Planning ahead (grille and leather)

 I felt quite adventurous yesterday, so I went on a youtube hunt for some videos about sewing leather without a machine. Turns out it's not actually that complex (although on youtube and in reality are often very different!). I've bought a handful of tools for leather stitching, I'm going to give it a go one evening. 

I've finally landed on a design for the grille though. I was 90% there before, with me wanting a centre grille with curved sections on the side. This was the first example I found; 

But this one shows exactly how I can do it;

The centre section is still mesh, and I've got to choose between perforated or woven;

I've seen both in place and they're both similar prices so it'll be a coin flip I think. 

Back to the sides though. I'll use sheet aluminium with a folded edge to do the sides, the grille will then be rivetted to the folded edge. Similarly the same aluminium piece will form the side, here's a close up;

I'm not entirely sure what's going on above the metal, but considering my air filter will be there anyway I think just ending it out of sight will be sufficient. That edge wouldn't be IVA friendly though so I'm going to need to do a bit of work there. The folded aluminium will be though, that has a natural radius. 

I don't have to wait for the grille to do the two sides though, I'll just mark appropriate points on the body and work from there. They have to be clear of the metalwork and radiator, but I'd like them quite tight on the rad so most/all of the view through the grille is just radiator. In fact, I could get it right on to the metalwork and get it to follow the profile. 

As for the strip down the middle, that's just aesthetics. I can't see any functional purpose and many other cars don't have it. The slight curve of the grille will increase it's rigidity, particularly if I go for the perforated rather than woven. 

And an extra bit of planning ahead. I've just found out that the printer I have in the office can print on CD's. Now it did occur to me that if I had a clear CD, I could print out indicator lenses for the oil light, indicator light etc. Back to youtube, and I find a video showing how to peel the foil off a CD! I now have a clear CD to try printing on, to see if I can get suitable images that can then be cut out to use on the dash. If this works, I just need to 3D print some surrounds (similar to the gauge surrounds) then use decently large LED's of the right colour for the lighting. Who knows, maybe if the printing works ok I could use coloured ink to make sure they shine the right colour. 

OK, experiment one failed, there's no adhesion of the ink to the plastic. The colours are blotchy and the black won't stay still. However I did remember I have some clear acetate that is printable, I'll give that a go.