Front rear and side vent grill replacement mesh.

Hi everyone, has anyone any idea where to get some mesh to replace the rusty stuff that's on my TF.
  Many thanks Glyn  (D4KGP) 

There always were many purveyors of  precut stainless steel mesh inserts on ebay, but you could source some mesh in a sheet and easily cut your own, I'd be inclined to go for the epanded stainless stuff used in security doors..... leave it unpainted, or if you don't like how that looks paint it black or any other colour you like, though I suspect natural SS or black would probably look best!
You can also get wire mesh in steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and galvanised steel. You should be able to get the galvanised stuff pretty easily from the hardware store.

Unless you are in a desperate hurry & can wait for a week until I’m home, I’ll sort out the supplier I’ve used. I’ll post a picture of the stuff for you to see the quality; it can be cut with an angle grinder.
M

D4KGP wrote:

Hi everyone, has anyone any idea where to get some mesh to replace the rusty stuff that's on my TF.
  Many thanks Glyn  (D4KGP) 

I replaced all of the mesh on my TF with stainless steel mesh that I bought on ebay.  I bought mine as a large piece about 1000 x 500mm (not sure exactly as it was a long time ago).  I cut it to size with some heavy duty snips.  It was TOUGH and it took a while but I was very pleased with the results.

The chinese supplier is no longer on ebay but you could try AliExpress or similar.  Alternatively, there are loads of people selling a huge range of the material on ebay - just search for "stainless steel mesh".

One thing I forgot to mention...

With this type of mesh, the crossing wires are not welded so the smaller pieces tend to come apart if you aren't careful. I fixed them in various ways. Using body fixings, Araldite and a hot glue gun. The glue gun was easiest but not the neatest (see the front grille)

Hi thanks for your reply, looks neat enough to me. Is it a hard job to do or relatively easy?
Regard Glyn (D4KGP)

Hi no not in a hurry, just one of the many jobs that I have to do but I like to have stuff at hand.
So when you are back home and in your time. Many thanks. Glyn (D4KGP)

D4KGP wrote:

Hi thanks for your reply, looks neat enough to me. Is it a hard job to do or relatively easy?
Regard Glyn (D4KGP)

Well, I don't do hard jobs; I get someone else to do those  

It was easy enough, I made cardboard templates from the original bits or by measurement.  I marked the mesh with a Sharpie.  I cut the mesh with a decent pair of snips  like these from Stanley.   Fixing the pieces in the boot lid was fiddly but I guess the hardest part is removing the bumpers.  I had the front bumper off to replace the headlights and the back bumper off for some other reason.  It might be possible to do them in situ, but I doubt it.  There are lots of 'how tos' on removing the side vents (they prise off).

10"/ 254MM FATMAX AVIATION TIN SNIP STRAIGHT CUTTING SHEAR COMFORTABLE GRIP Buy It Now
 

Thanks most helpful. Glyn.

wrote:

One thing I forgot to mention...

With this type of mesh, the crossing wires are not welded so the smaller pieces tend to come apart if you aren't careful. I fixed them in various ways. Using body fixings, Araldite and a hot glue gun. The glue gun was easiest but not the neatest (see the front grille)




 

I've done the maintenance engineering in wire mesh manufacturing plants.
Actually it is welded, but not in the sense you might think, the machine that makes it takes the long wires from spools and the cross wires that are either pre cut lengths laid across, or taken off spools, laid across and cut it situ, then the two directions of wires are pressed together and an electrical current applied to fuse the wires together.
These welds strength is limited by the thickness of the wires used, very thin wires can only bare a small amount of electrical current, making it difficult to get good weld penetration before overheating so as a result this can limit the strength of the welds. the current used can be effectively varied by the dwell (amount of time a given current is applied) or the strength of the current itself
Thicker mesh such as the reinforcing mesh used in concrete has very strong welds done in the same manner but with a shit load more current put through it, giving it excellent weld penetration.
The expanded security mesh I mentioned is punched by a machine from a solid sheet of metal into a mesh with a bit of a cheese grater like wavy textured pattern, it can be done by stamping or rolling. it is much stronger and to me, it looks much better.
It is however more expensive to manufacture due to tooling costs and greater maintenance requirements, so as a result it's more expensive to buy, which would explain why MG Rover chose the cheaper and nastier weld mesh.

 

 

    We cut short our walk & returned to camp early after twisting my foot & so I started to go through STUFF on my phone to see if I could track down The Mesh Company. I did & they are in Warrington & yes they’re called The Mesh Company, they’re on eBay. 
I have bought several types for various jobs, the nicest in my opinion for our job is what I refer to as “Bentley Radiator Mesh”, it is not called that on their web site. It can be used either way round depending on preference, the intake picture was taken to illustrate scale of the ram pipe, however it shows the mesh reasonable well. 
more info in a week if required. 
M

Airportable post=208350 userid=5200 

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We cut short our walk & returned to camp early after twisting my foot & so I started to go through STUFF on my phone to see if I could track down The Mesh Company. I did & they are in Warrington & yes they’re called The Mesh Company, they’re on eBay. 
I have bought several types for various jobs, the nicest in my opinion for our job is what I refer to as “Bentley Radiator Mesh”, it is not called that on their web site. It can be used either way round depending on preference, the intake picture was taken to illustrate scale of the ram pipe, however it shows the mesh reasonable well. 
more info in a week if required. 
M

Ah yes that type of mesh has a woven crinkle texture formed in to the wires, it's more attractive than the straight wired weld mesh. It can be just woven or be woven and welded.
 

Another alternative is perforated sheet  available with different patterns



 

 

The biggest problem will be finding someone who will supply it in the small quantity you require.
Which is why I suggested the security mesh in my previous post, as you could probably scrounge some offcuts from someone who makes custom security doors.