vic viper

My S204 is due late April, so i went down to work this morning and picked up a grille to start modding in advance
I took it home to disassemble the chrome trims etc.



Made an appointment with the paint shop this Tuesday but I still havnt decided on the color..

Its clear that I want it black, but what finish?, glossy or flat?
I am really torn about this, glossy gives that classic Avantgarde look or flat that give a original plastic look..

Help me out please.

ctgilles

Purple with green dots! Definately.

And if not, +1 on the glossy black. I don't like the flat black look as in the pic attached. (Think got_thang?'s car) I'll be going down the glossy route but have to admit I'm scared for damage to the paint due to them little stones Alreayd have 2 nicks on the front with my motorway miles...

Spec_Davis

Black will set it off.

vic viper

Its leaning towards glossy, but flat really looks nice as it matches the lower grilles.
Then again a glossy finish is more durable and easier to keep clean, hopefully itll withstand some chipping when letting a professional painter paint it.

tanktube67

I hade mine flat but then I painted Simi gloss.

AMGTTV8

Hey guys...quick question: how do you get the slats out to paint them?

I assume there is some sort of tab on the back of the grille?

vic viper

It is pure pain to remove the chrome trims, but a couple of flat head screw drivers, a bit of prying and a lot of patience gets the work done.

I stabbed myself TWICE in the palm of my hand with the screwdriver, that hurt

vic viper

Ready for paint

aowhaus

go with flat. It will show less imperfections than gloss.
You will want the black parts to disappear for a clean look, so matte for flat would be your best option.

vic viper

But the whole idea is that there wont be any imperfections

designom

Paint it to shiny black

vic viper

Its hard to see in that picture, but yes, I have finally decided for glossy, if im not happy with it, all I have to do is repaint it, even if it was hell to remove the chrome

vic viper

Its finally done, I really like it, now if I only had a car to mount it on ...

Azn_C300

looks good. This is a very easy DIY that every 204 owner should do.

vic viper

Yes, and it feels much better to have genuine Daimler parts on the car ..

I ordered the C63 replica from ebay, but cancelled the order because i realized I dont want to fit aftermarket parts from Taiwan

TB5...

what kind of paint(spray?) are you guys using so that there is no peeling and do you sand the grill down first?

looks really nice btw.

vic viper

I really dont think spray paint is the way to go if you want the finish to last,
I took mine to a paint shop and its painted with car paint and hardened in a oven, this way it stays as durable as the paint on the car.

Azn_C300

yeah, that's the best way to go about it, but 3 coats of VHT heavy duty paint plus heavy clear coat also keeps it pretty durable

TB5...

hmmm i think there are paint shops around here when you can rent a booth...


once i know all the parts i want to paint i might look into tho.

definitely need it to be durable.

Derspeed

I used satin (matte) bumper and hood paint for muscle cars. It is very durable. No chips at all. Check out post #13:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...-painting.html

AMGTTV8

everyone knows that you don't have to rip the whole top part of the frame apart to get the grille out right?

Jakew903

Mine is plain Simi Gloss; good stuff.

vic viper

Who said that you need to do that?

AMGTTV8

I dont know exactly, but I searched on the forums on how to get it out and it seemed as most took the the whole top assembly apart to get to it when it just pops out!

designom

The best