Last night on the way home, a construction truck in front of me kicked off a rock and took a chip out of my grille(see inset in panel 1). Fortunately, the rock hit only the grille and flew over the hood and windshield. So, I decided to black out this one and keep the spare I bought in original silver(just in case).

I took my time, cleaned with alchohol, scuffed the surface with a scrub pad and layed on a coat(panel 2) of quick drying flat black epoxy primer(slight texture, see below).

After that sun dried, I sprayed the grille with 3 coats(panels 3,4,5) of flat black epoxy paint. I waited 20 min. between coats and finished it with a clear matte overspray(6). The multiple layers almost completely filled the chip and covered the texture from the primer.

 

looks really really good.

 

I like it too. It looks good with the chrome strips left on top and bottom. Can you get a bigger pic of the finished product?

 

full frontal

 

This is worth at least 8hp

 

Looks real good!

 

that came out really good... nice

 

That looks excellent. How did you control dust / fibers? humidity?

 

Rick:

That looks beautiful man! That's the best grille mod/paint job I've seen to date. The MB logo really stands out and the paint job looks superb!

 

Luck/Luck/Luck



But seriously, it was a perfectly calm and sunny day (a rarity in NJ- we've had rain every weekend since April). {building an Ark in spare time}
This whole excercise was to fix the chip left by the stone. I was planning on blacking out a spare grille I bought previously, but now that this one was damaged, I decided to see if it would look decent......the epoxy paint filled the chip as I sprayed the second coat.

 

Now all you need to do is slap a type-r sticker on it. I hear the new ones are good for at least 20% more hp.

Looks good though. I like it when all of or at least part of the grill is blacked out.

 

blacking the 'chrome was an option...but I thought it was too much on a blue car...
The flat black matches the window trim and door handles perfectly, so it's all good.

 

Rick, while your car looks good, if anyone's going to do anything similar, I'd recommend a glossy black, which actually matches the trim better, imho.

There are pics of mine at csportcoupe, if anyone's interested in a direct comparison between the two.

 

{shrug}
My non-C7 car has flat black window trim, wiper arms and door handles. In fact, the only gloss black on my car is the tires (thank you Maguire's) and the B (center) pillar between the side windows.
Pardon my ignorance, but I figured it was the same on all coupes.

 

Don't forget about the panorama roof. My window trim is glossy black as well. Since I'm lazy, my tires are flat black.

 

Rick: Do you remember how much did you pay for the spare grill?

I blacked out the grill too (including the top and bottom chrome pieces) but it's already started to get stone chips - DUH! So if the grill is not too costy I'd like to get a spare piece and black out using decal tape. TIA!

 

Nice, much better than the stock grille. I somehow dont like the stock grille on the coupe, i dont know why.

 

Here is my version on a white body. Better post a pic before it's all chipped up again...

 

Front view.

 

thanks guys for all your feedback, those r some really nice pics...

**20FHK02**, did you paint your bumper lens...if not where did you get them...

**BlackC230Coupe**, that Renntech coupe pic that you have is that one painted...???

 

I saw on Ebay before chrome strips for the front of the grill slats. This makes the coupe grill look even more like the CL-grill available for the sedan - too bad I haven't seen them recently on Ebay.

 

Yes I painted them. And I think Evosport sells these pre-painted side markers also.

 

does the signal still work...and did you get a bodyshop to prime and paint it

 

I painted them myself using the leftover paint after doing the door handles. The signals still work but I taped them.

 

what do u mean by taped...r the bulbs taped, so they don't signa,l