A couple months back I cracked my front bumper and its almost getting time to fix it now that the snow is starting to melt and winter is coming to an end. When looking at the damage and deciding that it's fixable, an idea struck. What if I cut out that bottom grille, smooth out the edges, put in a mesh grille behind it, and paint the whole thing black? In theory it would look great with a Tony Stewart grille, but I haven't made my mind up about whether I should mutilate my bumper or not. I attatched a picture of what I'm saying, if you can't visualize it. So should I do it or should I just leave my bumper stock?

 

What do you have to lose? Give it a shot. Block sand it. Do it nice! Get a nice piece of grill in there. Not chicken wire or starched burlap painted black ... and you got yourself a custom nose on your Monte.

You have to Post pictures of the finished product and expect us to tell you EXACTLY how we think it looks after your modifications ... so don't color outside the lines!

 

What have I got to lose?My bumper!!! LOL

But yeah I think I will probably go for it.

 

I think it would look good.

 

I thought about doing this too and asked a few body shop guys around the area if it could be done. They told my NOT cut out the bootom grille. I was told whats there now kind of supports the bottom lip and cutting that out will make it very flimsy because it's fiberglass and it could possibly break. I was told if I wanted to put mesh there to just leave it as is and put it on top of what's there now.

 

actually look at Whiz. kids monte he has a tony stewart edition. and you can see what his looks like also.

I think it looks great with the T.S.front end in it.

But then i also thought the one person did here in Photo shop with the front bumper off of a Grand Am on the monte it looked pretty sharp also.

 

the body shop might just be saying that because they're about to lose a customer...

but you should check it out more closely to make sure they aren't lying to you. i do'nt know.. if it doens't look good, you'll still have the option of buying another bumper, right?

 

Your front bumper cover shouldnt be fiberglass. It should be plastic. Just them telling you that its fiberglass would make me question their credibility. Just cutting out the plastic grill in the cover shouldnt make you losemuch rigidity. If properly installed, the mesh should be stronger than the plastic you cut out.

 

the bumper is plastic. a polyethylene mix or tpo(thermopolyolefin)is what most of the are. i do work in a bodyshop. your bumper will become more flimsy after cutting out the inserts but when you add your grill it should fix the flimsy provided that you attach the bumper to the grill on the top and bottom in quite a few areas. id recommend 5 or 6 attachment spots on the top as well as the bottom.thats a cool idea! it should look great! DO IT!

 

Looks very sweet! I might change some ideas with my grill looking at that.