240z Front Grille
The factory grille has an ugly gap. Here's how to fix it.
The Datsun grille is a simple design, but has a minor flaw: there's a big gap at the bottom.
Here's a prime example. Above the bumper is a nice set of horizontal vanes held together with four vertical supports, but look underneath the bumper. There's a gap that reveals the radiator firewall and an assortment of bumps and welds. Not pretty at all. Sure, it's not really visible when you're standing next to the car, but if you're crouching down, or facing it from inside another car, it's very visible. Admittedly, not many people would notice, but I did and I don't like it.
Eliminating that gap is one of little things that sets your car apart from the rest, and it's fairly easy. All you need is another grille, a hacksaw, some epoxy and some paint.
This is what the grille looks like. The gap is obvious.
I have no idea why they did it that way, other than save a buck or two. Back then they probably figured nobody would pay any attention to it because the car itself looks so fantastic.
I bought a damaged grille for just $25. All I needed was two of the horizontal vanes and the uprights.
It was actually worse than it looks here and definitely not repairable.
Some sandpaper and steel wool cleaned it right up.
I cut the uprights into 4 pieces, each of which had 4 slots, then rounded off the corners. They were slipped over the existing horizontal vanes and held in place with a generous amount epoxy. Mine came out a little crooked, but it doesn't matter because when the hood is open, people will be too busy checking out your engine to look at the backside of the grille.
The upper vanes will support the lower vanes, and the uprights give them the correct spacing. I had to slightly widen the slots with a hacksaw blade.
The additional horizontal vanes were inserted into the bottom slots of the uprights and epoxied into place. They needed a slight trim at the ends where they meet the bodywork.
I gave the entire thing a few coats of silver, then painted the uprights flat black. I used plastic model paint, which is amazingly durable. It flows pretty easily and went on quickly just using a little brush. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Here's the finished product. Not only is the gap filled, the uprights are nearly invisible. The license plate will cover the mounting bracket in the middle.
I think it's much better than stock.
It took about half an hour to remove the grille from the car. Another half hour to pull the damaged one apart. About two hours for the cutting and trimming and gluing. Another hour for painting and half an hour to put it back into the car. Minus the time finding the grill, this mod took less than five hours and looks terrific.