Yesterdays productive day...

Waka · Post by **Waka** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 11:13 pm

I finally got round to swapping my tacky chrome kidney grills. It's only taken me 2 years

Before:

(stupid things were glued on)

and after:

a few coats of plastic primer and BMW titanium, along with a layer of Dodo Juices finest Supernatural, lovely!

Don't know why I didn't do it sooner!

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 11:54 pm

That is a million times better. Nice.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 11:58 pm

The chrome was def a bit bling and big mate, looks a whole lot better now. Nice one

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cognac · Post by **cognac** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:26 am

Very nice I want!

Titanium grills really seem to give the E53 a newer look, is it possible to buy them off the shelf and are they easy to replace? as I'm worst than useless at any diy on cars

Steve

x555 · Post by **x555** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:52 am

Looks great

wwaaaaayyyy better than before

nice job.

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 10:58 am

[quote=""cognac""]Very nice I want!

Titanium grills really seem to give the E53 a newer look, is it possible to buy them off the shelf and are they easy to replace? as I'm worst than useless at any diy on cars

Steve[/quote]

You can buy them from BMW but they are seriously expensive Â£200 upwards from memory.

I actually do have a set somewhere that I removed from my 4.8.....hmmmm need to dig them out.

Waka · Post by **Waka** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:07 am

[quote=""cognac""]Very nice I want!

Titanium grills really seem to give the E53 a newer look, is it possible to buy them off the shelf and are they easy to replace? as I'm worst than useless at any diy on cars

Steve[/quote]

Thanks guys, I think the car looks much cleaner (and leaner!) now

Steve, it's quite easy to do unless your original ones were glued on like mine! Which is unlikely unless they were the horrible over-sized chrome variety.
Here's a wobbly video that someone has made showing how to remove the old ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpA0p0lwVU

I bought a second-hand set of grills on flea-bay for not very much...a bit of light sanding (240 grit wet & dry) as the trim around the edge of the new ones were also chrome and I wanted the whole grill to be matte. A quick wipe down with some IPA...a few coats of primer and a few more of BMW Titanium, both sourced from Halfords. Easy!

gchristofi · Post by **gchristofi** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:15 pm

massive improvement... do you think the bonnet grills would look good titanium too?

cognac · Post by **cognac** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:16 pm

[quote=""Waka""][quote=""cognac""]Very nice I want!

Titanium grills really seem to give the E53 a newer look, is it possible to buy them off the shelf and are they easy to replace? as I'm worst than useless at any diy on cars

Steve[/quote]

Thanks guys, I think the car looks much cleaner (and leaner!) now

Steve, it's quite easy to do unless your original ones were glued on like mine! Which is unlikely unless they were the horrible over-sized chrome variety.
Here's a wobbly video that someone has made showing how to remove the old ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpA0p0lwVU

I bought a second-hand set of grills on flea-bay for not very much...a bit of light sanding (240 grit wet & dry) as the trim around the edge of the new ones were also chrome and I wanted the whole grill to be matte. A quick wipe down with some IPA...a few coats of primer and a few more of BMW Titanium, both sourced from Halfords. Easy!

[/quote]

Hi Waka.
Thanks for the reply and the link on how to replace the grills. I'm hoping that Raj manages to find the grills from his 4.8 and is happy to sell them to me so I can take the easy route....

cognac · Post by **cognac** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:38 pm

[quote=""Raj""][quote=""cognac""]Very nice I want!

Titanium grills really seem to give the E53 a newer look, is it possible to buy them off the shelf and are they easy to replace? as I'm worst than useless at any diy on cars

Steve[/quote]

You can buy them from BMW but they are seriously expensive Â£200 upwards from memory.

I actually do have a set somewhere that I removed from my 4.8.....hmmmm need to dig them out.[/quote]

Hi Raj,
If you do manage to "dig them out" and are happy to sell please PM me

Steve

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:57 pm

[quote=""cognac""]

Hi Raj,
If you do manage to "dig them out" and are happy to sell please PM me

Steve[/quote]

Hi Steve.

You're more than welcome to them but first need to remember where they are.....

Raj

cognac · Post by **cognac** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:12 am

Thanks Raj

Fingers crossed the grills are not buried under the footings of your Midlands modding HQ!

Waka · Post by **Waka** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:48 am

[quote=""gchristofi""]massive improvement... do you think the bonnet grills would look good titanium too?

[/quote]

aaagh, don't say that!

I was thinking about doing them at the same time...maybe I'll leave it another 2 years

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 11:31 am

[quote=""cognac""]Thanks Raj

Fingers crossed the grills are not buried under the footings of your Midlands modding HQ!

[/quote]

Lol me too. My stuff has gone all over the place when had to clear the garage prior to knocking it down so need to remember where they went.

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