Rear valance grill

[lotuseffect]

Anybody ever replace the grill below the rear bumper on a SE or turbo (ie. the one with three wide aperatures, as opposed to the four narrow slots that were on NA's)? The fine grill in mine looks tatty and seeing as the gearbox and muffler are out at the moment, I thought the time might be opportune to replace it. If it's a bit of a nightmare to bend up a new grill though, I might pass. Would appreciate any comments.....

[ajb1967]

Hiya,

Why don't you just wire brush it and respray with silver paint.Somewhere on the site it listed this.I did mine a few weeka ago and it looks like new again.Very easy and cheap cosmetic fix.Only real work is doing the masking of the bumper,exhaust etc etc.

rgds

Adrian

[russellbosier]

I painted mine a couple of years ago. The rear grill was fine to be honest but my front grill was a bit rusty, so painting seemed the easiest option to try before replacing. Kato put an article on LEW years ago when he did his which gave me the idea. I believe he sprayed his silver as I remember.

I used black smooth hammerite using one of the kids small paint brushes. I used black as it contrasts realy well with red, and being hammerite was fine on the rust. Painting parts of a car by hand doesnt sound good, but being mesh it makes very little difference if you spray or brush provided you are careful. Bushing has the advantage of much less masking being required and no risk of overspray, and its also probably easier to brush paint onto the rear of the mesh. The end result transformed the appearance and still looks as good today. I recon its well worth a try. What have got to lose.

[lotuseffect]

Hi Adrian and Russell. Fortunately we don't use salt on our roads in NZ so rust isn't actually my problem. Rather - the mesh is all bent and the wire is broken in a few places too so a quick respray probably isn't going to solve all its problems. I was contemplating unscrewing it all and trying a full resto job - but the thought of straightening 50 million little bits of wire with needle nose pliers put me off. It may yet come to that though! Cheers, Si

[CBrownstead]

i just replaced mine with a product i purchased from a company here in the us . . . it was aluminum wire mesh, looked factory 100% . . . will never rust and weighs nothing so it was ez to mount with nothing but glue . . .

[fjmuurling]

An idea is to make 2 templates out of some thick piece of wood. The templates need to be of the same shape. Now clamp your new piece of flat wire mesh material between them while making sure the two templates are well alighned. After the clamping it is now easy to bend the edges. Finally cut the excess material away and voila you have a new piece ready for fitting.

Freek

[Drfatz]

An idea is to make 2 templates out of some thick piece of wood. The templates need to be of the same shape. Now clamp your new piece of flat wire mesh material between them while making sure the two templates are well alighned. After the clamping it is now easy to bend the edges. Finally cut the excess material away and voila you have a new piece ready for fitting.

Freek

I built grills for mine out of simple plastic mesh. Its great and easy to form plus all you have to do is glue it in place with hot glue! B)

[martynv]

Anybody ever replace the grill below the rear bumper on a SE or turbo (ie. the one with three wide aperatures, as opposed to the four narrow slots that were on NA's)?

The grill on my SE had been removed when I bought the car, I suspect due to the very large rear box on the Stainless Steel sports exhast that had been fitted. Personaly I think it looks fine without the grill, so you could just remove it if it looks a bit shaby.

Martyn

[ozontour]

I did mine with Aluminium mesh I bught from a local auto shop for AUD$30. with some hot glue and about 20 mins it transformed to a more modern look. I did paint it black but decided it looked better in silver so painted it back to silver using some Cold Galvizer in a can. now it will never corrode, rust or tarnish.

Justin

[lotuseffect]

Thanks guys - I'll have a crack at using some of the aluminium mesh you can buy at the local auto store - I may even get flash enough to bend some up in my mate's metal bender....although it sounds like it sticks on just fine with hot melt glue.

Cheers, Si