Finished my first attempt at a mesh grille for the Bonneville tonight. I would like to thank TaylorD for his help with the project. I am not too happy with the actual mesh grille inserts because the material seems to be too flimsy. It does fit in the grille area and gives the front a totally different look. It was raining tonight so there was no chance to get pictures out side of the garage. There are two bright spots concerning this project. 1, I have a set of wood patterns to fabricate another grille on and 2, I ran across a WEB site that offers different grille materials in different patterns. Here are two Pics.




Comparison of the stock and stainless steel mesh grille



Both of the stainless steel grille inserts installed.

Total cost of the project was under $15.00 and probably took 4 hours to cut out the pattern glue it to the wood block then cut the wood block, chisel out the tabs to form the metal that will be used for tabs to hold the grille into the car body and to route the edge of the wood pattern. The four hours was spread out over two week’* time. Hey our family likes to travel and I have a four year old son.

Looks good man, I see you used my block method and made them come out some. I love mine, curious to see the site with other mesh materials available, wouldn't mind changing mine to something else either, also wan't a big sheet to do a custom enging cover, got to have all the mesh match you know.

One of my pics, it was snowing when mine went in

When I saw your grills I thought they looked pretty damn good.
The only negative was they looked a little tarnished from corrosive road salt or bug juice probably.
I think if you choose another material, it should be stainless steel or have them chromed.

Hell, it would be just as easy to make up a fresh set every year to keep them looking new.

Thank you for the replies and the encouragement. The product is stainless steel. The photos may be a little off as I used some halogen lights to light up the front of the car in order to take a photo.

TaylorD:
You may be right about buying a smaller quantity most of the sites have a minimum order and the sheets are rather large. Use this link to find companies across the USA that makes metal cloth.

http://www.thomasregisterdirectory.c...0030521_1.html

CLEAR THE GRILLES WITH CLEAR RUSTOLEUM(SPELLING) WORKS THE BEST BECAUSE IT STICKS TO ANYTHING. PLUS IT WILL SHINE AND NOT NEED TO BE POLISHED

Thanks for the link, found 2 that are 15min from my house, got to love Chicago.
I'm just looking for something little more heavy duty with thicker mesh and diamond cutout.

I have thought about painting mine, I should of clearcoated them, so they won't rust/tarnish which mine have already little bit, but my sheet was 8 bucks and did them twice with it. Probably decide on a color and just paint them just to see what they look like, than make some new ones with the new mesh and decide what to do from there.

Thinking about making them come out even deep and angle the wood so it fits the center arrowhead better, thinking still could use the same block and just tack on a thin dowel rod to it and switch it for the other grill.