Hey all, I'm think of making a custom grill for my car. I know avalon42 made one, but difference is he had an 88, and I have an 86, and the grill is completely different. I think I'm gonna hunt down an SE grill, and basically cut the middle sections out, leaving only the outer frames. My question is, is there a way to sand down the edges and paint them so it looks nice in flush? I'm gonna buy some wire mesh to put in it's place. I want it too have a clean look. Dunno, I need some ideas. I also may get the more current nissan logo to put on it, but I may just leave it off. What you guys think?

S

 

It'll probably look alright if you sand it down and re-paint the grill. The only problem is with the frame of the grill itself, as it's kind of thin, especially on the sides. Well, at least that's how it is on the '87-88's, but it looks as though the 85-86's are the same way. It won't look as good as if you had a really bold frame going around the wire mesh. But hey, give it a shot and see how it looks, worst case scenerio is you won't like it but you'll only be out a couple bucks.

-C-

 

Um...is this what you're looking for?

http://anarch13.tripod.com/rais/colt/max.html

I think you'd have better luck modd'ing the grille from the 85-86, because it's straight instead of angled like the 87-88. Even so, my experience with my 88 grille was a PITA, I didn't use my existing grille at all, I just pre-cut some mesh and put a giant SE-R logo from the new 2002 Sentra SE-R. It looked good only because of the pics, but it looked ghetto in real life. I even got laughed at by Nissan guys.

=A

 

Basically the grill on the 85-86 is square, and it has two pieces on the top and bottom that run around the headlights. They are pretty fairly thick. The sides are square, but they do have an angle going towards the center of the grill. I figure that I can cut out the center pieces, and then put a mesh insert. Like C said, I can sand it an paint it. I'm probably gonna paint the mesh black too so it's not too obvious, and looks like it was a factory option. Good thing is I'm not going to use my grill I have, I'm gonna get another one from a junkyard and do it on that. I may do some inserts in the bumper, but since my bumper cover is already messed up, I'll probably won't do it. I'm really aiming to make it a good finish look.

S

 

well i have a small idea, try using a dremel sort of tool to do the cutting and sanding u should be able to get a lil more accurate with that, i myself used one to cut the face and plastic out of the face plte for the stock head unit to fit my new cd player. so possibly a thought. dont forget post some pics if u do make it..

~mike

 

Hell yeah I'm gonna post pics Would wanna leave all my buds in the dark. I'm gonna see if my friend has a dremel tool I can borrow. Hell he might help me out with it, since he's done custom fabrication before. He has a 92 or so Jeep Wrangler with a custom diamond plate dash he made himself. Also what I may be doing is when I do get the grill on, I may paint it one of 2 colors, black or maroon to match the car. Only thing is if I do that, I will have to paint the trim on my corning lamps, and the trim around my brake lights to be consistent. Most likely I will go black, but I like the idea of maroon all the way around except around the windows.

-S

 

Too late, partner!!!! I am already on top of that mod! Found a grill while treking through the junkyard while looking for the pulley, and thought about modding it.

 

I got some GL grills in-line too. Since I'm gonna be painting them to color, I got a lot of room to work with. If you do get it done, lemme know what you did. I'll do the same. Hopefully we can get the look we are after. I don't want all the 3rd, 4th and 5th gen's have all the cool stuff. I'm still deciding though, should I key it to the body color, or should I leave it black, or maybe a black grill with body keyed trim, or black trim with body keyed grill. I'm also think of a badge to put on. Should I get the Nissan logo, or GT-R logo. Geez, so many choices....my god...

S

 

The Nissan logo will be fine. getting the GTR logo will turn you into a ricer.

 

That's what I was thinking. I want it to look good, not look ricey.

S