B7100 Grill

I decided that today was as good a day as any to fab a grill for my B7100 HST. Been rolling ideas around in my mind for a couple days and decided on 1/4" hard ware cloth for the basic box type frame. I needed the frame to be 13" wide and 11-1/2" tall and 2" deep when completed. I started with a flat piece 17" X 16-1/2". Marked out the locations where the bends needed to be with a felt tip marker. I cut the corners square so the excess would fold inside the sides to support the corners. With the marks lined up with the edge of a wood box and a 2 X 2 on top I started the bends, one side at a time. One side at a time I laid the hardware cloth with the bends up, placed a 2 X 2 inside and with a 1" flt faced brass hammer I worked the side up nice and square. The excess on the top and bottom corners were folded inside the sides. Short pieces of 22 ga. solid brass wire was used to tie the overlay pieces to the sides, 2 on each corner. This part was then fitted to the tractor and the two slots were cut in the bottom to facilitate the two oil cooler lines. It fit nice and snug. Next was the nylon screen wire. Folded it over the edges and held with clamps. Hot glue was used to hold the inside and outside of the screen together through the hardware cloth. Used just enough to tack it in several places as the trim would hold the screen wire to the grill. I used automotive edge trim with self adhesive glue to cover all 4 edges of the Grill. Back to the tractor and see if it would go in like I planned. It was a little tighter due to the edge trim but will stay in place without any type anchors. Very satisfied with the results. It is not like an original, it don't have the KUBOTA chrome name on it, but it will keep a lot of stuff out of the radiator and will be easy to clean. One draw back is that it will have to be removed to open the hood. That is a project for another day.