How To: JDM Style Front Upper Grill

[kidkorrupt]

JDM STYLE FRONT UPPER GRILL.

Here is a another cheap little mod. I probably won’t be doing any worthwhile How-to’s until I get the old style JDM tail-lights and document the installation. =P

Basically all you have to do is pop off the black portion of the upper grill. You don’t need to take off the whole grill or mask to paint this piece, it pops right out. This is for mp5’s but it should be the same for protégé’s

5 snaps hold it in place, they are pictured below. For removal I used a screwdriver but broke the left female snap and the middle male part. 2 broken pieces out of 10 aint bad but still……. A member of mpsport.net recommends using a L-shape tool to pop it off. Whatever you use, ust work slowly and all should be fine.



Here is the pieces I broke:



Now that it is off you can paint it yourself or bring it to a body-shop to paint it for you. If you have a factory paint job open your driver side front door and on the door it will say the color code of your car. for a 2003 silver mp5 the color code is 22V. You can bring the piece to a body shop with the color code and they should charge you cheap for it ($30-$40). Maybe you can haggle since you took the piece off for them and know the color code so they don’t have to do matching.

You can also use the color code to buy spray cans of automotive paint online that are the exact color. They are like$15-$30 for just the paint though! Yikes.

I did mine myself. I started off by sanding with 350 grit sandpaper and going to 600 and putting on some light layers of primer and sanding again. For paint I went to kragen and got Duplicolor brand silver that was only like $3 a can. There motto is they match original paint and it worked pretty well. I also got duplicolor 500 degrees clear coat. When painting ALWAYS follow the instructions on the can. Go light coats and give it plenty of time to dry.

for black p5 owners your out of luck unless you want to paint the strip silver like on a protege


Here is is all done with a comparison of a silver JDM sport 20:


edit in-i changed the grit for sandpaper because i accidenly put 150..don't use that, its very rough. also, i know the car isn't a sport20 familia s-wagon. i couldn't find pictures of a silver one on mazda.co.jp, but trust me, the upper grill is body color on them

[scootzpr5]

That looks sweet as hell. Its a very subtle mod but it looks clean. I think i'm gonna do that shit too now. props man.

[kidkorrupt]

thanks man.

yeah, i go for the subtle stuff. No one would know i modded my car unless they were into mp5's and thats the way i want it =P

good luck on the mod and if you got any questions just PM me

[azeli73]

excellent job Kid!

[derrick1623]

why not just leave the strip on there, and tape off whats not to be painted?!! thats what i did.

[enigM@]

geniuUuUsSsSs!!!

that's what i was gonna say!

[kidkorrupt]

yeah, you can jsut leave it there and mask but some people would rather not deal with the hassle of masking. Cuz if you do a bad job masking you can get like color all over your grill or headlights. And i guess if you want an EXACT color match it would be easier for a body shop to work on with the piece removed.

also if you leave it masked its hard to get the piece all one color, some hard to reach areas may not get even color distribution. Like the underside of the black piece thats near the grill...It would be hard to mask in such a way as to get that part all one color, especially the area above the "M".

for me i jsut wanted to make that whole piece silver so that it would look like it came factory like that.

[123zoom]

Isn't it possible just to get some vinyl and put it on top of teh black piece instead of painting it?

[enigM@]

yea but it might not be an exact match

[123zoom]

cuz i read about ppl doing eyelids with vinyl and since it reflects in teh light it will b a good match? is it possible ot get vinyl back off?

[kidkorrupt]

vinyl wont be as durable and it will be hard to get all parts of the plastic covered with it. far away it'll work but up close you can tell it a giant sticker

vinyl comes off easier, a hell lot easier than paint..lol

[90210brandon]

Thanks Kid! I did exactly would you wrote. I did mine in blue to match the theme I am trying to put to my P5. I'll have to post pics when I can. Right now, I am in Victoria, BC for work. I'll be home soon though (Friday)! Thanks again though.

[90210brandon]

Just showing ya'll what I did. Thanks again Kid.

[kidkorrupt]

looks good, same paint as the strut bar?? =P

and nice gujustud oilcap, you got the logo i wanted

no rpob on the guide, it was almost too easy to do a write-up on. did you break any of the clips during removal?

[90210brandon]

Same paint as the strut bar, yep. Thanks about the oil cap, I'll tell Amish! Yep, I broke one of the clips. Thankfully there are 4 more.