New diy honeycomb grill

[kenaimad]

Audi a3 s line honeycomb grill,

Hello, I do have a question about grill swapping, changing. My car is an Audi A3 s line 2005, I would like to get rid of the original small grill and install a one large one. No Audi logo or reg plate, just clean grill. The reg plate will be installed on the side of the bumper. Unfortunately I due to have my girlfriend in the college and daughter in the school I can't really pay hundreds of pounds for the mods, so my idea is - remove the front bumper with the grill, cut out the grill and replaced with a ABS mesh which I can get quite cheap, use screws and adhesive to attached the mesh to the frame, reinforced bar or crash bar-behind it. Not sure which one is the correct.
So my question, did anybody did something like that before? I saw people removing the small parts and replacing them with mesh, but I haven't seen anybody removing the entire part/grill . Any advice welcome. I will try to attached some pictures, so u will get a better idea what I mean. 
And sorry for my English, it's not my first language so..... 

PS. I would like to get rid of that entire area marked yellow and red

PS. By saying get rid of it I mean replacement with ABS mesh or aluminium mesh

[cliffcoggin]

I suspect that cutting the plastic bumper might reduce the crash resistance of the car even if there is a steel beam behind  it. Get some specialist advice before doing anything drastic enough to fail an MOT.

[Steve Q]

I believe you can get aftermarket bumpers that get rid of the piece you highlight in red. My advice would be to try eBay to see what aftermarket bumpers are available :) 

Cheers

Steve

[kenaimad]

Cliffcoggin 

I understand what u r saying but to be honest, what's the crash resistance of the front bumper? Good kick will crack it if u know what I mean, I already ask a couple of lads and in most cases the answer was "I don't know "

Steve Q 

I already read so many articles and check so many shops including eBay, most of the bumpers r not good for the s-line, if I would like to get one for the s-line I will also have to get a new bonnet, I think, that's why I come up with an idea of just removing the grill and replacing it with the honeycomb mesh

I don' want  to profane the car, I would like to make as neat, safe and good lookin as possible. That's why I ask for ideas, advices 

If u will have any links to grills that make fit, please share

Best

 

[Steve Q]

1 hour ago, kenaimad said:

Cliffcoggin 

I understand what u r saying but to be honest, what's the crash resistance of the front bumper? Good kick will crack it if u know what I mean, I already ask a couple of lads and in most cases the answer was "I don't know "

Steve Q 

I already read so many articles and check so many shops including ebay, most of the bumpers r not good for the s-line, if I would like to get one for the s-line I will also have to get a new bonnet, I think, that's why I come up with an idea of just removing the grill and replacing it with the honeycomb mesh

I don' want  to profane the car, I would like to make as neat, safe and good lookin as possible. That's why I ask for ideas, advices 

If u will have any links to grills that make fit, please share

Best

 

Fair point, and yes to have  the facelifted bumper then you'll need the bonnet (as you rightly pointed out) plus wings and headlights. 

I appreciate where cliff is coming from but I think you'd be ok to cut the yellow highlighted piece out. You then would need to make the custom grill mesh. However you may find you need to add extra bracing to the bumper as you may affect it's rigidity. 

Cheers

Steve

[kenaimad]

Gentleman's thank u for ur advice and time, will try to do it and share it once done and I'm happy with the results 

Any  more advices or ideas r welcome 

[Steve Q]

13 hours ago, kenaimad said:

Gentleman's thank u for ur advice and time, will try to do it and share it once done and I'm happy with the results 

Any  more advices or ideas r welcome 

You're welcome, glad we could help :) 

Cheers

Steve

[niedzial1983]

I did something similar to my a6 c6 fog light grills. Bought honeycomb mesh from eBay. Need to hotglue them in 

[kenaimad]

I have a shoppng list  so far

Adhesive 

Screws

Reinforced bars

Rubber seal /aluminium like - to use it round the grill instead of that silver one. not sure what size will fit

Honeycomb mesh-again, not sure if I should get a plastic abs or aluminium one, the original grill its bend at  small angle so will need to make sure I'm gonna be able to bend the mesh just like the original one , unfortunately due to lack of experience I still don't know which one to pick

I send a number of @ to the eBay sellers asking if they can provide 100cm x 100cm mesh sheet but no response so far

niedzial1983, r u happy with ur work? Is it holds in place securely? 

Best

kenaimad 

[kenaimad]

Update  to the shopping list

Problem with the mesh sheet, the biggest one I found so far is 100cmx60cm and I think that may be slightly to small to fit the entire grill, I get  respond from most of the sellers from eBay and no luck so far with the  100cmx100cm. 

[niedzial1983]

On 29/04/2018 at 5:53 PM, kenaimad said:

I have a shoppng list  so far

Adhesive 

Screws

Reinforced bars

Rubber seal /aluminium like - to use it round the grill instead of that silver one. not sure what size will fit

Honeycomb mesh-again, not sure if I should get a plastic abs or aluminium one, the original grill its bend at  small angle so will need to make sure I'm gonna be able to bend the mesh just like the original one , unfortunately due to lack of experience I still don't know which one to pick

I send a number of @ to the ebay sellers asking if they can provide 100cm x 100cm mesh sheet but no response so far

niedzial1983, r u happy with ur work? Is it holds in place securely? 

Best

kenaimad 

Zip ties 🤣 i have not had time to secure it yet 

[A3_Ben]

for the facelift bumper - the first A3 8P's had the split grille however the first facelift models from 2005 - 2008 was literally just the front full grille change - it's from 2008 onwards where the whole front end changed and the rear lights