C200k W204

see that many of you are doing blacked out grill and leaving the chrome pieces for the sport models. Here is a brief DIY on blacking out your grill.

Tools needed: 10mm socket with wretchet
Flat head screw driver
Spraycan paint (mostly use black, but choose your color) and
Clearcoat spray paint (If you choose to leave flat color, no shine
then skip the clearcoat)
3M scrubbing pad (or mild coarse sandpaper 800grit ) some
alcohol

Time taken: This depends on how well you can spray yourself. If done well, it
it can be done within half day.

__________________________________________________ _________________

1st: open the hood, and take a good at the pieces that are connected to the grill.

-turn 90 degrees on the center plastic piece thats right behind the grill
-pull out little plastic tab (Use flathead screw driver), slide in between the small circle piece and the bigger bottom circle and twist, you can easily remove these. They are holding the intake chamber to the big plastic piece
when taking the big plastic cover behind the grill, take a look at plastic piece, and its held by L shaped plastic pieces which are holding onto the radiator structure. It's self explanatory, I suck at explaning.

2:

you will see this sitting there with 2x10mm bolts, remove them, little bit of twist required to remove it from the grill.

3:Now time to pull out the grill, it is not held by anything on top at this point.
put your hands behind and lower part of the grill. Gently push on the lower part of the grill from the front of the car. Pull with the other hand while doing so. The grill is held on by these on the bumper


you are separating the grill from those pieces which is not very difficult.

When the grill is apart from the bumper, carefully pull them upward

4: NOW THE FUN PART!!!!
Remove chrome bits. Star is the easiest. There are three parts that are stick out, one being bigger than the other two. widen the gap to let the two free from the grill



Remove the 5 pieces of the chrome bars. Be very careful not to break the chrome plastic pieces. Place the grill on a soft area (anything that would not scratch the chrome) Using flathead screw driver, stick it in between the chrome and black part of the grill. do not put force on the chrome bits.


DOH, its quite blurry, but as you see, the far right chrome doesnt do anything. you can see the black part and the chrome part next to it. Repeat this on all. be patient

one of the chrome bar removed.

5. When you are done removing the chrome bits, you will notice there are two small black plastic bars. I didn't bother to remove them. Once you decide your mind, go ahead and use the 3M scrubbing pad(use the red one) or 800 grit sand paper. Do it in circular motion, this will help the paint to stick on there better. clean with alcohol and dry it. Get rid of all lints and dust

6. follow instructions on the paint can. Now paint light but many layers. Do not let it drip, it is going to be a trying to fix it. If that happens, pm me.
Get them in the light, and make sure its all sprayed evenly.

7. Clear coat is the hardest part. Spraycans tend to spray too much at each squizze. Do it light, yet enough. Spray it so that you can barely see orange peel. The paint will settle as it dries. If it looks flaky, then spray some more when they are dry. DONT LET IT DRIP!!!!



should look like this when done

Make sure the paint is all well dried up, start putting back the chrome bars and star. Be very careful not to scratch the new paint.

8. When reinstalling the chromes, make sure the plastic tabs on the back of the grill that holds the chromes are clicked in. Most cases, it wont, use the flat head to force it into place.

9. Line up the star, top first, and pop them in.

10. Back on the bumper, line up the two circular sections on top of the bumper.





when sliding the bottom of the grill into this area, be very careful. Use enough hand force to pop them back in. (Make sure the circular bits are at its place)

11. reinstall everything back into its place and you are done. Sit back and enjoy

Bubbles

Great contribution. Thanks OP.

Azn_C300

step 2 isn't really necessary. After you push in from the bottom, you can just pop out the center clipped part. But OP's way works too.

C200k W204

I wasn't aware of that.

narky

Once again,

Robbio204

what kinda paint like specifcally?

Azn_C300

this one

Derspeed

That's what I used. Do my posts not show up in Taiwan?

trial0r

did you guys throw clearcoat on top of that?

Azn_C300

No. It's probably smarter to do so, but I didn't want the glossy/shiny look. The flat black matched the other blacks on the car better imo. But of course, it probably will be easier to nick up. Good enough till someone comes out with CF grille

trial0r

i thought that water transferred stuff looked pretty sweet

Derspeed

Don't need it. It seems very durable so far. It's the paint used on the matte black sections of hoods and bumpers of muscle cars.

narky

There are flat/matte black top coat sprays that will strengthen and protect your paint without adding that glossy look. It can be had at around 3~4 bucks anywhere, including Wal-Mart. I saw a decent can at the San Leandro Wal-Mart a few months ago while searching for paint to use on my motorcycle.

joebenz

great DIY

C200k W204

only if I can get my hands on those matt black uber strong paint I would have had mine painted matt black. Oh well.

I haven't had a rock chip yet, I think I sprayed way too many coats of clear

mb_horseshoe

This is a stupid question but where can I pick up that VHT spray paint?

Obviously, I can find it online, but I want to get it today or tomorrow.

Lowes? Autozone? Any paint store?

Thanks in advance.

Azn_C300

I looked around everywhere for it, but like no place carried it. I ended up just ordering it from SummitRacing and got it actually arrived next day for me.

Derspeed

Fortunately Summit Racing is about 20 min from me.

dansonchan

i still dont know how to take out the grill？！？sorry！ how stupid i m！

Azn_C300

Give it a firm push from the bottom center of your grille and it'll unclip the bottom portion. Center is held by a T-bar with notched holes that you can pop off with just a little pressure. Then just unhook the sides. I've got it down to under 10 seconds :p

dansonchan

thanks azn!
i'll try again!but im still worry i'll break it !haha!!

Azn_C300

The OEM grille is pretty sturdy. You shouldn't have to worry about breaking it.

lyotomachida

Do I need to remove the chrome pieces if I want to black out my grill completley or can I just paint the whole grill? I have a C63 grill btw.

Azn_C300

If you want the same shade, then you don't need to remove the chrome piece, but you'll want to sand down the chrome as the paint won't adhere to chrome well.

TB5...

video proof required!



and thanks for the DIY... but it's still a bit confusing... guess ill just do it see what happens.