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Hi all,
to keep me busy in our latest lockdown (Melbourne, Australia) ive been ordering parts here and there to keep me busy. I ordered a GT style grill from Aliexpress 5 weeks ago and it was delivered yesterday.
I pulled out the grill (easy) and proceeded to swap over the emblem (medium). The emblem is held in tight!
I had to do a bit of trimming on the new grill to fit the emblem and have siliconed it in place as there are no locking tabs on the new grill. I’m waiting for the silicone to cure before install but here are a few pics that might help someone else if you decide to do it.
Trim the red section to fit the emblem flush These areas needed to be trimmed to flush fit the emblem. It was an imperfection with the moulding with raised areas and being too deep overall. Old vs new. You need to detach the silver Centre section on the old grill (with emblem attached) to get access to the rear to take the emblem off.
Cost was $135 aud from aliexpress and I paid $40 for faster shipping.
I bought a similar grille from a U.S. seller on eBay and no modification was required in order to install it. The star emblem simply unscrewed (counterclockwise) to remove it from the original grille and then screwed (clockwise) into the new grille.
My star emblem isn't a solid, flat piece like the one in your pictures. Mine looks like this:
The entire assembly unscrews from the center of the grille, and the star itself comes off of the round, black mounting piece.
That makes sense - yours is the non distronic model. Mine has distronic which uses this glass/plastic emblem and the distronic/radar unit sits behind it.
was gonna go that route but decided to wrap and plasti dip mine instead but grille looks great man keep the mods going. heres a pic of mine. and fitted led emblem as well
I like the blacked out look! I decided to stick with chrome as I would have had to black out the rest of the chrome trim on the car and the wheels to match.
2012 E550 Cabriolet 2011 VW Eos 1985 Pininfarina Spider
Originally Posted by Onnzo
Here you go. The cores seem very exposed but having look at current OEM grills of this nature, it looks like they are similarly exposed.
I am thinking of this as well, but do not like how you can see the radiator. I am wondering if black mesh (similar to the lower grill) can be added behind the GT grill?
2012 E550 Cabriolet 2011 VW Eos 1985 Pininfarina Spider
Originally Posted by Onnzo
I was going to cable tie some black flyscreen to it but decided not to in the end.
Is this the company you ordered from? I have a pre-facelift A207 so I assume the grill is different. Aside from the star emblem, was there any issues with fitment?
I bought mine from “Keep your car moving store”. I suspect they are all the same and these are just resellers.
Fitment was fine but a bit fiddly. The middle section at the bottom doesn’t latch on fully but it’s ok. Don’t forget the top support like I did! I had to take it all off again!