Gutted to miss the cone dodging today 'cause I had to work... so I thought I would do some constructive (or not) stuff to the car this afternoon.

Here goes...

1. Remove grill from car using standard hex bit x8

2. Place your shiny grill on a work bench and re-consider what you are about to do... a cup of tea helps here.

3. Drill out 6 no. rivets as shown

4. Using a flathead screw driver, some firm pressure and love.... push out the silver coloured tabs which remove the entire chrome part of the grill

5. Here's the grill in two parts

6. Here's the badge off

7. And here it is in it's first two coats of primer

Many many top coats of Black Magic and laquer to follow tomorrow along with the fun of buying a rivet gun and trying to re-assemble the whole sha-bang without scratching anything!

I'm tempted to do something like this to mine - improves the look quite a bit IMO

Has anyone attempted to replace the actual grill bit with mesh?

I know you can buy a replacement mesh grill but they seem to protrude a wee bit further than the standard one.

Cheers - Si

No rivets involved in the Fabia. All unclips.

May think about re-doing the silver bit and colour coding later though.

So far it looks like this.

I have a spare black Magic Fabia vRS grill if anybody wants to play and not risk ruining their original.

Let me know

Ah now thats exactly what I'm after! Looks really good. Just cant see a way of fixing the mesh to the original bracket.

All colour coded does look better than the chrome I think for sure.

Although I didnt have a problem with the Skoda badge I think it just looked a bit odd placed high up like it is hence me going for the MS Design grill

The mesh is sandwiched between the outer chrome part and the inner black part. No bonding or anything required. Make the mesh slightly bigger than the hole and then it is held in place by the grill itself.

Unfortunately, there is no cut out. I origionally done the mesh in silver and the cutout was too obvious. Probably wouldn't show too much with the black, but never got round to cutting the hole. I have to wedge my hand up behind the grill to pull the lever. Oh the joys of being thin.

A company in St Albans called R-Tec. Your local Halfords should also sell some.

The mesh is sandwiched between the outer chrome part and the inner black part. No bonding or anything required. Make the mesh slightly bigger than the hole and then it is held in place by the grill itself

Not so sure if it would be as simple as that on an octy. Grill seems to be held in by little clips round the edge rather than sandwiched in.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

Not so sure if it would be as simple as that on an octy. Grill seems to be held in by little clips round the edge rather than sandwiched in.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

Give AAT a call.....Erik has a mesh insert for the Octy...

Thanks a lot Adrian!

Job jobbed

looks brilliant mate.

wish my painting was going as well!

sorry I can't offer any useful tips

Looks great mate.

are you pleased with the end results? did you end up riveting the grille back together?

youve done a great job !

It's exactly what I was after ... It's only taken me a year to sort it.

I haven't bothered re-riveting yet... seems like a bit of Czech overkill that metal bar... can't fault 'em !

tell me about it, i remember trying to source a grill back when i 1st bought the car over a year ago, just never got round to doing it!

looks great

Looks very nice

looking at doing this to mine,what do you reckon colour code yellow or black?

black would make the grille look bigger than it is,or would that look pants??

btw any problems painting directly onto the chrome?does it need sanding doen to get a good bond?

Go for yellow black would look pants IMHO.

anyone doen a yellow grille yet?be cool to see some pics before i go mental with some paint