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buggman
Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2012
- Messages
- 18
- Vehicle Year
- 1996
- Transmission
- Automatic
I've been busy trying to come up with my own twist on the Raptor Grille Mod and here's a peek at what I've got so far...
I had to replace my old grille a year or so ago but kept the old cracked one for just such a project.
I gutted basically everything except for the top & sides & part of the clips on the bottom and started my first build using fiberglass.
The sides were widened and made to about 3/4" thick. Most of the bottom section was cut out and replaced with a hand cut piece of wood that got fiberglassed into the remaining part of the old grille. The underside of the top part was filled in to eliminate the gap where the mesh is attached too.
The letters are my own design, based on the Raptor font. Initially I had the sides of the F & D longer and angled to match the angle of the sides of the grille, but even after I tapered the ends front to back, I just didn't like the feel so I trimmed them both down square & I like the look a lot better.
The letters have been a real PITA as I first had to make prototype letters, then duplicate them in MDF to make plaster molds that got fiberglass laid inside. Once the fiberglass hardened I added wood blocks to give some structure inside to screw them to the mesh.
My first idea was to paint the letters gloss black but even after several layers of bondo, sanding, primer, etc I just couldn't get a couple tiny imperfections to come out so I sprayed all sides, front & back with about 5 coats of spray on bedliner. I'm glad I used the bedliner as it has a slight texture that covered up all imperfections.
The mesh is stainless, or at least it's supposed to be stainless. I've had a chunk of it setting in a jug of water outside for about 3 weeks now & there's not a hint of rust yet.
I'm already thinking about a similar mod for newer grilles, but since I don't have any other spare grilles to work on, I may just have to size the letters to fit those grilles & make some mesh inserts that are over sized so you can trim them to fit your application.
Also need to try some new ideas on fiberglassing the letters as the molds are a real pain to work with since the areas inside are so small.
Since you've patiently read through all that stuff, here's a (link) to a ton of pics I got today.
I had to replace my old grille a year or so ago but kept the old cracked one for just such a project.
I gutted basically everything except for the top & sides & part of the clips on the bottom and started my first build using fiberglass.
The sides were widened and made to about 3/4" thick. Most of the bottom section was cut out and replaced with a hand cut piece of wood that got fiberglassed into the remaining part of the old grille. The underside of the top part was filled in to eliminate the gap where the mesh is attached too.
The letters are my own design, based on the Raptor font. Initially I had the sides of the F & D longer and angled to match the angle of the sides of the grille, but even after I tapered the ends front to back, I just didn't like the feel so I trimmed them both down square & I like the look a lot better.
The letters have been a real PITA as I first had to make prototype letters, then duplicate them in MDF to make plaster molds that got fiberglass laid inside. Once the fiberglass hardened I added wood blocks to give some structure inside to screw them to the mesh.
My first idea was to paint the letters gloss black but even after several layers of bondo, sanding, primer, etc I just couldn't get a couple tiny imperfections to come out so I sprayed all sides, front & back with about 5 coats of spray on bedliner. I'm glad I used the bedliner as it has a slight texture that covered up all imperfections.
The mesh is stainless, or at least it's supposed to be stainless. I've had a chunk of it setting in a jug of water outside for about 3 weeks now & there's not a hint of rust yet.
I'm already thinking about a similar mod for newer grilles, but since I don't have any other spare grilles to work on, I may just have to size the letters to fit those grilles & make some mesh inserts that are over sized so you can trim them to fit your application.
Also need to try some new ideas on fiberglassing the letters as the molds are a real pain to work with since the areas inside are so small.
Since you've patiently read through all that stuff, here's a (link) to a ton of pics I got today.
