Originally Posted by HappyCurmudgeon

Yes, that hood looks quite heavy-duty.

that should stop all that hood flex people where complaining about.

Originally Posted by MoodyRubi

Alright- so my Jeep is new and I wanted some bonding time with it- so I did the Grille Mod this weekend. As for the people who finished this in less than an hour, I am not worthy- I think I spent more than an hour picking out the paint- (went with rust-o-leum satin black) Also, I had never taken the grille off before (let alone disconnected turn signals and headlights) and didn’t want to brake anything so that took a while- big thanks to the JK Forum members for the instructions on how to do said grille removal) I am by no means a mechanic or a handyman/woman (yet!), but I am determined as well as moody- so I charged ahead… I didn’t have a star-key- torque whatever, or knew what one was for that matter- but it gave me an excuse to buy one- I fortunately picked up a multi headed one- you could dismantle the universe with these things!
I couldn’t find a whole sheet of expanded metal that had the diamonds going vertically, so I went with the home depot cut and paint aluminum gutter guard approach- a dangerous undertaking indeed- man, cut edges are deadly!!! I somehow managed to have a piece I was cutting spring up into my face and make two linear cuts across the bridge of my nose- but hey- no guts no glory, no blood no balls?! Wounded but ever willful, I managed to cut more pieces of metal than body parts!
Next, I tried to figure out a way to avoid the sticky back zip ties and gorilla glue- but finally conceded- and yeah, that is a time consuming little endeavor indeed! But I was this far in- so endeavor I did- and at long last- the elusive billet grill victory was mine!
Short Version- the project was a frustratingly righteous PITA, but an awesome learning experience, and a great excuse to mess with my Jeep and drink beer all weekend…. I figured as long as I had the grille off, I would go ahead and do the Angry Eyes mod too….
Thanks- I think- for all of your help!

<img src="https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=196461"/><img src="https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=196462"/><img src="https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=196463"/><img src="https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=196464"/><img src="https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=196465"/>

Originally Posted by sheepdog

Looks great!
I am a first time jeep owner and have found NOTHING is just "bolt on" or "no cutting required". I've worked on motorcycles and things just went on smooth and easy. The jeep is another animal for some reason.

Originally Posted by sheepdog

Looks great!
I am a first time jeep owner and have found NOTHING is just "bolt on" or "no cutting required". I've worked on motorcycles and things just went on smooth and easy. The jeep is another animal for some reason.

Originally Posted by 08GreenRubi

Not true!!! There are TONS of "bolt on" things for the JK. Here is just one example. This is a cheap and easy mod for those of us that are used to manual transmission Jeeps, but opted for autos far various reasons. That left foot was getting bored and needed a place to rest.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...R.E+Dead+Pedal

Originally Posted by deathwagon

I wasn't thrilled about using the million zip tie block method, especially since it's already over 103 degrees here eveyday and I didn't want to have to worry about some of the tabs coming loose due to the heat. So I used a different method. I didn't read this entire thread, so some others may have already mentioned this.

I used the same M-D Products Door Grille that Mapar mentioned in his posts, available from Ace Hardware. Rather than mounting it to the grill, I just mounted it to the radiator shroud plastic. I had to make some cutouts so the grill mounting tabs could pass through the mesh, but it worked out well and the whole process only took about 40 minutes. Ghetto engineering at it's finest and I think it turned out pretty well.