Danielson99

This is a simple Grill mod and while I had the grill off I decided to smoke the turn signals at the same time. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 5 *5 being hardest*, this job is a 1 and anyone with the time and space can get it done and have it look decent. The total cost was about $40-$50 if you include gorilla glue, zip ties and zip squares, gutter guard, sandpaper/steel wool, paint thinner, can of adhesion promoter, paint and VHT Nightshades. Needless to say there is plenty of supplies left over, especially the Nightshades....I used almost none of it.

First you remove the plastic rivets on the top of the grill, 6 in total.


Simply pry it up and pull out both pieces.




Pull the top of the grill back towards you, you'll feel the turn lights pull out of their clip which is normal.


Now reach in and remove each turn light bulb by simply turning the base of it clockwise about a quarter turn.



Once both are removed you simply pull the lower half of the grill towards you and it slides right off.


Next you remove the turn lights from their housing by simply pinching each of the 2 clips that hold it in.



If you want to paint over the Jeep emblem then leave it, otherwise grab your old ladies hair dryer (or yours ) and start hitting those letters one at a time. I held the dryer over it for about 1 minute for each letter.

Then I used fishing line, holding it with one hand and pulling it through with a pair of plyers in the other hand.

now you're left with the glue from the letters


I just sprayed some WD-40 on the letters and used tweezers to gently lift the glue off. It's very simple and doens't take long.

All done...


Next I just sanded the piss out of the grill. At first I used the steel wool but it was taking too long so I used a soft sanding block. I took my time and tried to make sure I got every square inch of it.


I cleaned the surface with paint thinner and after 3 coats of the Krylon plastic paint it looks like this...


After it had all dried I got out the zip ties and squares and went to town.



I just cut pieces roughly to size and secure them with the zip ties. After the mesh was all secure I trimmed the excess zip tie off and then popped in the 2 turn lights that I gave two coats of VHT Nightshades and I'm done...

Danielson99

Before


After



I am going to tape off the side marker lights and give them 2 coats of VHT Nightshades today. I'll post a few pics of it when I'm done. I'll be getting the stock wheels powdercoated hopefully this coming week and I look forward to posting a few pics of that when I'm done also....

hope that the pics might help any newbies who wanted to do an inexpensive mod.

I should have taken the 'After' pics on the beach also for alittle extra dazzle...but very happy with the way it turned out. I'm keeping the Jeep emblem aside and we'll likely use it for a 'old trailer' upgrade that we'll do down the road. Probably color match an old camper with some custom paint and add the Jeep emblem to it

sky

Thanks for posting pics, I have seen tons of lighter colored jeeps w/ this mod & it looks awesome due to the contrasting colors. A friend of mine just did his on rescue green so still has great contrast to the black. I feel the natural green is so dark as it is, it would look weird spraying the front black. Do you have any regrets? Any other pics you could send me?

love the tinted lenses btw

Danielson99

I understand what you're saying, you do see much more of a contrast when you do this mod on a lighter colored JK. I guess you'd have to see it from my point of view and I'll try to explain.
This week I'll be getting the stock rims power-coated, I like the way they look being black. The bumpers, fenders, roof, grill, side-step and some trim are all black. Sure it doesn't have alot of contrast to the green pearl but it's completely different looking if you compare it to a Sahara for example...that has painted fenders etc. The difference is subtle but blacking out a JK is pretty cool in my opinion.

When you see a Nat Green JK in sunlight it's actually far lighter than in the evening and you see much more contrast between the black and green. To be honest, the more I look at the stock grill the more I see it as a 'pretty' grill. It belongs on a mall cruiser in a way. I have absolutely no regrets painting it black, it adds a touch of uniqueness, lowers the mall-cruiser factor and gives me the pleasure of doing another project

At work we get material powdercoated almost daily from a shop across the street. He's willing to do my tires for $30/tire so I'm pretty happy with that. I'll definitely post more pics once I get the wheels back. Thanks for the comments...

Johnny_t

That's nice. Considering the same