I wanted to go for a full mesh grill look with Jaguar emblem and decided to customize my standard grill. I like the look.
What do you think?

 

Very nice! Well done.

 

That's very creative. Do you have photos of the steps you took to remove the bar, finsh the edges and where did you source the mesh and how is it attached? Can you post another pic at a further distance? I'm curious how that looks.

 

Looks nice, elegant and clean.

 

I didn't take step by step pictures of the process, but I can at least describe what I did. I wanted the Mina Gallery look (without paying $325):



First, I removed the grille inserts and then cut out the plastic center divider using a power tool with an oscillating blade. You could also use a jigsaw or a hacksaw. The main issue is that the place where you cut through will not have the same curved lip as the rest of the opening. I used a random orbital sander to finish shaping the cut areas. Because of the original design of the grille's opening and the Jaguar emblem built into it, some of the dip where the center divider was located, at both top and bottom, has to be left in.




To build up a curved lip where I cut the center divider off, I used JB Weld epoxy. You can use either the SteelStik or the WaterWeld. I preferred the WaterWeld because it stays pliable longer. Once it was dried hard, I hand sanded some with coarse sand paper and then finished with my random orbital sander to shape the curved lip. I also cut off some of the plastic projecting pieces from the back of the grille so that the mesh could lay flat. It was easiest to do this with the power oscillating blade.

Now ready to paint both the front and back of the grille. Make sure to sand lightly with a fine grained sand paper in order to help the primer adhere, and then wipe the plastic free of any residue or dust. I used three coats of primer from a spray can and then three coats of Krylon gloss black from a spray can.

I purchased the black mesh aluminum off of Amazon and waited patiently for it to arrive from China. There are a ton of meshes available online. I liked this one because it was black already, with hole sizes not too big and not too small, and a good price. Actually I'm very pleased with its quality. I traced a paper cutout of the opening and then used the paper template to cut out the right shape from the mesh. It cut easily with a heavy duty scissors:



The cut mesh fit nicely inside my grille opening. With the grille on its face, I bent down the edges of the mesh material out around the opening to help hold it in place and placed four small 2.5 lb weights (from my weight set!) across the mesh to force it to stay down over the opening evenly. Then I used the WaterWeld to "spot weld" the edges of the mesh to the backside of the grille. I used 3" rolls about a half finger in diameter - one at each end and four spaced evenly across the top and bottom of the opening. When they dried, the mesh was welded solidly to the grille. I taped it off around the WaterWeld and sprayed the welds black so that they would blend in, even though once the grille was installed you might only see them if you peered inside the grille at a very steep angle.

The Jaguar badge comes with hardware to fasten onto the face of the mesh, purchased . I bought some additional rubber, metal, and lock washers to help it stay secure.

I hope that all makes sense. Please feel free to ask for clarification.

 

Very resourceful. I looks nice. Have you considered paint matching the bumper blades to the grill and lightly smoking the headlight and driving lights lenses? How about a black leaper too? I think that would look cool. You could probably have the leaper done in black chrome since it is metal, however the bumper blades are plastic ( and expensive... from what I recall 6 or 7 years ago they were $170 each ). Nice work!
If you ever wanted to switch out the emblem, take a look at the grill badge from a 2008 XJ8. Although you had plenty of choices for badges, apparently the one you chose topped your list...

 

Thanks for the suggestions.