New grill for the 7

[3-Pedals]

After tinkering with the 7 and getting to know it a bit better, the front grille just didn't fit with all of the carbon fiber and black paint.  Also, it really looked like a grill you cook on and not a proper grille for  sports car.

 

Here is the factory grille...nothing wrong with it but, it just looks, well, like a Webber Grill.  

 

 

I decided to go with my old standby for air intakes - aluminum 1/4 hex mesh 0.065" thick.  I use this specific material because it has the highest free area of the 1/4" screens available.  At 77% free area, it is 20% better than standard #4 SS wire mesh.  This time, I used hex mesh that was powder coated black so it would truly fit in with the Carbon Black Edition 7.

 

Here is a sheet of the material with painters tape on the section I am preparing to cut and the cardboard pattern for the new grille.  The painters tap protects the powder coating and provides a surface to mark the pattern on.

 

 

Then carefully cut the panel from the mesh sheet.  This is tricky material to work with as it does not cut evenly or smoothly.  The freshly cut edge is also very, very sharp.  Yeah...there was blood....lol

 

After numerous test fits and subsequent cutting and trimming to finalize the shape of the new grille, I wrapped the sharp edges with a special U profile rubber molding to give the grille a finished look and to allow it to seal to the body around the grille opening.  The panel now looked like this:

 

 

Moving on to the next challenge:  Support and installation.  To add strength and to provide means to fasten the new grille to body, I decided to make some carbon fiber mounting brackets.  Using the painters tape trick, I cut, drilled, sanded and shaped the brackets.  They are light, strong, and the CF matched the other panels on the car:

 

And now for a test fit with the new grille:

 

 

Everything fit, was secure, and ready to remove all of the tape.  

 

 

It was time to add a little Seven bling to the front.  I found a company in Scotland who laser cuts stainless steel into the classic 7 grille logo.  They looked great on line so, thought I would get one. After de-burring the rough bits from the laser cutter with a diamond file and checking fit on the new grille, it was time to decide on the finish for the logo as I didn't care for the brushed ss look.

 

Not ready to commit to paint yet, i decided to cover it in the same blue vinyl I used for the stripes.  OMG...wrapping that was not fun. Slow progress, tedious, and hella time consuming.  Just had to go one section at a time, make extensive use of the heat gun, and be very thankful no one will see the back of the part!

 

 

 

 

skipping way ahead - I finished up the wrap and then painted the connecting links between the inner and outer triangles black to make them vanish against the grille.  It came out like this:

 

 

Last step was secure the logo to the grille with safety wire (also painted black) and now the 7 has a proper grille:

 

 

Overall a tedious but entertaining project.  Looking forward to seeing it out in sunlight but that may be a while as our "snowcrete" is just not going away anytime soon.....

 

Edited February 14 by 3-Pedals

[Scott_]

I think it looks great!

 

Scott