CJBROWN

Some designer at Mercedes Benz in their infinite wisdom decided the grill should be silver with chrome accents. I've never liked it, often thought it should be black so it would make the chrome pop and then blend in with the rest of the grill that is blacked out. I think some of the higher models are done that way as well.

So today after washing the little beast I had some time to kill so I thought I would see if I could figure out how to get the grill out. Member STEV350 here started a thread wanting some help with it as well, so here we go....

The first step is to remove the two intake plenums where they attach to the top sill under the hood. Then pry up the rubber weatherstrip, the big heavy one. It's just a press fit, start at one side or other of the plastic sill in front and work it off.

All of the grill parts are connected with a tab-in-slot design. It's just a matter of finding the tabs and working their keepers loose and removing the pieces. The top trim plate has them front and back and there are two toggle screws near the center. Remove this piece, set aside.

Next are the main grill supports, there are 2 screws each and they lift off out of their mountings. Set these aside. The grill has two more screws at the extreme left and right, remove these. Then there are keeper tabs along the bottom of the grill, you'll find them if you look from the back side.

I've indicated where all the screw fasters are, 10mm socket head machine screws:




Once you have the grill out all of the parts are just tabbed together. Like I say, it's just a matter of finding them all and working the tabs off their keepers with a small screwdriver. Everything just pops apart. Finesse is the key here because if you man-handle them and pry too hard you'll break the tabs. I broke two tabs out of dozens on disassembly. There are so many that one here or there is not the end of the world. BE CAREFULL!

The whole grill insert slides up and off from it's tabs. Then remove each chrome trim piece.



Here's the offending silver grill insert. Light sand with 360 or 500 grit and wipe down for painting.



Krylon Fusion is an outstanding plastic paint. It's almost like a dye, goes on nice and smooth, provides a durable gloss finish, and dries for handling in an hour. Full hardness takes 7 days.



An hour later I slid everything back together, lining up all the tabs and making sure they all click home. It goes back together much easier than disassembly.

I dunno 'bout you, but I couldn't be more pleased. It's like this grill design was meant to be finished this way. The chrome trim really pops now, and it looks like the star is floating in the center. Way cool!!

benbow

Yes CJ, your grill looks cool. Going all black looks doable too.

EnigmaAW

That's look really nice with the white! If i wasn't leasing i'd consider doing that!

mr.mbenz

look'in cool CJ....
I wonder if this can be covered with 3M matte black material? It would be easier to take off when selling as original condition if need to be...

MKenM

That looks AWSOME

CJBROWN

I was thinking later that other body colors, especially blue, green, red, maroon, might look good body color. Would be a lot more work, have to get body paint and all, but might be a nice custom touch. Remember when all side mirrors were black or chrome? Door handles too?

Oh, and mine is a lease. It don't matta to me!! I'll probly end up buying at the end anyway, I just love this car. It'll have 32K miles on it.

Saijin_Naib

Mean man, really like what you did with it. Glad to see that not just us w124 people black out the grilles :P

NYCGLK

good diy

kyoshiro

that looks friggen awesome.
We need to derive a method that allows going back to original colors when we sell it
maybe wrap?

CJBROWN

Thanks!

Why do we have to put it back? Do you really think a potential buyer would even notice? And if they did why would they care? If someone pitched a fit it's a 2 hour job to paint it silver again.

I'll price out the piece by itself. With that figure in mind you could discount the price for a new part.



EDIT: I have EPCOnline, seems there are four different grills but they probly all look the same. You can't buy just the silver pieces, it's the whole grill assembly except the star and they'are about $650. Holy crap!!

A wrap would not work. Too many divergent surfaces.

kyoshiro

true, the potential buyer would probably not care much bout it.
I think i'll have to pull mine apart soon too or i'll buy a whole assembly and just do a swap out and maybe change the rear to full metal mesh

STEV350

thanks!!! i owe you one

cjh.

Chiming in here: USE PLASTIDIP!! It's a spray-on product. It acts just like spray paint and you can use it just like spray paint, the difference is that you can easily peel it off if you'd like to. Its truly a wonder product. I've used it many times before and I cannot emphasize how versatile and great this stuff is. You can buy it at Lowes, Walmart, etc in the spray paint section. Google "Plastidip" and you'll find tons of people using this stuff for various uses.

Heres someone removing it from their wheels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLsu6...eature=related

koojo

Looks really good. Great idea.

STEV350

how does plastidip work? do you still have to sand it down? does it chip?

STEV350

just finished mine using plasti dip

rmfnla

I thought of doing this the first time I saw the lame silver part of the grill on my black GLK but I pushed the thought aside because I was too lazy to figure out how to disassemble the grill.

Now you've eliminated that excuse so I'm going to have to do it after all.

Y'know, I buy new cars so I won't have to work on them...

cjh.

You don't have to sand down anything. Picture it as liquid rubber/latex in a can. It doesn't chip because of its rubbery properties. Its such a unique product.

erlomd

I just found this thread...funny, I felt the same way...and was looking for a thread that has the "how to" on removing the front grill to do the exact same thing but, with plasti dip.
your grill turned out great!!! cant wait to do mine.

TTA850

Plasti dipped mine a few weeks ago

CJBROWN

Wow, old thread. I had forgotten about it.

I've since traded off the car for a Subaru Crosstrek. Have already painted out the grill on that one as well.

I have heard good things about the plasti-dip paint, that it resists chips better. The Krylon fusion held up surprisingly well. After about 20K miles there were just a few little chips, a black sharpie pen hides them well enough you can't tell.

The new car had a chrome surround that I sanded with 360grit and painted with Dupont Centari automotive acrylic enamel. I didn't have any cross-linker (hardener) so I just shot the paint on there. After a thousand mile it has a couple of little chips.

I may try the plasti-dip at some point. I just don't like the way it peels off.

GKS1

TTA850, your plasti dip job looks awesome. You got me thinking about doing mine!

erlomd

awesome job!!! I always thought this would look great...ill post mine up soon

erlomd

Just did mine as well...everybody was in the house getting ready for a mothers day party...so I decided to have some fun in the garage. love the way it came out but when my wife saw me going at our removed grill with a spray can...it was a sight to see...lol

she loves it too, and I convinced her that since its a layer of plastic coating, it will protect that section of paint...showed her how it peels right off on a sample part I used for practice before I painted the real grill...
I recommend this excuse for anyone attempting...lol

BTW: I got the Plasti-dip spray can at Loews. as said before, If your attempting to do this, its not hard. took me less than 2 hours to do (and that included semi drying time) it was noon in dry california with 99F temperature outside however. Just be sure to take your time with the dozens of plastic tabs...follow the directions that CJBROWN posted...I used a plastic flathead screwdriver with lots of patience...there are a ton of them and it all snaps in together at the end. let the paint dry for an hour (I was still careful on not touching the paint even when installing the emblem and chrome pieces and finally snapping it in place to the black plastic grill.
It looks like it was meant to come from factory this way...and the texture of the plasti-dip seems like it could have come from the factory that way as well.
Love it...thanks for the instructions everyone!!!

Mr. JLT

I paint matched mine last year. its been great so far.