Custom "wingless" grill

The custom grill without the airplane wing is a matter of taste. Not everyone agrees with removing this symbol of Saab's aircraft building heritage. For me, I was looking for a very aggressive look, and the trapezoidal shape this creates mimmicks the intercooler opening in the lower front bumper nicely. It also is a strong hint that the car is tuned and customized.

First, I suggest you get an inexpensive, used grill to try this on. ;) That way you can go back to stock if you make any mistakes.

After separating the two halves of the stock grill, I used a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut away, very carefully, the black fins or slats. I am going to use mesh instead, and did not want the plastic slats to show through. In the picture below, you can see the slats are cut away and the back half of the grill has been primed. Be careful, this plastic is very soft and the Dremel tool is sharp.

The stock plastic is black but it was dull and faded. So I went the extra mile and painted the back half black, so it would be totally slick and color coded.

I used the Dremel tool again, to cut away the center bar/wing. It will leave behind two holes in the sides, so you will want to fill it with something durable. Blaque_Out on saablink.net recommended plumber's epoxy. That really is a great solution! It is like a putty, that dries rock hard, and is sandable.

So after applying the putty, be sure to sand it very flat. You'll also want to scuff the chrome surface and fill any other imperfections... Basically do whatever you would normally do to prep a surface for painting. Clean, degrease, dry... etc. Since there was chrome, I put down a few coats of adhesion promoter first, and then some primer.

Continue to apply primer and sand smooth/clean until you are satisfied your surface is very smooth. Then you can paint the front half. Use light coats rather than thick ones to avoid runs, sags and chipping paint. After it is dry apply your clear coat. Once it's cured, go ahead and polish it for a nice shine!

I chose to use some Mesh from the local home improvement store (gutterguard works well). They had two types, one had a diamond shape and looked like chicken coop fencing.

This Mesh has more of a honeycomb shape, and matches pretty close to the viggen front bumper mesh. Cut it to fit your grill.

You can paint it if you want: I painted mine black, but if you choose to leave it silver, you may consider a clear coat to prevent rust.

Now all that is left is to put it back together!

-submitted by abdukted1456