DIY civic lower mesh grill

Is there anyway to DIY the lower grill? (I've already done the upper one) I read that the hinged gutterguard is wide/tall enough. I thought it would be easy, or like the upper. But, I took off the bumper to double check and I realized there wasn't anything to attach the mesh to, and if I did want to do something like the first one, I'd have to do a lot of sawing.

I know that you can buy grill inserts from grilltech. Could someone tell me how to DIY one of those and then install it?

i know that youre new but you always have to remember to give as much info as possible...
but with my God-given deductive reasoning skills ive come up with a general idea of your dillemma...

i did this to my 95 civic and it was quite easy. do the sawing. its not much once you get into it and all that plastic behind the bumper does a whole lot of nothing. after that just go to a hardware store like a home depot or lowes and buy some TASTEFUL wire mesh. none of this chicken wire bullshit. paint it a color close to that of your car, please dont paint it some macdonalds scheme or something. and, after doing the sawing, there should be some plastic posts wide enough in diameter for a few (i think i used only 2) screws. its not gonna take a whole lot to keep it on there since its gonna be pretty snug against the frame/bumper. i dont know if you realized this but you will have to take the entire front bumper cover off to do this. really not that hard to do at all..

hope i helped.

I made a lower grill insert for my '00 Civic coupe, and people swear that my bumper came that way by how well it looks and turned out. The key I discovered to attaching it to stay on is by intricately (sp?) wire tying it to the bumper. ;)

Sorry for the lack of information. I have a 98 civic ex.
When I made the top grill, I used gutterguard, and I like the way that looks, so I'd like to stick w/ a similar pattern (you don't have to worry about chicken wire) and I also painted it black, which seems to work with my clover(green) car.

I prefer the idea of an insert as to cutting out all the pieces in the lower bumper. At looking at my lower grill area again, it seems like I could make the insert, maybe put a thin rubber gaurd around the outside of the mesh (unless there is a better way to keep the mesh from scratching up the car) and just hold it there against the cross pieces using wire. But will the wire be visible?

Perhaps you could give me a more detailed explination of how to make and attach the insert?

Here is a picture of my lower grill as is:

http://acumennation.freeyellow.com/civic/civiclowgrill.jpg
(they just salted the roads)

when i did mine, i just cut away the vertical plastic parts from the grill. that should let the mesh sit a bit flatter. i have no idea what youre tlaking about when you say youre worried about the wire scratching your car, if you lay the wire flat against the inside of the bumper you should have no problem with this...

Im worried about the edge of the mesh scratching the car.

what im saying is that you put the mesh on the inside of the bumper...ill take a picture of mine after christmas. i think my folks got me a digital camera anyway so itll be a good excuse to use it.

hey, imo don't cut the plastic bars on your bumper. they are there for a reason, they help support the shape of they bumper. i saw you posted this over on HAN. i'm also on the quest for this. i found this-http://www.grillcraft.com/installs/installs.asp?action=view&install=75 it gives you the install of the grillcraft grill. now if only i could find some damn gutter guard thats big enough.


pics of my upper DIY grill~~
http://www.rit.edu/~ltk6260/myciv.html

i have no idea what youre tlaking about when you say youre worried about the wire scratching your car
i think what acunat's trying to say is that he's worried about scratching the inside of his bumper. i would be too if i had to deal with those sharp ass edges

you can get those door guards (trims that fit the edge of car doors) around the edge of the grill or use electrical tape around the inside of the bumper (cut the tape so it's about .25" or .5" so it won't look as bad). have you considered using black zipties to mount the grill? i bet it won't look as bad cause your grill would be black.

ps. pheurton-skeurto, please make your sig a bit smaller.

Yes, I'm worried about scratching the inside of my bumper. I want to make a replica of the grill tech grill insert. Though, I was thinking I could just cut it to shape, and put some type of rubber stripping around the edge of it so it would fit snugger and not scratch the paint, and then either hold it in w/ screws like they did, or use black zipties or black wire.

Those install plans were exactly what I was looking for, Ikail. Thanks. Oh, and I go to rit too =)

yo acunat-- you go to RIT? hah thats awesome. small world.

yup, im a 1st year CE.

I went to home depot and got 2 peices of gutter guard and some clear 1/4" dia vinyl tubing. The grill on the civic is 3' 2" wide and the gutter guard is only 3'. But, I thought I could put two pieces of the gutter guard together. I spend about 1.5 hours getting the guard the perfect fit and then went to put the other pieces (i was going to do 1 inch on each side w/ a second piece.) and realized that they weren't going to mesh right.. so I gave up on that. Later I went to Lowes and found some plastic gutter guard, same stuff only plastic and black and in a 20ft roll. Thats whats on there now. Its ghetto as hell. But it looks nice. I just have to see how it will hold up.

If anyone knows where I can get a metal mesh that looks really similar to gutterguard thats longer that 3' 2" please let me know. I'd like to redo the grill using that.

nice man. good luck in CE. i'm a 2nd yr VKSN...applied networking.. anyways, i have to agree with you on one thing dude. plastic mesh IS pretty ghetto. post some pics tho, i want to see. and i'll let you know if i ever come across any thing useful.

one other thing- whats your name man?

Hey, my name is Aaron.

Sorry about taking so long w/ the pics, but I was waiting for them to be emailed to me. I thought that the plastic would rip off in the wind. It held up just fine at 100mph.

http://acumennation.freeyellow.com/civic/civicgrilllowmesh.jpg

I think I found some mesh that looks similar to gutter guard. Some kids on my hall used it to make thier halloween costumes ( they were the domokuns ). They said they got it from the fencing section of lowes. I'm not going to be near my civic untill may, so I have no idea how well it will work. But the plastic stuff is still holding up, from what i hear.

I think I found some mesh that looks similar to gutter guard. Some kids on my hall used it to make thier halloween costumes ( they were the domokuns ). They said they got it from the fencing section of lowes. I'm not going to be near my civic untill may, so I have no idea how well it will work. But the plastic stuff is still holding up, from what i hear.

aww damn i was just at a lowes today but i did not look. when i get the time i'll stop by there again. hey, in the picture you posted-that grill is really plastic? you can't even tell. how noticable is it in person? still plastic grill is cheasy but you can't tell in the pic

Is there anyway to DIY the lower grill? (I've already done the upper one) I read that the hinged gutterguard is wide/tall enough. I thought it would be easy, or like the upper. But, I took off the bumper to double check and I realized there wasn't anything to attach the mesh to, and if I did want to do something like the first one, I'd have to do a lot of sawing.

I know that you can buy grill inserts from grilltech. Could someone tell me how to DIY one of those and then install it?


id have to say from personal experience and going through the same thing you are.....another good alternative to the gutter wire option(which i think is very good, and wish i would have thought of it for my car).. is to....i just went to like pep boys..and bought their pre made like ghetto ass APC grill or something..(who cares its just wire)and cut it alittle with some wirecutters..and since their was nothing to attach it to like you said..that was also my problem..i just took some really strong coarse wire and made it a long U shape and put through the radiator and twisted it ....almost like a twist tie around a loaf of bread..of course i was worried it would fall off...but since then i have gotten alot of compliments.and its been stable..gets dirty but looks great after a wash....and its blocked alot of rocks and pebbles from getting in and denting my engine front...its a ghetto way..but it worked....

pics?

Right, so the college year is over and I'm back home. Last night was the first night I had a chance to look at my civic, and the plastic gutter guard didn't hold up so well. The spots where I tried to glue the guard to the body came apart, but the grill is still held tight w/ the fishing line. The problem is that the force from the air bends the plastic back at the top and bottom, making it kinda bulge out at the top.
While I was at school, I saw some other mesh stuff and thought I might try that.

Has anyone found some material that actually works before I go try something new?

Yes, I used metal cement lathe (the mesh stuff that holds drywall together) for my lower grill on my '00 Civic coupe. Had that stuff on for over 2 years now, and never had to go back and touch it yet to date. Holds up very well, has that true tuner look IMO, and just overall good stuff. Very cheap to buy as well. I atteched mine to my bumper using thin solid metal wire.

Thanks for the info! I went and picked some up last week. I'm planning on doing my lower grill next week or the following week. I spent this last week installing a mp3 player and subwoofer. When I do the lower grill, I'll put together a DIY for it.

yes yes ^^ a diy write up is a MUST

haha i need to see it