After taking a rock to the intercooler, i wanted to get some sort of grill up and protecting it ASAP. Since i think spending over $100 on something SGP is lunacy (sorry for those of you who have them, they look great!) i decided to DIY one. Because im making this after Ive already made the product, the DIY isn't going to be as detailed as I'd like.
Materials:
1/2"X24"x24" metal grating from Home Depot. $29.99
DK Charcoal auto paint. $9.99
First step: Take this plastic/metal contraption off from under the hood. There are 6 screws holding it on: Don't worry about removing the plastic plug/clips, They only hold the plastic bottom to the metal top and you want to keep both pieces together.
This is what the metal grating looks like. Stenciling was done by tracing the inner edge of the Hood Ducting with Nail polish (i didn't have a marker...) onto the steel grating. The top part is what i cut out with a Dremel tool using typical cheap cutting bits. You'll notice there are bent parts: these are what i use to bolt through onto the plastic/metal to keep the grill in place. The bending was done by a small set of vice grips: Please use something 'better', These were less than stellar for the job.
You can see where i bolted the grill to the top (metal) part of the ducting. I had to use bolt cutters to cut the rest of the bolt off because 1" bolts were obviously too long. The empty hole there was attempt #1 for grill#1, What you're seeing is Grill #2. If you look along the bottom, through the grating, you can see the top part of the bolts i used. The head was rounded and was big enough to cover the open space in the 'diamond' gap.
Unpainted "finished" product in the ducting. Its not perfect but once its painted black, you'll hardly notice imperfections! (i hope).
Painted with DK Charcoal auto spray paint.
Finished/installed!
NOTE: This material is very strong. It'd be highly unlikely that you'd get dents in it from rocks or birds. Ive 'felt' the competition grills that claim to be dent resistant, and i can bend those materials with my thumb fairly easily: this material isn't going anywhere if the same move is attempted.
The second attempt at the grill was done the morning before the second cup Edmonton meet. i did the whole thing in about an hour and a half (minus painting). If you have a grinder with the proper cutting bit, this job could easily be done in 30 mins or less: unfortunately Dremel cutting bits are a pain in the arse. The material you buy would be good enough for 4 grills if you didn't waste any material, and the spray paint could easily paint 4 grills.
If you have any specific questions about how i did certain things, please.. ask away. I really didn't have a set 'system' for this: it was only 30 bux for a ton of grating, i wasn't concerned about mistakes.
Also! The best part (imo) about this grill, as opposed to the SGP ones, is that its INSIDE the hoodscoop. Your holes aren't visible on any painted surface and the overall look is less "look at me!" and more, "I'm functional": again, no offense to the guys who have the SGP/grillcraft ones.
