After looking at the commercial offerings for wire mesh grills for my
Carrera
GTS
, I came to the conclusion the aftermarket offerings didn't fit very well, looked bad and were WAY overpriced for what they are.
It took me a while to find the wire mesh I wanted - thin enough to adapt to the complex curves, strong enough and sized to stop smaller rocks and debris from passing through the mesh, and able to prevent even a good-sized rock from crashing through into the radiator. Numerous of the online DIYs use mesh from rain gutter guards, but the mesh I saw at Home Depot and Lowe's seemed to me would restrict airflow and wasn't that strong. After a couple of weeks of searching, I found some mesh in a replacement storm door window that met my requirements.
I found a PDF template of the opening on another forum, added 2mm all around, and made my cuts. After two coats each side of PlastiDip, I removed the vertical spar in each opening, inserted the mesh and carefully secured it with a total of 11 4" black cable zip ties for each grill. The four ties on the side of the horizontal spars are only visible if you get down and look; the three ties on the top and the two in the center of each horizontal spar (using the holes where the vertical spar attached) are invisible unless you're on the ground looking up.
Total cost: $36 for the storm door window (with enough mesh to do two replacement screen if required), $7 for the PlastiDip (which I already had) and $2.49 for 100 heavy-duty indoor/outdoor UV resistant cable ties. No need to remove the bumper, airflow is barely restricted and if anything gets through the mesh grill it'll be so large it'll take a big chunk out of the bumper with it. If a grill gets bent, it's done its job...and I can replace it in about an hour (including PlastiDip drying time).
Yeah, I know DIY grills have been done before. But I haven't seen any on a
911
GTS
bumper that looked this clean and are mounted as securely.
Excellent work! I'm confused where you the zip tie to hold it all in place? This stupid bird is still trying to make its nest in my opening after 2 years of trying...
The red circles show the location of the ties the wrap around the ends of the horizontal spars (visible in the first pics if you look closely). The red lines show the locations of the ties that are hidden from view...at the top they're pulled through existing holes that look like they're for drainage in the top of the plastic shroud; in the two horizontal spars they feed through the holes on the underside of the spars that the vertical spar (now removed) clipped into. If you're thinking of doing, I can take pics of the underside to show tie locations.
That makes sense... what holds the bottom in place?
Here's a shot of the underside. Ten of the 11 ties are visible (the top left one is just out of the frame). If you're careful where you thread the tires, and trim neatly, all but the 4 ties on the edge of the horizontal spars are invisible from the top.
There are no zip ties at the very bottom...but the thickness of the mesh and all the other ties make it pretty rigid everywhere. I'm pretty confident that any rock or debris hitting the anywhere on the mesh other than at the very bottom will be stopped. Conceivably something just the right size hitting at just the right angle and speed could impact under the lower spar and bend the mesh...but even in an object got through the mesh and into the cavity, it would be dramatically slowed down.
You used a storm door? May I ask where you found it? My husband is wanting to do the same thing on his 997 but thinks he has to remove the bumper. Where did you find this template? thanks in advance!!
I got the mesh in the screen door replacement section at Lowe's. Home Depot and Lowe's products are sometimes different in Canada than in the U.S., so not sure it will be available in the U.S....if not, just shop around different harware and window supply stores until you find something that works.
The template for a
997.2
is attached. It was created by rennlister cbst09
Template for 997.2 grill mesh - ******** Discussion Forums
He also did a video showing the installation process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipOYjf7920w
The template isn't the prettiest thing, but it's accurate (I added 2mm all around just to give me some wiggle room) and did the job. Here's another video cbst09 did showing cable tie locations. He only installed one tie in the upper area (3 holes available), and didn't put any in the areas on the horizontal spars where the (removed) vertical spar was mounted. Using all 11 available tie locations, the screen is VERY solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kfNmM0wqI
View attachment 997.2 grill template.pdf
