Grill Modifications

The grill has been an idea of mine for ages but only recently done. Again I didn't want a loud bodykit, but I did want to be subtly different and fit in with the de-badged look. So that middle bar with the ford badge just had to go.

Of course it wasn't going to be so straight forward as just removing the centre bar from the grill, oh no. Ford had decided that the main plastic reinforcing bar for the lights and the place where the grill was secondarily supported would run horizontally up the middle of the centre bar.

I decided I couldn't remove the bar for structural reasons so I left it and bent the plastic mesh around it. The mesh is tucked in below the bumper and held at the top by the two grill fixing screws which have been reinforced to compensate for the two central support clips. Looks good and lets in more air to the oil cooler

For anyone about to do this themselves, I got the black mesh from Halfords (about £10). Ping the bonnet up and you will see the two torx head screws holding the grill on. Undo these, give it a pull and the whole lot is off in your hands.

Back indoors I took the Dremel (Small Hobbyist drill & cutter) to the two sides of the centre bar and to the reinforcing bar above the blue oval, that took about 10 mins. I then used a small file to tidy it all up. I cut the mesh about 1" higher than the gap between the bumper top and the line the top of the grill makes when it goes back on. I also cut it about 1" wider than the hole in the grill. I then used fibreglass to reinforce the area around the screws as there was now quite a lot of flex when attached

Back outside, tuck the mesh into the grove between the bumper and the central bonnet catch bar, bend it over the horizontal black plastic bar and back to the top of the grill area. Now screw the grill back into place through the mesh to hold it all in place, centre up and tighten

That's it, job done. No re-spraying required and more air to the Oil cooler and radiator.