Well as most of the people here, I hate the brick in the front grill on the VT, even more so since NM does not require front license plates.
I had an idea of how to get where I wanted, but I figured that the costs would be prohibitive, but after reading around and seeing that the new grill from Hyundai is less than 100$ I figured I would give it a go.
This really started off by accident.
I was just going to change the oil in the VT, but while waiting for the oil to drain, I started looking under the front end to see how easy it would be to take off the grill, and before I knew it, the grill was off.
Just a note for those who want to do this, it looks like its way easier to take off the whole front bumper, I stupidly didnt look at any manuals and thought there was only 4 screws holding the grill in place, when in fact there are many more in the center bar area of the grill, which I broke off.
So I was finally able to get the grill out without taking the front bumper off (BIG MISTAKE!)
I should have taken a before picture, but anyways, behind the brick is a plastic brick on the bumper itself which has the impact foam behind it.
I grabbed my trusty Dremel Sawmax and hacked away till the brick and foam were gone from behind the brick on the grill, I then shaped it so it matched the contours of the bumpers bar
My game plan is:
1) to purchase another grill from Hyundai,
2)cut out the center bar out that is next to the brick,
3)and then on my current grill cut out the brick
4) paste in the brickless center bar portion from the new grill and JB weld some metal bracing which will allow me to screw in the new section to the grill.
5) I will JB weld the same metal bracing to the former brick so that if I ever need to put the brick back on the car I can
I havent measured, but I think the area to the left of the brick is just long enough to cover the whole left from cutting out the brick. I will also check to see if the bars in the grill are level and if the curvature across the grill is the same.
I would strongly advise against JB weld. Its great for temporary fixes, but has never held up well for me over time. A product I have used for fiberglass and ABS body work is called Carbofill and it has worked amazing for those materials. Not sure what the material you want to mend together is, but if its steel spend a few bucks and get it welded, even if its by an amateur at a high school.
the bumper and the grill are both plastic, so no way to weld the metal bracket Im planning on fabbing.
the jb weld was more of a joke than anything, I will probably use an epoxy
But I have used JB weld on cracked cylinder heads and it has help up great. In fact my Jeep 4.0 has 290K + miles on the odometer and the JBweld on the head is still there, still doing its job.
^^ idk about that, jbweld held up for YEARS on my g35 projects, hell it even held up fog light brackets for 4 years and counting. I'm sure welding is a more permanent solution but for a grill jb weld should be way more than enough.
I had been thinking of drilling little pockets in the sections to allow the epoxy to go in the voids and hold better, but that might be a better idea.
I have used "plastic weld" in the past, but that stuff is pretty hard to work with, and it heats up like crazy, I had it melt a piece of polystyrene once
Done really nice job there. The display you present for us is inspiring and very professional. I also love this oem look. No doubt just no brick horizontal. Sure this idea will be reference long into the future.
man I was hoping this was gonna be a complete writeup... oh well its a good start. anyone who is still watching this here is what you need to permanently weld the brickless part in there 50 Piece Plastic Welding Rods they are plastic welding rods the grille is polypropylene so use the green ones.
I looked at getting a plastic welder.......let's just say, they weren't cheap. I didn't want to get one that was less pricey and get a garbage product. I usually just use the spade tip on a soldering iron and it heats up plastic quite nicely. I am sure it isn't the right way to plastic weld, but it worked at the time on my mini bikes.....lol
I use a regular soldering gun (stick version) and PP welding rods you can get from harbour freight or online at ebay. easily available just make sure its for polypropolyne (spelling?)
Plastic welding rods you say, huh? Interesting, hehe.... I shall check it out! Thx.
(Polypropylene)
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