$10 home depot grille mod... for mazda!

[npentyl]

ive always been irked that there were so many ranger grilles, but none really along the btruck styling. so i stumbled upon the wire mesh grille mod and thought i would try it out for my mazda truck, hopefully keeping the only htings that make it a mazda, the headlights grille and taillights. heres what it looked like installed... also i put on clearcorners (from ebay) and the clear lens turning signas... i am trying ot get rid of all chrome and make it black and white. also it has a bug deflector which i glues a painted white emblem on it.

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab320/npentyl/IMG_8611.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab320/npentyl/IMG_8612.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab320/npentyl/IMG_8613.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab320/npentyl/IMG_8614.jpg

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab320/npentyl/IMG_8615.jpg

also you may notice that i painted that little ridge on the inside of the grille, it was an interesting effect, and i think it looked cool... so all this was done with some white rustoleum paint on some wire mesh for rain gutters, sold at lowes. it was bent onto the grille form the inside and thenglued on and it holds its shape.

 

[flyingbrick]

Looks good, next time from the main screen on photo-bucket put your curser over the pic you want, a list will show up under it click IMG code, copy and paste in your message box. hope i got the right ones for you.

 

[Red Ranger]

Looks good

 

[351Mazda]

I might have to do that. I'll probably put a tree through the grill the day I finish it though.

 

[npentyl]

thanks for the positive feedback, i like the way it looks, and its the only one in my town with such a styling! it really wasnt hard at all, and i recommend it to mazda owners looking to offset the mazda styling for quite cheap. if you wish better description i followed the procedure listed by a ranger owner who did the same on this forum, so i cannot take credit for the idea. interesting note: i saw the same wire mesh used to fill in the body kit valences on mtv's pimp my ride, so kudos to the gentleman who posted this originally. in the future i wish to attempt to paint my truck myself (as my paint is peeling on my bed, and yellowing under the NM desert sun) and then add the spray-on urethane bed liner to my rocker panels... any advice or references woud be appreciated.
also was thinking of fabing my own front emblem, as mazda doesnt even use this embem any more. any advise as how to go about sculpting and moudling my own emblem/grille medallion would be greatly appriciated!

 

[racsan]

ive done mine with a simialr mesh material. used black paint. one problem ive had is the paint flaking off. i even used a metal prep before painting. looks good!

 

[MazdaMulisha0808]

did basically the same thing to mine

 

[dock83]

like the look wonderning what type of glue too use?

 

[Tommy]

did basically the same thing to mine

That looks really good

 

[funkingonutz]

that stuff works wonders!!!!!! LMAO and its soooooo CHEAP!!!!
and incase your wondering it'll NEVER rust!!!!!! ive had mine bare metal for 4 years now and i live up north in the rust belt.....notta single sign of oxidization

 

[racsan]

i used fiberglass cloth/resin along with 3 small bolts. here is a link to one of my cardomain pages that shows my grille. its doing fine, i dont recall when i did this mod, but its been done a while now. link-> http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3216869/5

 

[idriveafordranger94]

On my Ranger I used hot glue. Kinda funny, but it does the job and no one has to see the back of the grille!

 

[racsan]

here is a pic of the backside of my grille after i added the mesh, i used fiberglass cloth and resin along with 3 small bolts.

didnt realize i had this pic until i was going through my photobucket to add pictures for my gallery here.

 

[bmonee5]

wow all of these trucks looks great with that mesh grille mod. I would bet that using rain gutter mesh it would NEVER rust seeing as its made to be in a gutter...good job.

 

[koda6966]

Here's mine a year later, and after two accidents. No rust and it hasn't fallen off yet. I used zip ties to hold it on. Eight dollars got me a 5 pack of the gutter guard. I only used two pieces. I was thinking about putting some on the front grill of the zx2 but it's so low to the ground, and I have a tendency of driving a few inches into snowbanks.

A moderator should add all of our photos to the tech library article. It would be nice to have more photos in there of what it looks like, or at least add the Mazda photos.