Boosted9603

First of all, yes I do have the flat hood emblem now so disregard the ugly stock one.

Here is the way my car looks now (black/chrome grill w/ flat hood emblem)



I was thinking about blacking out the lower area in the bumper between the fog lights to help set off the grill.

Boosted9603

Ok, there. I got rid of the hood emblem all together.

John 99CLK430

I just feel the big star grilles belong the on new CLKs but to each to their own liking.

But I don't think painting the piece would be to be your liking, you'll eventually kick yourself after you finish it. I think a mesh on the other hand is worth considering the effort to put in.

The Jury

NO.

There is a thing called "flow" and when you black parts out it breaks up the flow. It makes the parts stand out like a sore thumb. On muscle cars it can be a good thing, but on a sleek Mercedes that is designed to flow smoothly it is a bad thing.

IMO the three slot grill doesn't look all that hot. It's misproportioned to the rest of the front end that has smaller lines. a 4 slot, or better, would be a more proportioned fit. Since you already have it though, I'd recommend colormatching the slats and leaving the emblem and the black fill around it (inside the circle) as it is.

The black grill does not look good. It stands out too much and breaks up the flow of the front end. In short, it's fugly. Making the slat on bottom black also is even more fugly. Talk about standing out in a bad way........

Hopefully you'll see this as constructive.

Boosted9603

I just don't like the stock grill. It had too many bars and too much chrome for my liking.

The Jury

match the slats to the car. leave the emblem and the circle black.

Next mod I'd go with either the euro projectors or the cheese graders. I chose the euro HID factory projectors. Makes a nice difference.

Boosted9603

Do you have a link or pics of the euro HID projectors?
I don't really like the cheese graders.

The Jury

Yes I actually have some nice side by side comparisons from when I did the swap. I'll go dig them out. What I prefer about the Euro HID headlights is that they didn't stand out like a sore thumb. They eventually became a part of the american cars in later years of the 208, but in my model (99) they had to come from overseas before they became available here.

Here's a pic of them installed, I'll go find the details side by side pics from the swap............... Much better than the halogens. The obvious difference is a clear front lens rather than a serrated lens with grooves. The projectors are behind the inner lens so they are not visible.

Boosted9603

That does look slick on your car.

Boosted9603

So maybe my grill needs to look more like one of these:

The Jury

Yeah. The colormatched slots.... good stuff. top one looks best IMO

Here's the pics from my swap......

Chappy

How about projectors that look like this, but fit the W208??

The Jury

Not for me, but I've seen worse for sure.

Boosted9603

Jury, thanks for the pics. I like those lights. I'll probably run my headlights now since I already ordered the HID conversion.
I think I'll order up that top grill in silver.

clk430convert01

CLK's look sweet with the factory chrome center grill and aftermarket headlights. That large center star looks silly on our model and as Jury says pulls attention away from our front end design. Anyone seen these smaller star grills....I'm trying to lay my hands on one of these?

deyainrdy4ds

bro he has black rims...hence the black grille....dont buy that silver star grille....if anything...get your stock grille painted black...

gianfranc

The OEM xenons are reflector type HID headlights. They don't have projectors. That is why the output, while being better than halogen for sure, is still poor compared to proper HID projectors. In one of my previous threads, I compared the output of OEM xenons vs. the cheese graters with a h7 hid kit. Even the cheese graters with halogen projectors are brighter than OEM xenons. With the s2000 projectors I retrofitted into the cheese graters, the output is even brighter.