I have been thinking about my grille for a little while now. I liked the stock look, but I want something a little more custom. I have seen this mod done a thousand times, and finally decided to go for it.
Here's a look at what I started with.
I started by removing the grille. (obviously
) Then I used tin snips to cut the fins. The center post came out with the skillfull use of a hacksaw.
I got some expanded metal from CT and got to forming the grille.
I still need to bondo up the grille a bit. The plastic gets a bit thin where the fins were. The grille itself needs to be painted and there is still a tonne of sanding to do but this is what I got after a couple hours.