Hatchback: Change Sport Grille to Overseas Standard Grille

A

ag bullet

Member

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2004 Mazda 3 Hatchback,MTX

• Oct 28, 2004

• #1

Installed my JDM Grille tonight!

I got lucky and was able to get this one from ebay that was already Titanium gray. It only took us two hours and a six pack, but the grille is on and looks great. I will snap some pics in the daylight tomorrow.

Anyway, here is a brief step-by-step of what we had to do to make it work. Let me know if you have any questions.

Since the bottom piece is moulded into the bumper, we had to cut that off using tin-snips. Afterwards, we used a cut-off wheel to trim further:

From there we had to trim the remainder of the moulding and some pieces behind. The rest of the mould was removed, by hand with a hack-saw blade:

Then we sanded the really rough stuff nice and smooth:

The few places we couldn't sand, we filed:

The Styrofoam in the bumper stuck out like a sore thumb so we painted it real quick:

Next, we welded a tab to the bottom of the hood latch to make it easier to reach:

New latch in place:

All done! I love the new look. I have to fill in the gap between the bottom of the grille and the bumper a little. Perhaps with some weather-stripping. Shouldn't be a big deal.

Once more, daylight pics coming:

 

M

mazdaspeedpower

Member

Contributor

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2003.5 Titanium MSP

• Oct 28, 2004

• #2

thats awesome man.

 

P

protegeV

Member

:

Mazda...uh, something

• Oct 29, 2004

• #3

nice(thumb)

kinda looks like the 3i grill with the top bar painted...

 

S

sndsgood

Member

:

04 mazda 3/01 sunfire

• Oct 29, 2004

• #4

yeah i'd like to see how that thing looks in the day.

 

A

ag bullet

Member

:

2004 Mazda 3 Hatchback,MTX

• Oct 29, 2004

• #5

sndsgood said:

yeah i'd like to see how that thing looks in the day.

Click to expand...

For those that wanted a before/after shot and or some pics in the daylight, I present you with the following:

Before:

After:

 

H

Hollywood2009

Member

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02 Mazda Protege!!! 06 Dodge Charger SRT-8

• Oct 29, 2004

• #6

I like a lot ...goes with the lower grill... nice blend

 

W

wongpres

Member

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Ti. Grey Mazda3 GT GFX

• Oct 29, 2004

• #7

Great stuff ag bullet, so good that I moved it to How-To vbmenu_register("postmenu_1309149", true);

 

P

protegeV

Member

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Mazda...uh, something

• Oct 29, 2004

• #8

awesome(thumb)

 

3

3-LOV3R

Member

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2004 Mazda3 5-Door

• Jan 25, 2005

• #9

Love it! Makes it look a lot more aggressive. Nice Work.

 

J

jersey_emt

Member

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04 MSM #1089

• Jan 25, 2005

• #10

Nice work.

 

T

TomH

Member

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2005 MZ3 5 Door, 5 Speed

• Jan 26, 2005

• #11

Definately different. I'm not sure I like the way the Mazda emblem seems to hang from that top bar though. If you like it, that's all that matters.

 

A

ag bullet

Member

:

2004 Mazda 3 Hatchback,MTX

• Jan 26, 2005

• #12

TomH said:

Definately different. I'm not sure I like the way the Mazda emblem seems to hang from that top bar though. If you like it, that's all that matters.

Click to expand...

I like the emblem a little better. It is a tad smaller, or so it seems on the "new" grille. For me it was worth the switch to make it different.