Stylish grills that aren't ANGRY. Do they exist?

[jmccorm]

All joking aside, I was on the development side of this product and I can tell you that this project was never about making a "cool/attractive/iconic grill" our teams focus was always on creating a functional lighting system to give the driver the best possible level of adjustability and visibility for night time driving.

Wow, that's more than I expected to hear! I hope you'll forgive me for following up with a tough question or two.

The upside of a tough question is that it offers you just as equal of an opportunity to knock the ball out of the park with your answer. So...

The observation was made that the design language of the Oracle Vector Grille was not harmonious with that of the rest of the vehicle. Is this something you can agree with, and if so, why was or wasn't a harmonious design as important when creating a new product?

Is Oracle's view on harmony (with respect to a vehicle's design) something that we would expect to see throughout all of it's products, or is it situational?

Again, tough questions, but I suspect you'll have some great and potentially enlightening answers. No pressure!

PS: I won't continue this with any follow-ups. You've got a free mic.

Sponsored

 

[jmccorm]

You need this grill

Is ... isn't that almost a Chevy logo??!?

 

[ORACLElights]

Wow, that's more than I expected to hear! I hope you'll forgive me for following up with a tough question or two.

The upside of a tough question is that it offers you just as equal of an opportunity to knock the ball out of the park with your answer. So...

The observation was made that the design language of the Oracle Vector Grille was not harmonious with that of the rest of the vehicle. Is this something you can agree with, and if so, why was or wasn't a harmonious design as important when creating a new product?

Is Oracle's view on harmony (with respect to a vehicle's design) something that we would expect to see throughout all of it's products, or is it situational?

Again, tough questions, but I suspect you'll have some great and potentially enlightening answers. No pressure!

PS: I won't continue this with any follow-ups. You've got a free mic.

As mentioned before, we could not achieve our functional objective without altering the layout of the current lighting system. The placement and overall number of lighting modules was driven by a functional approach rather than a purely aesthetic approach. With that being said the product was a finalist for the SEMA Exterior product of the year Award (not for Jeep for the ENTIRE automotive aftermarket industry) and won a SEMA international media award so while you may have your own opinions about the aesthetics it is important to note that aesthetics are inherently subjective.

 

[jmccorm]

It looks like I'm going for the Westin grille on clearance for $350.
The next question I have is about paint. What do I need here?

I'm guessing I want my front bumper to match my body color PBJ - Hydro Blue. But I'll also want the grill areas to contrast with an accent color, of which I'm thinking PYV - HellaYella might actually work out. And then I'll need to cover with the Mopar Clear Coat Finish, right?

So do I order two Blue, two Yellow, three Clear of the 5oz Mopar Spray cans? Or is that overkill? Any accessory over at Amazon that I should buy that's going to help me evenly apply the paint? Not a troll question here, paint is not an area of expertise.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

It doesn't matter which brand of paint you use. People have their preferences. What does matter is that you have the flex additive put in the mix. Plastic expands and contracts more than steel, if you don't have the additive put into the paint it will eventually crack.

You local auto body paint supply store can mix the paint for you based on it's color code and put it in aerosol cans. Ask the guys at the counter how much you will need and what you need to do to prep the plastic parts. If you've never painted before, be prepared for it to look like crap when you think you're done.

 

[Heimkehr]

...paint is not an area of expertise.

Lots of good intel on this site; have a look around.

I've purchased from them in the past (coincidentally, I was pfaffing about with a bit of their prep solvent earlier this afternoon) and can vouch for the quality of the color matches, and sheer product selection.

Painting well means 90% prep. That may sound like an exaggeration, but "prep" can include, for example, wet-sanding between coats. The effort is worth it in the end.

 

[TCorgard82]

What, you don't want your Jeep to look like a constipated Darth Vader? ;D

The Westin HDX JL grille looks alright I guess..

https://www.westinautomotive.com/product-detail/34-1115/hdx-led-grille

And the Oracle Vector grille seems to express perhaps a bit of determination vs anger..

https://www.oraclelights.com/products/vector-jl-jt

I've yet to see an aftermarket JL grille that's actually an aesthetic improvement, other than maybe the Quadratec YJL conversion/concept with square headlights..

https://www.quadratec.com/quadratec-30th-anniversary-jeep-wrangler-sahara-yjl

ok personally I actually like that quadratec one

 

[thx138]

It looks like I'm going for the Westin grille on clearance for $350.
The next question I have is about paint. What do I need here?

I'm guessing I want my front bumper to match my body color PBJ - Hydro Blue. But I'll also want the grill areas to contrast with an accent color, of which I'm thinking PYV - HellaYella might actually work out. And then I'll need to cover with the Mopar Clear Coat Finish, right?

So do I order two Blue, two Yellow, three Clear of the 5oz Mopar Spray cans? Or is that overkill? Any accessory over at Amazon that I should buy that's going to help me evenly apply the paint? Not a troll question here, paint is not an area of expertise.

If you are going to do rattle cans get one if those plastic trigger things. Also this grill is metal so you don't have to worry about plastic additives in the paint.

 

[zrickety]

BTW... I think I found a stock Mopar grille listed at Walmart for $79 shipped. Someone might want to double check that this is the right part number. Seems like a good deal if it is.

Lots of room to experiment and paint and go wild with custom mods at no risk to your existing grille.

It's deceptive, but if you search that part number there are install instructions. It looks like it is only the surround pieces, which are red in that picture.

 

[jmccorm]

It's deceptive, but if you search that part number there are install instructions. It looks like it is only the surround pieces, which are red in that picture.

Very nice catch, thank you!

 

[jmccorm]

It looks like I'm going for the Westin grille on clearance for $350.

I've received the Westin Grille, and whatever I thought it would be... I was wrong.

The light bar is more substantial than I gave it credit for. The entire grille is steel and NOT plastic. That's a huge difference in terms of quality (and weight, to be sure). I had hoped that the wire mesh was easily unbolted for painting with a contrast color, but it looks like that won't be the case. Still, with a $350 clearance price, I'm more than satisfied here. It's rugged.

 

[jmccorm]

I've got more progress to share with the Westin HDX Grille. I'm only figuring things out as I go along, so I'm not necessarily saying that this is the best way to handle things. I'm open to ideas where I haven't already painted myself into a corner!

I removed the HDX badge (in the grille). The WESTiN brand name isn't important to me, so it's going to be painted and hidden away as a difference in metal depth and not shown as a contrasting color.

Here's my non-artistic rendition of which colors (Hella Yella and Hydro Blue) I'm going to place where. The entire main body and grill gets the main PBJ "Hydro Blue" paint color. As an accent piece, the trapezoidal shield around the built-in bar light is going to get the PYV "Hella Yella" treatment. As shown:

I just took the grille down to a small paint and repair sole-proprietor shop, and he quoted me $300 for prepping, two-color paint, clear coat, and appropriate paint depth for the front of the vehicle. I didn't have much of a basis to judge his cost against, but it seemed fair enough so I accepted the offer and left the grille with him. He expected to finish in just over a week.

Now that I've drawn this mockup, I'm thinking this is starting to look Smurf Village. I'm kind of wondering if I should keep the open grille areas in their original gray color? I'll have to see how it turns out, I guess. If I end up disappointed, it's not going to be too difficult for me to darken those rectangular sections back up again with a can of spray paint.

From there, it'd normally be a matter of snapping the new grille into place and enjoying a job well done. But this one's going to require some bolts, hardware, and an installer's contoritionism to mount this steel shell into place. When the paint's ready, I think I'm going to hand the final installation off to the dealer. They quoted me three hours of labor between mounting the grille itself and wiring up the light bar to AUX1.

 

[Heimkehr]

I just took the grille down to a small paint and repair sole-proprietor shop, and he quoted me $300 for prepping, two-color paint, clear coat, and appropriate paint depth for the front of the vehicle.

I didn't have much of a basis to judge his cost against, but it seemed fair enough so I accepted the offer and left the grille with him. He expected to finish in just over a week.

Quality paint work (at least half of which is proper surface prep) won't be inexpensive. I have just enough experience with the subject that I wouldn't have fussed about 3 C-notes for this job...but I wouldn't be willing to go much higher, if at all. Hopefully the sole proprietorship remains a going concern precisely because his work is good enough to bring in the money needed to keep the lights on.

Looking forward to pics of the actual product, when done.

 

[jmccorm]

Painted. Hydro Blue base with Billet Metallic Silver light bar accent.

I'll return with on-vehicle pictures in the next day or two.

 

[JP29]

Painted. Hydro Blue base with Billet Metallic Silver light bar accent.

I'll return with on-vehicle pictures in the next day or two.

It's beautiful! You're a menace to my wallet as now you've got me actually considering the one I posted up earlier...only hitch would be rigging some kind of grill and cutting out the space for the mopar hood lock...

EDIT: Damn, wouldn't work. The big air grille forgoes having an odd number of slots, so I'd be cutting one of the supports partially or altogether, probably would flow as well aesthetics-wise as a Wrangler does aerodynamically

Sponsored