Quote:
Originally Posted by jim_k
Hi,
I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on the following:
Firstly, on my way to work I often loose radio signal and wondered if DAB radio would be worth looking at. I looked on youtube at some after-market add on systems need power from the cigarette lighter and have an aerial the sticks on the screen. They look a real mess and depending on who you listen to, they may or may not be any better than the analogue signal. Is there a product anyone could recommend that doesn't mean you have to change to a new head unit? I'd be interested to hear other experiences.
My second question is that in between Christmas and new year I'd like to visit a car museum or meeting with my family. One year we went to Gaydon around the start of the new year and had a good time. Is there anything open like a car museum or a Rover meet as I'd like to get out and about and look at cars. I'm in Reading so anything in 90 mins range would be ideal.
Finally, I have as a second car, a Jag X type. A few weeks back a pheasant flew up in front of me and snapped the plastic blade in the lower radiator opening. I'm thinking of replacing it with a mesh panel but on ebay some of these are £80-100 which is ridiculous. Has anyone crafted a mesh panel themselves and how did they find it? I'm temped to make my own.
Thanks in advance for any help / information.
Jim
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Hi Jim, I fabricated a fairly heavy gauge stainless grill for my sons focus a while back, bought a sheet big enough to cover the grill easily from evilbay and had to trim the size to fit the grill shell with an angle grinder, if you do this ... make sure you get the 'welded' mesh as if it's just woven it moves around all over the place, I chose a mesh hole size of 1.2cm. I had to very carefully cut the inner plastic mesh from the grill surround leaving just the frame / shell, from that point on it was a bit of a task to find a way of permanently fixing the mesh to the frame so it looked 'factory'.
This was achieved by getting a friend of mine to Tig weld some little tabs to the mesh where they would line up with the inner part of the plastic grill surround and then very carefully drill a small hole in each of the tabs where a small self tapping screw could be used to fasten the mesh to the inside of the gril.
It involved a lot of head scratching but the outcome was spot on, it actually looked like a factory option.
I have also seen the mesh laminated to a grill shell using fibreglass, looked great from the outside but the inside was a bit of a bodge.
Depends how OCD you are really.
Good luck with it though, got to admit ... that very same mod has occurred to me on more than one occasion, if I decide to give it a go i'll post up some pics on the process.
Btw ... had a few DAB radio's in various cars and to be honest ... they're total pants IMO, far too sensitive to the area we live, always losing signal at the slightest provocation and seems to want to tune itself to any station coming from France! Other peeps may have had a different experience but I won't be buying another for sure.