Suitable Front Grille Material

[Willycool]

Hello All:



For all of you who are looking into installing a front grille screen, I just wanted to share my personal experiences with you so you can make a confident choice in choosing a suitable material for your front grille project.

This is a very important decision because:



1) The grille material must be strong enough to protect the rad and condenser and deflect road debris impacts.

2) The grille must allow sufficient air flow, no less that 60%

3) The grille must be mounted securely or it could end up in your rad and cause damage.

4) The material must be maintenance free and look nice.



During my research into finding a suitable grille material for the C6, C5 and C4 I have discovered the following:

The 20 gage Stainless Steel round hole pattern with 79% open area stopped a rock and standard size bolt at 55 mph during testing with out damaging the grille.

The same gage mesh (20 gage) screen did not hold up so well and was damaged, causing the items to pass throw the mesh. The mesh began to fray and need to be replaced.
The 23 and higher gage mesh was destroyed and is not suitable.

I suggest that you do not go any thinner than a 20 gage and stay away from plain steel or aluminum because they will oxidize and need to be replaced. Be careful with painting the screen, because the paint will be bombarded with road partials and will come off.



A power coating would be more suitable than painting.

Make sure your grille material is secure. I suggest you do not use wire to secure your material to the plastic grille, because it could fatigue and break, causing the wire and grille material to strike the condenser and rad.

The 20 gage material actually strengthened the grille area, were lesser gage material did not.

I personally like the look of the round hole stainless steel, because it blends in nicely with the round head lights. The Stainless Steel is also maintenance free and can be polished to a mirror shine.

The matching side vent grilles are also nice.


If you have any questions, please send me a message.



Thanks

 

[I_R_DA_ONE]

Thanks for the information.....I was thinking about installing one on my 86 and hadn't heard of anybody that had tried it..

Mine started overheating ,, so I took the radiator out and found it was packed with trash between the radiator and condensor.......was looking for a grill like you said,,,I will go with the stainless.... I saw them on e-Bay and was wondering if anybody had tried them......Thanks

Mike

 

[Dakota kid]

looks cool

 

[FastMover]

Hi Willycool
Great job looks great....

Can you tell us were we can get some of the 20 gage Stainless Steel round hole pattern mesh ?

Thanks Jim

 

[Smittybilt]

Looks great Willy;
How did you end up fastening the grill? Was it hard to get the factory grill off of the car? Really interested because I want to the exact same thing to mine. Thanks. Smitty

 

[Willycool]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all.

I suggest you look at ecklers, corvette garage or autoxtc for a good kit, which includes all the mounting hardware. These places sell a pre-made version of the grille for a lot less. You can also get the matching side grilles too.
Expect to pay around $99.00 for a good 304 stainless steel kit.
I personally think that is a bargan, considering I have seen the cheeper mess grille for more money.

Willy



Make shure it is the 20 gage version and not the mesh.

Willy

 

[Dakota kid]

sweet

 

[frankb]

that realy looks good, nice job