 

Well I ordered my mesh tonight. I got it powder coated black, and it's a real small hexagonal pattern. I should have it in a few days. Now I need to find a silver Z28 rocker emblem like the ones that are on my car. I just need one!

 

I think that'd look really good actually. Modernize the front end a bit without being too over the top. Definitely post pictures.

 

Found you an emblem but its a bumper one.Buy it now is $47.00!!!Yikes!Plus 7 bucks shipping.Ouch.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/85-87...=p4506.c0.m245
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OH!!!!!Even better!!!0 bids ends in 1 day and bidding starts at $5.Shipping is high but.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CAMAR...=p4506.c0.m245

 

A little bit of progress today, not much but a little bit. I took out the fog lights and the grill to paint the grill black. Yes I know it was already black but it was faded and it had a red bowtie in the middle. It's all black now so it will blend in behind the mesh really well. I haven't figured out 100% what I'm going to do with the wiring for the fog lights. I'm probably just going to get a small bit of plastic and tie it around the end of the pigtail and tuck it back there real good. I don't want to cut anything in case I want to put the fogs back on the car. In some of the pictures you can see the black plastic shield that is directly below the front valance on the bumper. I'm going to have to remove that temporarily in order to be able to mount the grill back on the car after I cover it with mesh. So I'm going to have to mount it from the back side. Shouldn't be a problem, I scoped it out today and it looks like there is plenty of room back there to work my hands with a socket.









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Yea I saw that second one. It wouldn't be too bad if they weren't raping me on shipping costs. That's absolutely rediculous. I can find a better deal than that and probably one that isn't all scratched up.

 

quick question:
what are you doing with your fog lights and can i buy them from you if you dont need them anymore?

the previous owner of mine started to make a cold air intake in place of the foglights but didnt and now i have a big open space...


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cool project btw,
good luck getting it to work.
i know how it feels to have a vision but no way of doing it exactly the way you want.

 

Where do you buy any of their stuff? I see no way to buy anything....

 

Actually I'm going to hold onto the fog lights as I know how hard it can be to find a set in as good of condition as mine are. I would hate to get rid of them and then later down the road decide to put them back on the car but they are nowhere to be found.

I'm getting really excited about this project though. I was really scared I wouldn't be able to do it the way I envisioned it, but when I took the fog lights and stock grill off today I realized it would be a lot easier than I thought, because I can easily screw the stock grill back into place from the rear side from under the car, since the front will be covered with mesh.
I don't know about that site, but I ended up getting a product from this site. It's the hexagonal pattern at the top of the page, powder coated black of course.

http://www.customcargrills.com/products.asp?id=27

 

How hard is it to find another one of those grilles? I don't really know how they attach to the car. What if you cut out everything but the outer ring of the stock grille, the part that bevels out into the bumper cover. Once the rest of the material is removed it looks like you'd have somewhat of a "frame" to attach the mesh from the backside and give it a smooth border.

Get what I'm saying or am I going to have to bust out the MSPaint?

 

I got what you're saying, but then you'd have a lot of inner bumper exposed which wouldn't look very good.

I made a little progress today with the mesh. I've almost got it trimmed down the a workable size, and tomorrow I'm going to try and finish it off by getting the right angles bent in for the top and bottom edges. I also picked up a silver Z28 rocker emblem today which made me really happy. It's coming along nicely.

I found that a sheet of plexiglass works great when working with mesh, as it's really strong and you can make straight bends by using the edge of the plexi.






Here you can see how I used that big piece of plexiglass as a straight edge so I could get this crease in the middle.

 

Looks great man, keep the pictures coming

 

bump for ya..interested in final

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...ill-101-a.html