Black kidney grilles, yay or nay?
- Thread starter TameRacingDriver
- Start date
Personally I like to see a contrast between the body colour and grill, the dark colours such as blue, black, favour chrome grills whilst the lighter, white, light grey etc favour matt or gloss black.
The ones in between like red, dark grey works with either.
At the end of the day it's whatever you like that counts.
You could always have the best of both worlds with grills that have chrome surrounds and black slats or visa versa.
The ones in between like red, dark grey works with either.
At the end of the day it's whatever you like that counts.
You could always have the best of both worlds with grills that have chrome surrounds and black slats or visa versa.
Like a few of the others have commented, I like the contrast of the grilles ie Silver or red car with black grilles, but darker shades like blue or black with the silver / lighter coloured grilles.
I have a silver Coupe and with the lighter grilles, the front end just looked a bit odd, as it didn't match anything else on the car. Having seen the new M Performance stuff BMW have been fitting on their 3 series cars, I noticed a shift away from Matt black to Gloss Black. So I went for Gloss black grilles, and i really like the finish. Helps that I have a gloss black roof wrap, so it all ties in nicely.
If you do go down the plastidip route, remember the finish will be matt, not gloss. But it's the cheapest way of seeing if you like the look of black grilles. Or you could just wait for the next Z4 meet, and persuade one of the others to let you try their grilles!!
I have a silver Coupe and with the lighter grilles, the front end just looked a bit odd, as it didn't match anything else on the car. Having seen the new M Performance stuff BMW have been fitting on their 3 series cars, I noticed a shift away from Matt black to Gloss Black. So I went for Gloss black grilles, and i really like the finish. Helps that I have a gloss black roof wrap, so it all ties in nicely.
If you do go down the plastidip route, remember the finish will be matt, not gloss. But it's the cheapest way of seeing if you like the look of black grilles. Or you could just wait for the next Z4 meet, and persuade one of the others to let you try their grilles!!
Steve84N said:I believe you can get a 'glossifier' spray for plastidip but it's unlikely to give as shiny a finish as true gloss.
I have used the Glossifier on my grilles and it actually does give a superb high gloss finish. However it does mark quite easily so I went back to the matt black only.
Devon Eleven
Member
Yay, go black and you will never go back.....looks so sleak imo
Simple to do, grille just pops out and silver trim removes from grille. Sprayed with plastidip and reassembled. ...
I even posted a topic on it.
Simple to do, grille just pops out and silver trim removes from grille. Sprayed with plastidip and reassembled. ...
I even posted a topic on it.
Cheers guys. I'm going to hang fire on this for the time being, as I'm thinking of dumping the carbon wrap on the roof. I quite like the different colour on the roof, but I'm not keen on the matte finish of the carbon fibre effect, it looks a little tacky up close. I'm thinking of getting that removed, and then getting the roof painted gloss black and tint the rear window... once I've done that I'll likely get the kidney grilles done in glossy black too. However, if I decide I fancy keeping the original colour on the roof, I'll stick to the chrome.
The roof is already carbon wrapped but I'm not massively keen on it. I'd rather go for the glossy "glass" effect for the roof as I think it looks far better than a matte finish.Simo said:
Gotcha, though I still probably rather have a plain finish, thanks for the suggestion though.
Well as we got onto the topic of wraps, I did end up getting the wrap removed, and it looks so much better to me. I think I am keeping the wheels and grilles silver as they are. Car looks good OEM (yes I know, not for everyone). Only things I may consider is Eibachs (slightly lower ride height and slightly better ride and handling?) and maybe polish or replace the exhaust tips (or get a nice backbox).
That does look nice mind I must admit, god dammit!
So I've just bought a set of [reportedly] genuine BMW grilles, chrome surround with black "teeth", a bit like the ones on the Z4MC perhaps? Anyway, advice on removal and fitting. I gather from searching they can be removed by applying upwards pressure on the bottom half and pulling it out from the bottom, then presumably the new ones just clip in the opposite way?