Pewter KPA

I know Pewter is not the most common color but I have grown to like it. I just did a little overhaul this weekend in the form of Plasti-dipping my badges, Grille and HE. Im tossing and turning of I should peel the grille back to chrome or leave it. All opinions welcomed

shardul

iTrader: (1)

peel it off and get rid of the CF mirror covers.

Pewter KPA

lol mirror covers have to stay for a little while longer. They were a gift from my mom at Christmas and shes really proud she was able to find something for me without me asking. its cheesy I know but I want to at least give it a year before I take them off....they have grown on me I will admit.

Thanks for the feedback though, please keep it coming. I too am leaning towards peeling it back to chrome.

Eric

aghakauve

I like it, I say paint match your side markers and find some plugs to put in the front bumper.. Looks good imo

vntgspd

+1

These cars have so many chrome accents that I think you need to do de-chrome the whole car or the theme looks incomplete. The black grill is easier to pull off on a dark car IMHO.

vntgspd

Has anyone tried painting the center only, leaving the outer rim chrome to tie into the headlights and bumper mouldings?

Photoshop experts??

CharlyE500

I also have a pewter and so far I like everything about your car.

moosejaw

Correct me if I misheard......Did you say you plasti-dipped the heat exchanger?

Pewter KPA

yes, contrary to popular belief painting powdercoating or dipping a HE or Intercooler will not have adverse effects on performance. A intercooler or heat exchanger doesnt cool from the face of the core but rather the core internals as air passes through it. I even talked with Mocal and setrab about this as they powder coat their cores and they have done some pretty intense testing with no adverse effects at all from even powdercoating the entire core. Obviously you want to be careful not to lay it on so thick you completely restrict airflow but you would have to be pretty heavy handed and go through a TON of plasti-dip do to that. I used about 1/3 of a can on the HE and it's a light coating over the core itsef. Most of my time was spend on the end tanks and top and bottom caps. The penetration is only about 1/8 of an inch into the core.

Side note, Love your car..... I wish I could of found a white one

forcefed4door

Maybe if you black out headlights and side markers it look better?

Pewter KPA

Yeah, I think the depth of what needs to be done to make the black grill look good can be achieved just the same by going back to chrome on the grill. I'm going to pull it tonight and post pics from the same angle and you guys can tell me what you think.

moosejaw

Really i was told the exactly the opposite by my powdercoater and umpteen car fourms......I opted to use goodwood auto radiator paint. see pic below.

AKnight55

Looks good, our cars looked very similar before I got the E63 front bumper.. Maybe do a black roof and hood vent to match all the other black accents? Heres a pic for you to get an idea.

Blk04e55

Looks good as is, I'd even leave the mirror covers they look good dude!

Pewter KPA

It would make a difference if the face of the heat exchanger was responsible for cooling but it's not. All the cooling is done as the air transfers through the cooler and through the fins. This is why tube size, row count and fin density are so critical to building a good heat exchanger.

Mocal and setrab make air to liquid coolers for professional racing and there tests back up that same logic. If they are willing to powdercoat their whole cores and not see any difference in heat transfer then that's good enough for me.

Thank you everyone for the input. I keep going back and forth on this black or no black thing. First world problems at their finest lol

GunMoto

Leave it for a bit, I think the black grill will grown on you.

It did for me, lolz!

H35

chrome all the way

wheelz

Use bumperplugs.com to fill the holes in your bumper.

hpV12

Looks sick as is. Deff. Keep the carbon mirrors.

Pewter KPA

Thank for the tip! Those holes have been driving me nuts.

mrweelr

I love my chrome grille and hood star. I guess I'm an old school pimp, lol.

berti_00

it looks good man, minus the cf mirrors

Max.H

Black grills are really played out. It doesn't work on every color and can look ricey like a teenage boy racers car. I like the silver and would be happy with either on my car as well. Love the chrome grill on silver cars.

Black grills do NOT work on every color. It makes the car look cheap on lighter colors other then White and a dark charcoal.

typhoon43

I'm a fan of the black personally.

bnzuovr

i like the black gril and mirrors in all honesty. But a black roof light knight said would look good.