A Busy Weekend! Grill & Spoiler

[Logan]

Weeeeee!! My spoiler's fixed! :)

http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/watermark.php?file=500/1wing-med.jpg

....and then, just for giggles, I'm debadged my grill, a la Zack!

http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/watermark.php?file=503/1grill-med.jpg

[Johnman]

Now that's how a spoiler supposed to look! Congrat's, Logan. Now you can venture out without fear of embarrasment!

[MM03MOK]

Are you going to install TV's in the headrests for your roof mounted satellite dishes??? SpeedChannel, all day, every day!!!

Both look great!!!

[Petrograde]

Wow, looks great! I was seriously thinking about taking of my front badge as well. Did you follow Zacks advice? or did you do it differently?

[Logan]

For the grille, I bought another grill from Ford, cost me about $120, then proceeded to hack it up to get the 6 vertical bars needed to do the conversion. If you put some thought into it ahead of time, it's not hard.

I used JB Kwik Weld to attach the 6 new bars as it goes tacky in about 4 minutes cures in 4 hours, and has a thick consistency to fill in gaps, plus it's dark grey, so minimizes any touch up paint work.

...for the record, yes, there is a 6.5" LCD going into each headrest with a DVD head unit... Got to entertain the kiddo's in the back seat ya know... No speedvision, but Bob the builder? Probably! :)

[Zack]

Nice! Its great to be an inspiration to others.
Cant wait to see it in person.

[Petrograde]

Thank you Logan and Zack! I'm gonna give it a try within the next few weeks. I guess I'll be losing the rear emblem too, well not for a while. When I've accumulated enough scratches, ding's and paint bubbles, I'm going to repaint the whole car. So, I'll wait to do the rear emblem until then, since I'll have 2 holes to fill in.

Once again, thanks for the idea and the guildence!

[Logan]

Hmmm... Someone was looking for my Blinder transmitter placement. If you look close, you can see them in either side of the lower opening in the bumper cover.

[SergntMac]

MM stuff aside, what about that lawn, Logan? Looks like it needs a little TLC, eh?

[ap2003]

In picture nuber two... Interesting antenna setup.. Does that go with the headhest upgrade? How do those antenna effect 0-60 times.. :)

_gus

[Logan]

heheh.. My lawn guys come on Monday's, what can I say? :) Except, you should see the flower bed... Ugh...

Folks asked for more details specifically how to go about doing the mod itself for the grill... So here's MY way to do it.

Buy yourself an extra grill, Ford part #3W3Z-8200-AAA (Black), other colors are available with slight part number variations.

I used a dremel w/dremel's thin cut off wheels to separate the bars from the grill shell. When you remove the center 6 bars to remove the mercury badge, cut the bars about 2-3mm down away from the grill surround. You want to leave yourself some material on the shell, as you'll lose some material to the cut off wheel.

Once you've got the center section on your grill cut out, open up the parts grill. On this grill, you want the 3 bars on either side of the 6 bar center section. The bars get shorter the further towards the end of the grill you go, so the 3 on each side, closest to the center section are the best to use. Now, this is important, cut the bars as close to the shell as possible, you're puposefully cutting more bar than you need so you can grind and trim them down to an exact fit on the other grill.

To attach the 6 bars, I used a dremel sandpaper barrel to grind the ends down to make an exact fit for each bar, then mixed small batches (1 bar at a time) of JB Kwick Weld (Home depot or a parts store). Once you mix A&B, apply a small portion to all 4 edges to be joined (Be very neat and apply as sparingly as possible). Join the bar to the grill shell and wait 2-3 minutes for it to set up hard enough to sit on its own (A hairdryer on warm helps improve the setting time). Repeat for the other six bars.

All told it maybe took me about 2 hours to complete, as I'd do one bar, wait 5-10 minutes, go back, do another one on the other side, and so on...

I have VERY slight seams where the bars are joined, but you can't see them unless you're looking specifically for them, as the JB weld is dark grey when dried. If I really care, I suppose I could go slap some touch up paint on the seams, but I doubt I'll bother.

[Bigdogjim]

Looks good! nice touch.. Thanks for the details. The one photo is funny with the antenna setup sticking out.......

Makes one wonder????????

[Logan]

Didn't notice the angle on the photo... Damn neighbor and his satellite dishes... one of em isn't even hooked up and is pointed at my front door... Bastard.

[RCSignals]

Very nice.

But, what's with the satellite dishes on the roof of the MArauder?
Are they retractible?

http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/watermark.php?file=503/1grill-med.jpg

[LincMercLover]

So THAT'S what that button does...

[ik04]

I'm thinkin' that since the grill bars are identical, a good wax casting of the proper width/depth/curvature could be made to replace the center bars without the expense of purchasing another whole grille from Ford/LM.

One of the leftover bars from the hacked-up replacement grille could be used as a die for the mould, or a wooden mock-up would work. I personally do not have the tools/shopspace to create such trick parts, but I'm sure one of our less garage challenged brothers could do this- that is if there is enough interest!

I like the emblem's location, but I wish it was a Mercury Head!!

Kevin

[Logan]

dies & moulds? This is your better way? Uh, I'm thinking the expense of a second grill is just a wee bit cheaper.

[RCSignals]

Maybe a Dentist could make up a "partial" of sorts as a replacement for those front teeth........:)