DIY 991 Radiator Grill Installation

While it was fun just taking the front bumper cover off my '14 C4S (see DIY - 2014 991 C4S Front Bumper Cover Removal), I actually had another project purpose. I wanted to install custom mesh wire grill screens.

I have the stock 991 front bumper cover, and the two openings for the radiators are huge! They leave the radiators open to damage from all sorts of debris. Where I live in the NE the roads are awful, and we have a lot of leaves and other stuff on the roads all the time. Yes, it is simple to just stick the nozzle of my shop vac into the opening once in a while -- but that only removes what is loose. I wanted to also protect the radiators from rock damage, and getting insect guts permanently embedded in the radiator fins.

So following are the steps I followed to create my own mesh grills...

Openings in stock bumper cover on my C4S:


I initially intended to follow the lead of fellow members SM_ATL and Jim M. and install some wire mesh from the outside - without removing the front cover. They both have great posts in the DIY section, by the way!

But as I got ready to do the install, I just knew I would not be happy without a very solid, tight, "invisible mount" or factory-look finish. Plus I just love to explore and mess with stuff, so I decided to remove the entire front bumper cover and install my grill mesh from the inside!

I ordered my wire mesh from CustomCarGrills. Easy to order, and I received my mesh in a couple of days. For reference, I ordered the Diamond Small Mesh, in a single 12" x 48" sheet. You can order the mesh in Black powder-coating, which adds $10-$15 dollars to the order, but I elected to order Silver. PM me if you want a link to the product page to order for yourself.

My order arrived in a single flat box... it was well packed and protected from bending or other damage really well. Here are some pics of the package I received.

Once I had the mesh out, I measured to center, marked, and cut in half.


With the bumper cover removed, I began shaping a template to cut the mesh. I started by using some heavy gauge wire and shaped it around the opening from inside the bumper. This was a great tip from SM_ATL's DIY!


I then transfered that to cardboard


After cutting the cardboard (yes, it is a rough!!) I trimmed and test-fit to the radiator opening from inside bumper cover.


Once I was happy with the cardboard version, I transferred to the wire mesh and cut. Sorry, didn't catch a pic of this step! The initial cut was purposely larger than I needed, and then I cut to "fit" in the opening. I also wanted to make sure I had sufficient coverage for mounting points, but also not have material causing alignment issues or interference with ducting when I re-installed the front bumper cover.

Test fitting the cut mesh from inside bumper cover:


As I looked at the mesh in place, I decided to paint the mesh flat black. I had a few cans of Plastidip in the garage, and coated each mesh piece with 8 coats. I have a feeling that the paint may not hold up over time, but honestly I don't mind repainting or replacing in the future anyways...

Once the paint was cured, I then used zip-ties to loosely fix the mesh in place, then turned the cover over and took a look to make sure i didn't have any gaps visible around the edges, etc.


Once I was happy with the fit, I removed the zip ties and used heavy-gauge (like 18) coated wire to securely mount each grill. I first used industrial contact tape to hold the mesh in place, putting tape around the entire opening. This enabled me to fix the mesh in position while I mounted more securely. I then found 5-6 mounting points for each grill and tightly twist-wrapped the wire to hold the mesh in place. The mesh will NOT move, shift, and can probably even be hit really hard by a rock without doing more than bending...

Before I replaced the bumper cover, I cleaned-out the Radiator openings - my 6 month old car with 3k miles didn't have too much junk in there, but we are just entering bug season, and in the fall it gets a LOT worse when the trees begin shedding! And more importantly, you can see the radiator is getting bent quite a bit by the little debris that hits it -- including little bugs.

Right radiator:


Left radiator:


Here's a shot after i mounted:


Remounted the bumper and all other parts I had removed earlier, and took it for a test-drive (started raining at that point, so got a good water test as well!):


Next morning I tried to get a good picture, but iPhone just couldn't handle the morning sun....! But I have to say, I am very pleased with the results of this little project!


Thanks!

 

Awesome write up!
Thanks!

 

That looks great.

 

Well done.
Might have to do this myself this summer.

 

Good work.
How many hours did the entire process take you (incl bumper removal and installation?

I'm been so tempted to mesh that horrible piece of black plastic in the middle, but hesitant regarding airflow.

 

Nice!

 

Awesome. Thanks for another great DIY.

 

Hi thanks!

The bumper cover removal took me about two hours in total, but took more like 45 minutes actual time -- I was interrupted a lot, had a few beers, took a lot of pics, and generally explored a lot during the process. If you put me in front of the car now and timed me, I could probably have it off in 20 minutes or even less!

The grill pieces took longer, as I took the time to paint them, and that took the better part of the afternoon since I had to let the paint cure between coats. If you buy the mesh already painted, you can skip all that. With the bumper off already, you could place the mesh and secure it in about 15 minutes or less. I also spent about an hour tinkering with different methods of securing the mesh before deciding to use wire, so hard to say exactly how long it really took.

Lastly, re-installing the bumper cover took me about 20 minutes.

So all in I would expect the first-timer at this, using my DIYs, to be able to do everything in an afternoon, maybe a couple of hours. If you purchase pre-painted mesh, or even the pre-cut ones, you can shave a lot of time off the project.

Regarding the center plastic.... I also thought seriously about popping it out and filling with Mesh. BUT, more I thought about it, the less it was a great idea. Cosmetically it will look nicer perhaps, but with mesh you are still going to let some bugs and small debris through - vs. just hitting the plastic. If you have the third radiator, makes sense. If not, I wouldn't do it. But that's my own opinion....

 

Awesome job...I bought the black mesh and was going to do it from the outside but now I'm tempted to go this route!
My one question: do you have a pic showing the points where you fixed the mesh to the bumper from the inside with the wire? As you intended you can't see the these points with the bumper on.

 

Yes. Kinda. I actually forgot to take pics once I had secured the mesh to the bumper. I was too excited to see what it looked like and moved-on! But, the following pics might help.

I marked-up two shots - First one without the mesh and one with the mesh (when I was trial-fitting) taken from back-side / inside of the bumper. Red circles and lines are the mounting points I chose. The Yellow lines are gaps between trim pieces I used to feed my wire through (For the life of me I couldn't figure out the purpose of the many tabs and plastic bits all around the back-side of the opening!). Each red point in the pic is a separate piece of mounting wire -- I didn't use one long piece or anything like that. I cut to size to minimize material.

I found I could route the mounting wire through the (yellow) gaps and use the tabs to secure the mesh effectively tightening it down. Along the top edge there wasn't any significant tabs to use, so I focused on using the large center tab in the middle as indicated. I was concerned about blocking gaps and stuff that might cause fit problems when re-installing the bumper, so I spent a lot of time keeping the wire tucked out of the way as well.

Oh, and what I don't show here is that I used some industrial, water-proof double-sided tape cut into really small thin strips all the way around the edge of the opening, where the mesh was in contact. I pressed-down hard and the tape worked great! I couldn't move the mesh after I did this. Then I went around and routed the wire through the holes and gaps to tighten. I hand-pressed from the opposite side and didn't see the mesh budge one bit.

Hope this helps!

 

That's great, what a comprehensive job...I don't think you'll ever be criticized for taking short cuts!
Thanks again!

 

Great job and writeup! Thanks for posting this. The covers look really, really good!

 

Excellent. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

Nice job! Thanks for sharing.

 

Great job, and it looks like a very beneficial mod for our cars.

Thanks!