Custom 10 Slat Grille construction (new improved locust catcher version)

[Scoota G]

Hey Zed brothers, i just wanted to share my custom grille building technique so if you can could you please hold your applause, comments and insults until i finish the whole thread, ta!

 

Well first i have to give Kudos to Dalee (dale) who let me develop one for him, the idea is that it cleans up the area under the bumper and gives the car a cleaner look. As a bonus it gives 40% more locust catching ability.

 

First you will need another Grille to do this mod but if it's a bit banged up you still should be ok.

 

Ok Next go to Bunnings and buy yourself a piece of 16mm X 16mm Aluminium Channel (the smaller lengths are perfect size and you have about 10mm spare) Also while you are there get a can of spray paint (i didn't and ran out) and a new hacksaw blade too.

Then disassemble both your grilles (go home first) and lay out your parts into groups. Take the best complete vertical support you have and fold back the tab at the top end where the long thin bolt went through, this will become your template for the new vertical supports (see picture) and line it up with the new piece of aluminium channel.

 

Drill a 4mm hole in the same position as the template, a good idea is to add the thickness of the new channel when you drill the new hole. This will allow for bending the tab over.

 

Then turn them both over and screw the new channel to the bench (if working in kitchen, ask wife first) , line up the holes then cut slats for the grille blades into new Channel using your template. The new channel requires 8 slats but will be the same length as the original (again see picture).

[Scoota G]

Ok now to make the tabs at the bottom which will be a mirror of the top, just use the template and cut the channel but not all the way. Basically you're building the same item but with a tab top and bottom and a hole top and bottom. Once you drill the bottom hole, trim the channel and bend over the tabs you're done. The holes are offset closer to the front as per the template.

 

Build four of these. Remember if you make a mistake it will be back to Bunnings for another piece of Channel @ $5 something a pop.

[Scoota G]

Ok so you've got your 4 New Vertical channels so use the 2 top parts of the grille and position them into place in the 2nd slat and 7th slat (note that i positioned the bottom part of the grill in the wrong place in the photo).

 

Then position the longer length Blades in between on the 1st and 8th slat.

 

Slat numbers 5, 6, and 7 need to be the shorter Blades to fit the bumper, i'll leave the last Blade to your choice. Long or short it won't matter.

 

Then grab the centre bottom bracket and flatten out the last 15mm of each end. After this you just slide in the Long bolts, it will take a bit of Jiggling and tapping but it's pretty easy to work with.

 

Next take the completed grille to your Zed and bolt it to the top 2 and bottom centre fixing mounts, then you'll need to bend the bottom outside brackets in on a 45 Degree to suit the new mounting position on the bottom.

 

A spacer and longer bolts are required for them bottom 2 outside ones which needs to be cut on an angle to match the grille on one end. Once its all test fitted correctly take it back off and paint if required.

[Scoota G]

Ok that's it, the end result is subtle but i like it. Thanks for your patience lads.

 

If i missed anything please be sure to throw a comment or two in 

[Sirpent]

Scoota,

 

Love the idea and product, well done now, think that makes us 3-1 LOL

 

+1 Karma for effort.

 

Cheers

 

john

[Scoota G]

Thanks salty, i think the same too. The best part is that if you have three grilles you can make two extended versions but the other one will require the use of the original lower outside brackets.

[Scoota G]

This is the Prototype i did for Dale using the old lower brackets to mount. I'll build a cutting Jig from scratch next so one can just lay in a piece of Aluminium and Cut / Drill away.

[handsandwhich]

Not bad, when I first read what you planned on using as the uprights I thought 'hmm this is gonna look tacky' but it actually looks O.K

[Scoota G]

Just had a thought, you can move the lower joined blades so the top blade is in slat 8 then you could have the very lower blade hang and have an 11 blade grille then just drill the mounting holes to suit which would fill the entire void of where the grillle mounts! Why do i give away my ideas again?