2nd Gen Neon 2000 - 2005 2nd Gen Neon

Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

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Old 06-14-2007 | 12:53 AM
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Default Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

Before I get into details, let me note that I actually liked the way my car looked before I made and installed the steel mesh inserts... she looked really good with just a deep, open mouth (he he he no pun intended). I drove it for a few weeks with nothing there but I started getting concerned that a rock or something could easily fly in there and waste my radiator, so here's what I came up with from start to "finish" (I hate that word cuz it'll never be "finished.") Anyway, this mod can all be done in a single day.

Below arethumbnails of a normalphoto and a close-up of my '04 SXT bumper and grille. First, here is everything you will need:

1. A sharp, medium-length knife with a lot of teeth on it (for sawing through the plastic bumper). I actually used a 10"-bladesteak knife and it seemed like the weapon of choice for this particular job.
2. A 6mm nut driver, or crescent wrench, or socket and ratchet.
3. One small metal container of fiberglass filler. Do not buy regular Bondo... it will not hold up and you'll have to redo it. Bondo makes a green 2-part fiberglass that comes with it's own hardener tube, you can pick it up at the auto parts store for $9-$15.
4. A body-filler skimmer/paddle set... a cheap 3-pack at the auto store costs $2 or $3.
5. Super-glue gel, or 2-ton epoxy or something equivilant to that, from $1.50 to $4.
6. Raw expanded steel (used to make the grill). The biggest section of this stuff I could find was at Home Depot, and it was 12" x 24" and comes wrapped in a cheap cardboard sleeve. This is more than you need to do the grille. I paid just over $10 for it.
7. Paint of your choice for the grille. If you don't seal it and paint it, it will rust quickly. I spray-paintedmine with Rust Oleum's 7-year black rust-gaurd semi-gloss ($4), and it looked good being black, but I spent another $4 on a can of aluminum-colored semi-gloss to give the steel it's "metal look" back to it.
8. Chrome automotive trim tape. Most parts stores carry this stuff in 6' foot to 15' rolls made by all different companies. A 6-foot roll is enough if you make NO mistakes, but I recommend getting slightly more. The prices range from $4.99 to $17 or so, but I would buy the thicker, more expensive chrome trim tape so it will last longer and take the bug abuse. Make sure it is also at least 2" wide.
9. 6mm Chrysler body automotive fasteners ($4 a pack). If you're like me and a lot of other people, there are probably a few bolts missing from the bottom of your bumper where it screws into the black air damn underneath. It will be a good idea to make sure that the bottom of your bumper has all 5 bolts/screws in it to keep the bumper secure to the air damn to create more strength.
10. 1" stainless or chrome automotive fasteners with a pointy tip... something you can use a socket or a screwdriver with to literally screw them through the plastic bumper with.
11. 150-grit sandpaper or something to that effect. A $2 pack should be more than enough.
12. A band saw to cut the expanded steel with. Other saws could work too, and maybe even tin/aviation snips or heavy cutters or something, but a bandsaw will be the easiest/fastest choice obviously.
13. Pliers, or actually easier to use...a crescent wrench, to grab the edges of the expanded steel later to bend it with.

So total average investment/cost is under $40,but probablyless if you already have some of this stuff on hand, maybe more if you don't have any of it and you are really picky and buy all expensive items for the heck of it.

Now, here's what ya do:

1. Take your trusty knife, and start sawing. Look at my grille in the photo, and you want to basically cut through the bumper as close and as parallel to the "mouth" of the bumper as possible without digging in too far. Be careful as you cut through each horzontal and vertical "slat" in the existing bumper... they cut very easily! My knife powered right through it and I hit myself in the other hand with it like a dumbass (oh yeah, my hand was there because you want to hold on to your bumper while you cut the OEM "slats" out of it so you don't flake off any excess paint and such. When you're done cutting, the "mouth" in your bumper should look like mine, but without the mesh grille or chrome lining.

2. "I'm done cutting everything out, but now there are V-shaped holes inside my bumper where the old slats were!" "Thanks for telling me a$$hole!" "Yours doesn't look like that, now what do I do?" He he, now make sure that the plastic nubs around the holes in the bumper are not sticking out above surface of the bumper's "mouth." If any of the edges are, sand them down until they are even. Don't worry too much if there is missing paint, as long as it's not excessive and more than 2" out from the inside of the bumper.

3. Now, take some small pieces of those slats you just cut out, and grab you super-glue gel or epoxy (I say super-glue gel because it's quick to dry and strong as hell... superglue melts plastic, and obviously is excellent in a case like this where you literally want to melt plastic to plastic). You are going to glue a short piece of plastic on the inside of your bumper wherever you see a hole from the slats you cut out. Don't let them poke out through the back if you don't want to see them later, just make sure that they are flush with the holes. They don't have to be perfect... soon you won't see them again. Here's why...

3. Once those are dry and/or secure, break out the fiberglass... the plastic pieces you just put in are going to act as something for the fiberglass to grip onto and also hold it in place while it dries/cures to fill in the holes in the bumper. Take a piece of cardboard or an old cool-whip bowl or something and pour a cup-sized amount of the green fiberglass epoxy into it. Squirt a small amount of the provided red-colored hardener into the fiberglass and mix it up thoroughly and quickly (mix it with an old screwdriver or something else stiff that you don't care about possibly ruining). It should look light green and pink once mixed. If it looks brown or red after it's mixed, you added too much hardener and you need to throw it out and try again. Anyway, only mix it for two minutes or less... it will begin to harden extremely fast if you wait any longer. Take your plastic shapers/skimmers and scoop up the hardener and jam it into the holes in the bumper. You will need to work quick before the fiberglass begins to cure... also try to use the skimmers to scrape and smooth the liquidy fiberglass as close to flush with the inside of the bumper as possible. The goal is to make it look like (with the exception of color) that the holes were never there and the mouth has a nice smooth edge all the way around the inside of it. The fiberglass does NOT have to be perfect... the more you try to make it perfect with the skimmer, the more time you will waste and realize that it is hardening up and curing, and moving it around too much will ruin it. Leave maybe just a little extra ABOVE each hole so you can sand back down later with the bumper to ensure that your bumper is smooth. Just make sure not to drip or drag any excessive fiberglass anywhere on your bumper where there is NOT a hole.

4. If you do everything right with the fiberglass, it should take you less than 4 or 5 minutes from the time you started mixing it until the time you're done putting it in the holes and skimming it. Wait about 15-25 minutes or so, and if you mixed it right and you don't live in Alaska, you will notice that the fiberglass is now hard and can now be sanded with sandpaper. Sand down any excess fiberglass to make sure that it is even with the bumper all the way around and all the holes will (eventually) look like they never existed. You may need to fiberglass again if there are any low spots, but once you are done with the fiberglass and sanding, you are ready for the strip.

5. Assuming you didn't slip earlier with the knife, or get too crazy with the sandpaper, you should be able to look at your bumper now and placing a 1 or 1-1/2" chrome strip completely around the "mouth," and it will hide all of the work you just did and look great. Since the "mouth" of your bumper isn't perfectly straight, you will need to start at the center of your bumper and work your way to the sides with the strip. I recommend cutting the pieces of chrome strip and placing them in your bumper BEFORE you remove the sticky backing tape off of the strip, this way you already know the size and placement of the chrome before you actually try putting it on for good. I recommend cutting out and shaping as many strips as you can before actually laying them down for good on the inner edge of the "mouth." I actually let mine hang over on the inside (towards the radiator) when I stuck mine on for good, and went back afterwards with a razorknife and cut the chrome off the molded inner edge of the bumper to keep a clean look. Remember, the thicker the chrome strip you use, the more reliable it will be over time... just make sure it's flexible enough to make it around the inner corners of the "mouth" of the bumper without lifting back off.

6. At this point, your bumper should look exactly like mine but without the grille obviously. Measure the "mouth" of your bumper, and you'll notice that it should be just over 27" wide at it's widest point. Take the expanded steel you just bought, and cut it with a band saw or whatever you can get your hands on... so you end up with two 6" x 15" rectanglar sections. Now take one of the sections, and place it inside your bumper, then pull it towards you so it's flush with the inside (on either the driver's side or passenger's side). Make sure that the one of the long ends of the steel mesh is at the center-line of the bumper/car. Now, you will notice that there is about an extra inch of steel above and below the "mouth" on the inside of the bumper that you can't see. You now need to take your pliers or crescent wrench and bend these areas towards you. Only make one bend at a time, and put it back in the bumper to check each bend. Basically these bends will not be seen once it is installed... the bent parts of the steel are meant to "hug" your bumper all the way around it, but on the other side where you can't see them. The idea is that by the time you are done/satisfied with the bends, you can place the steel inside the mouth and let go of it, and it will look exactly like mine, and it can hold itself in the bumper on it's own just from the bends you made to it. Repeat the same process for the other side of your bumper, making sure the criss-cross mesh lines up with the piece you just did (it might look goofy if these pieces don't match in the center once they're installed).

7. Now take your 1" chrome/stainless bolts, and screw them through the chrome strip on the inner edge of the bumper, then through the bumper, and all the way through the other side. The bolts should pass through the bent mesh and eventually after you've went around the top and bottom and the bolts pass through the bent pieces of mesh, the two steel sections will literally be "locked" into your bumper and will not be able to be punched out.

8. Not done! Now that everything is lined up and your bumper and grille look just like mine in the photo, you need to quickly take those screws/bolts back out and clean and paint that mesh... because if you don't it will rust fast. Like I said, I spray-painted mine with a semi-gloss black rust preventer and it looked great on the car... but I took them back off and went over them again with the silver/aluminum paint because I liked the metal look, and with the chrome accents and stripping, and the fact my car was silver, I thought it made sense.

9. Once the paint dries (which shouldn't take long obviously), carefully re-install your grille and make sure those bolts find their way THROUGH the holes in the bent mesh. After you've done that, make sure your bumper has all of it's factory screws in the bottom of it where it's screwed underneath to the black plastic underbody air-damn. If you are missing a couple, your bumper will still be pretty strong, but I made sure all of mine were in there just to make sure. That's about it now... mine looked fine at this point, but as you'll notice, I have a chrome strip also running down the center of my grille... that's where the seem will be from the two seperate pieces of steel mesh. Well, I didn't follow my own advice and ended up staggering the ends of the mesh by accident and it looked wierd after I painted it silver... so I just shoved some plastic weather-stripping on the ends of the mesh in the center, fiberglassed them to the mesh, painted over them, and ran a thicker chrome strip down the top of it down the center to bring it all together and break up the look....

That's how the expanded steel grille got put in my Neon.... for those who asked.

[IMG]local://upfiles/52694/C0A90B0571894D1CBB085AF31CCB118F.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/52694/43459EE8F8F24F5A83A517D7B24CB066.jpg[/IMG]
 
  #2  
Old 06-14-2007 | 01:05 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

nice writeup, looks like you spent a lot of time on it, good job
 
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Old 06-14-2007 | 01:21 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

Very well man, this might be a job for this next weekend.
 
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Old 06-14-2007 | 02:46 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

he he thanks... hey sometimes if you're like me and you a have a little time on your hands, you can put a little work into something like this and get something different and pleasing to look at... cheaper than buying a new aftermarket bumper and trying to paint-match to the car $$$
 
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Old 06-14-2007 | 05:19 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

you should have left the fog lights out the way and get yelo jdm medium size for the fog area.. and slam the car bro , them rims are tight how much you paid.?
 
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Old 06-14-2007 | 06:53 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

i like the mesh idea the most..looks awesome tho
 
  #7  
Old 06-14-2007 | 11:36 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

yea its look great and gives the grey front end a crazy look it wouldnt look good in my bleu
 
  #8  
Old 06-14-2007 | 05:58 PM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

Rims are 17x7.5" Sport EditionF6 (or F7's?) and tires are Kumho AST's... I paid $72 a piece for the rims and $52 a piece for the tires through Tirerack... all that mounted and balanced and shipped to my door with a free set of hardened chrome lug nuts, wheel locks and a digital pressure gauge for under $700 to my door...
 
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Old 06-14-2007 | 09:13 PM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

got a better ic of the wheels!!
 
  #10  
Old 06-15-2007 | 05:17 AM
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Default RE: Here's how-to info for grille/bumper mod

where u get da mesh grill? i been lookin for it
 


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