Replacement Grille
Discussion
Morning,
Anyone had any experience replacing the 'chicken wire' style grilles at the front of the car ? I have an appointment this Saturday at Zunsport to have them measure for a custome made grille in 316L stainless steel, covered in black polymer (although does not have to be). They seemed to think they'd be able to make something to fit pretty well.
I want something very subtle but a bit smarter than the original chicken wire.
Also interested to know if there would be more general interest in this, once they have measured up (although maybe the apertures are different between V6 and V8 ?) as they would probably do a better price if several were ordered. As an indication they said £300 for a one off custom grille fully fitted.
www.zunsport.co.uk
Look forward to your thoughts before I make the journey up this weekend !
Thanks
Stuart
Anyone had any experience replacing the 'chicken wire' style grilles at the front of the car ? I have an appointment this Saturday at Zunsport to have them measure for a custome made grille in 316L stainless steel, covered in black polymer (although does not have to be). They seemed to think they'd be able to make something to fit pretty well.
I want something very subtle but a bit smarter than the original chicken wire.
Also interested to know if there would be more general interest in this, once they have measured up (although maybe the apertures are different between V6 and V8 ?) as they would probably do a better price if several were ordered. As an indication they said £300 for a one off custom grille fully fitted.
www.zunsport.co.uk
Look forward to your thoughts before I make the journey up this weekend !
Thanks
Stuart
I'll stick with the chicken wire thanks !
I reckon it will come off.Interestingly, my bonnet is currently standing against the garage wall and I was looking at this job the other day. The mesh of the large apertures on mine is definitely not part of the laying process, but is stuck on after. It is just a bit of wire mesh, roughly bent into shape (from all appearances, by hand), put in place and then and then held with gobs of (possibly) resin or some other stuff that sticks and goes hard. The scoop looks like it is done differently but doesn't look hard to cut away without damaging anything.
All in all it didn't look like a bad job to remove it and replace with some stainless, certainly not something I would be paying in the region of £300 for, unless you are having a fancy grille set made and not just replacing the steel mesh with stainless.
All IMHO of course
All in all it didn't look like a bad job to remove it and replace with some stainless, certainly not something I would be paying in the region of £300 for, unless you are having a fancy grille set made and not just replacing the steel mesh with stainless.
All IMHO of course
Edited by Ceejay73 on Tuesday 26th October 22:17
I have done a couple of new grills & its really not that difficult.
The grill is held on with filler,
The easiest way i find is to cut the old grill out with sidecutters & the pieces left on the bonnet can be removed by getting hold of one end with a pair of pliers & twisting it along like a tin of sardines.
When its all off clean whats left off with a grinder cut your new grill to size then I use chopped strand filler to fix the new grill
The grill is held on with filler,
The easiest way i find is to cut the old grill out with sidecutters & the pieces left on the bonnet can be removed by getting hold of one end with a pair of pliers & twisting it along like a tin of sardines.
When its all off clean whats left off with a grinder cut your new grill to size then I use chopped strand filler to fix the new grill
I had both front grilles replaced and the side vents on the S4 bonnet with stainless mesh, both plywood bonnet struts replaced (as rotted through) and both bonnet hinges fixed and recall all that cost less than £300. Will post a pic later of the grill, looks like standard grill u could buy from Halfrauds but it looks way better than the chicken wire
Hi Norm,
Arrived there about 945am Saturday morning. Originally they were to create a template and make the grille at a later date. They cut away the chicken wire and once the template was made encouraged me to stay around whilst they made the grille. Mostly they were concerned that even from a template it may not fit perfectly unless they fabricated it there and then.
Took a while but they put the grille together and Peter (the owner) and his two sons were extremely helpful and nice to deal with. They opened just for me yesterday and Peter's son even missed a round of golf in the afternoon, with not so much as a moan. Very refreshing and I guess the difference you would hope for when dealing with a small business where people care.
I chose the black finish so it will now go away to be coated and they will post the finished item to me. They have designed it so that it just clips in, so I hope to be able to fit the finished profit myself at which point I will send photos.
Peter gave me a thorough guided tour of the business and it was interesting to learn that they make all the grilles for new Bentleys and Jaguars, a testament to the product's quality.
Peter was keen to 'productionise' the grilles. I explained that the V6 and V8 have different grilles and further it would not surprise me I the fixing brackets would be different on our cars. As we know, no two cars are alike.
Still, Peter felt that if he could drum up interest for about 20 cars, the cost should approximately half.
I should have the grille fitted in a couple of weeks, at which point I'll post photos. I have no doubt though that it'll be a huge improvement.
Cheers
Stuart
Arrived there about 945am Saturday morning. Originally they were to create a template and make the grille at a later date. They cut away the chicken wire and once the template was made encouraged me to stay around whilst they made the grille. Mostly they were concerned that even from a template it may not fit perfectly unless they fabricated it there and then.
Took a while but they put the grille together and Peter (the owner) and his two sons were extremely helpful and nice to deal with. They opened just for me yesterday and Peter's son even missed a round of golf in the afternoon, with not so much as a moan. Very refreshing and I guess the difference you would hope for when dealing with a small business where people care.
I chose the black finish so it will now go away to be coated and they will post the finished item to me. They have designed it so that it just clips in, so I hope to be able to fit the finished profit myself at which point I will send photos.
Peter gave me a thorough guided tour of the business and it was interesting to learn that they make all the grilles for new Bentleys and Jaguars, a testament to the product's quality.
Peter was keen to 'productionise' the grilles. I explained that the V6 and V8 have different grilles and further it would not surprise me I the fixing brackets would be different on our cars. As we know, no two cars are alike.
Still, Peter felt that if he could drum up interest for about 20 cars, the cost should approximately half.
I should have the grille fitted in a couple of weeks, at which point I'll post photos. I have no doubt though that it'll be a huge improvement.
Cheers
Stuart
Edited by mohitos on Sunday 31st October 20:26
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