r32 grille mod

8/12/2019 R32 Grille Mod

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Volkswagen R32 B&W Photography Sandbox Picture Galleries

Mesh Grille DIY

First, a quick blurb on the point of this DIY. I wanted an upper grille with mesh that matched the lower bumper grilles.There are a few that are close but no one sells one that's an exact match. I also did not want a badgeless grille; I am ju

not a fan of the look.

I bought a stock Tornado Red Grill off a local Vortex user for $20 and I bought a stock center mesh bumper grille fromWorld Impex(part #1J0853677FB41) for about $23. Also picked up some body filler, various grits of sandpaper (40, 80180, 600, 1500, 2000), flat black spray paint, and clear coat for about another $17. Final piece was a rear R32 emblem

from ECS Tuning.

All pictures are linked to 800x600 versions.

Started by disassemling the front grille, all four parts ofwhich are held together by clips (no screws). It should bepretty intuative to disassemble.. I'd never done it before.

Just pop out all the clips holding things together.

Then, I removed the grille louvers by simply cutting them owith a hacksaw.

The body filler I purchased came with a self-adhesive body patch which I cut to fit the gaps created by removing the gri


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louvres. I would definitely recommend using something similar, as it made the application of the body filler a lot easier.

Next it was time for body filler. I used Bondo, and it came with plenty of filler and hardener. The container isn't jokingwhen it says it is only workable for about 5 minutes. I made sure to fill in the areas left empty by the louvres, to the poithat some seeped through the mesh. Who cares, no one can see it and that is what sandpaper is for. I did not pay a lot

attention to smoothing out the filler at this point, just to making sure there was enough there.

I let the filler set overnight, even though it says it is ready to sand in 25-30 minutes. I attacked it with some 40 gritsandpaper to knock down the rough edges and used a utility knife to carefully trim areas I overshot. Had to be carefu

though, because although the filler felt pretty solid, it was possible to get the knife between the filler and plastic and tearall to shreds. Move on to 80 grit, then 180 grit sandpaper and smoothed it out until there was no elevation difference

between the plastic and the filler. Basically, you could tell by the texture that the material was different, but there was nridge where they met. At this point I noticed some areas that did not fill out, whether I missed them or the sandpaper toooff too large of a piece in some places. So I went back to the filler and used a plastic knife to spread it evenly and mad

sure it got into the spots I missed. Then back to the sandpaper after it dried (again, for a day) with 80 and then 180 gritwas happy with the filler, so I went at it with 180 grit to the painted part of the grille. Once the paint was mostly gone anthe areas between the filler and paint were smoothed, I moved on to 600 grit sandpaper. After that, I washed it off, and

put the piece back to the grille so it could be mounted back on the car for fiting.


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As for the mesh grille, i started by cutting off the 'frame' with all the clips attached as well as cutting it straight in half. did this now to ensure that the mesh would be as symmetrical as possible when attached to the frame of the stock grille

I put the reassembled stock grill back on the car and trimmed the mesh to fit. I went little by little until I reached the exafittment I wanted. Best advice here would be just to take your time.

Now, originally, I attached the mesh to the stock grille frame with superglue. Didn't work too well. So we're going to skithat and go to the part that did work well, using the same body filler.

I lined up the mesh where I wanted it and did glue it down, more so it would stay in place while I applied the body filler.applied filler along the bottom and top of the mesh, as well as the side adjacent to the center emblem.

Then it was back to sanding. Same progression as before, 40, 80, 180. I sanded down just enough so the mesh peekedthrough the filler just slightly, just because I liked the look. As with the filling work done on the emblem, I saw some spothat needed attention, so I went back with a second pass on filler to plug gaps and then sanded it all again. Before prime

I worked by way up to 200, 400, and finally 600 grit paper followed by a thorough cleaning of the entire grille beforeprimer.


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Applied two light coats of primer and wet with 1500 grit when it dried. Wiped it down with a wet cloth to remove dust anmade sure it was dry before paint. Four light coats of spray paint, two light coats of clearcoat, and lightly wet sanded wi

2000 grit after it dried overnight.

Put on the car and enjoy! I added the stick-on rear R32 emblem after the grille was on the car and tried to line it up to tfront emblem's position on the stock grille.


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Last modified: April 03 2005 04:54

r32 grille mod

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