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It's update time!
Nothing too new, I didn't end up getting the single fin painted - it would have cost more than the grille itself was worth, it gets awful airflow, and it's already been replaced anyway. I don't think it looks too bad with the chrome fin, though. Honestly. Here it is parked next to some Nissan.
As far as the grille goes, I'm desperate to find a shop that will powder coat the Asanti grill in a satin black. If anyone has any references for MN shops, please let me know. Here it is, in chrome.
In other news, I managed to ruin the carbon fiber front lip. I figured a bit of scraping was inevitable, but I managed to crack it instead. I've been grumpy because of it all week. I don't want to put money on a replacement, just in case of another scrape, but it's not perfect any more and that bothers me. Sometimes you forget just how long these damn cars are. If anyone has a w215 lip they're interested in getting rid of for a good price, let me know.
If that's the grille you really want to run just take it to a reputable body shop and have them abrade it and spray self etching epoxy primer on it and paint it satin black. For what your doing it will be just as good as powder coating . It's not like the panels adjacent to it are going to be powder coated, hood, bumper, fenders etc. You may also consider repairing the lip and spraying it black or if the carbon on both ends is in good shape you can mask it up so the ends show carbon then have it transition via pattern or stripe layout. so the repaired area is colored with the black . If done right it can look good and save you from buying a new lip.
I appreciate the ideas Boosted, but I'm not confident in my abilities to paint either of these myself. The grill set itself was insanely hard to find used, and the price of a brand new one is way past my cosmetic budget, so I really don't want to **** anything up. I'm giving a company in the next town over a call tomorrow morning, but life's tough when only weekends are available. Oh well.
I like the Single Slat I think it will look bad *** when painted all Gloss Black, thats just my .02. Very interested to see how the other grille will turn out once it is on the car.
Sorry to hear about the lip, I would def get a new one. Don't waste money or time on finding a used one. Get a new one and be done with it. We all learn from mistakes and now you might be more careful, I can honestly say that all my cars had carbon lips on them including the Viper (its getting it as well) I never cracked one yet, but I always ride low and am very careful.
Gotta say I'm loving that single slat grill there, car looks unbelievably gorgeous. Excited to see where this thing goes.
Also, am very interested in how you deal with the Command system. It always seems like people make plans to swap in a modern infotainment system, but then gives up. Seems like you won't be doing that though. I've wanted a 220 or 215 65 for a while now, but that damn Command system is so off-putting and everyone makes it out to be impossible to change. I'm sure it's not, just a pain in the ***. Really excited to see what you do with that.
Hi everyone! Thread update! Sorry for the late response, I finally got the pieces back from the powdercoating guys yesterday. Here's the grille, hood cowl and bumper grille, for reference. Excuse the thumb, i'm a terrible photographer:
And here's the installation. Biggest thing was drilling a hole through the hood latch. I'll explain why in a bit.
Here it is, all put on. Notice how there's no hood pull space. A custom mechanism was installed that pulls from the bottom left now. I can put a video up of how it all works if anyone is interested. Also, car is filthy. Hitting bugs at 100mph will do that. However, car's getting a full detail tomorrow, proper photos to come!
All in all, I am VERY pleased with how this grille turned out. Airflow is excellent now, and I think it has the distinguished look I was going for. I did not install the bumper grille piece, since the current one is black mesh already. It was also bent from my front lip curbing incident, so I opted out of replacing it until I replace the lip. Clean photos to come tomorrow! Let me know what you all think!
Hm. I'm still on edge about the grill, I get incredible airflow with this one. I'll look for some single slats that might get better flow than the one I have. I have some photos of it all cleaned up, I think it looks better when it's not covered in dirt.
In other news: License plates finally came in! I think these make sense for vanities, let me know what you all think.
Also, question - should I take the Benz down to Vegas? I'm graduating the week before, but I also really want to attend the meetup, meaning I'd miss Friday for the drive. Y'all think it's worth it to skip the last day of school?
Last edited by RoadHazard; May 9, 2015 at 12:02 AM.
Awesome Plate, grille does not look bad when car is cleaned up but I would still rock the single slat grille over the mesh grille. I always took my grille off at the track when I ran the car. So airflow was good
Car looks awesome. Miss that thing. I gotta change my signature
I might try unscrewing the Asanti Logo on the front, but I'd have to replace it with something since the mesh doesn't run all the way behind, and I don't think a 3-pointed star would fit. I'm having a tough call, I could replace it, but it was also an expensive grille, and I just don't feel up to swapping it.
Getting any races has also been tough, however, I did come across a crazy looking something, whatever the first car in the video is.
Now I wasn't at this C&C, nor did I film this, I bumped into this guy in Burnsville the week after on Friday, the 8th. It was too crowded with traffic to get any decent pulls in, but we both rolled down our windows and had a mutual nod. License plate was HREKITY, if the driver somehow stumbles upon this thread someday, I'd like to give him a go. Otherwise, I havn't seen jack ****. In other news, I'm still pondering the Vegas meetup, scheduling comes out tomorrow so I should know then. I feel like I'd have some more to race on the way down there.
Last edited by RoadHazard; May 11, 2015 at 08:49 PM.
I might try unscrewing the Asanti Logo on the front, but I'd have to replace it with something since the mesh doesn't run all the way behind, and I don't think a 3-pointed star would fit. I'm having a tough call, I could replace it, but it was also an expensive grille, and I just don't feel up to swapping it.
Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to move forward. The grill really looks bad. It does not fit the looks of the car.
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