One of our good customers wanted to update the front of his Navi, we searched high and low and the only things we could find was your typical billet grille but no lower. E&G makes a mesh grille, but it looks like a chicken coupe and they don’t have a lower either and the STRUT package in Canada is WAY overpriced. We found a mesh grille that had really fine mesh from Putco that is part of their “Liquid Mesh Grille” line, but again they didn’t make a lower. Everyone has a lower up to 2003, but nothing for the newer one. We got the Putco grille ordered in only to find out that it is meant to go over the stock plastic section, there was no way in HELL that was going to happen, so we cut up the stock grille and fabricated our own mounts so that it fit flush with the plastic part of the grille. We then order a grille from a 2004-2006 Ford F-150 since it had the largest piece of mesh in it and decided to make our own.

We made a template out of cardboard of what we wanted the lower grille to look like and got it fitting perfect. We then transferred the template to 1/4″ MDF (so it would still bend) and got that to fit perfect in the opening. Finally we took a piece of 3/8″ aluminum and adhered the MDF template to the aluminum plate. We then fired up the router and the lube and 2 hours later we had a new grille surround. Once we had the piece made, we rabbeted a 1/4″ groove on the back for the mesh to recess into from the back. Once we had the grille made, we then begin the painful task of slowly and carefully bending the grill to match the curve of the bumper. Using body parts (chest and legs) and tables as bending tools we got the grille bent perfectly Billy Lane style.We fabricated a half dozen mounting tabs and adhered them to the grille. Using thread inserts into the lip of the bumper we test fitted everything into plate. Starting with 120grit sandpaper and going up to 2000 we slowly worked our way up to a dull polish. Several rubbing compounds and polishes later we had a pretty cool looking grille. We then cut the F150 grille apart and mounted the mesh into our new grille.