Mach_666

Hi fellow people..

just installed my new front grille. its not all around chrome, only the frame is in chrome and the inner thing is in titansilver.
Looks quite heavy!

But my fingers and hands are nearly bloody cause of the installation...



sorry for the bad quality of the pics..



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C's Bimmer

Maybe I'm missing something, but that just looks like a stock grille to me...

rodybmw

Did you paint the entire center section silver (like the X5) or did you just brush the chrome edges? I brushed the chrome edges as well as the chrome frames a couple of years ago and I like it much better than chrome. I was going to paint it silver/Titan if I did not like the outcome of the brushing, but I liked it so I just left it at that. Here are some pics:

westcoast550

I think that the V8 grills have a silver front and the non V8s are all black except the the kidneys...
Cheers

BlaSTiWi

Wow that looks really good... Rody!

How did yaa do that? I like to have mine a brushed look like that...

rodybmw

Thanks......I did mine when I was installing the M Aero Kit, which was about 2.5 years ago.......so my memory of all the details is not great right now. But basically I removed the grills from the car first and then removed the chrome frames from the inner slats. I used the Red/maroon Scotch Brite pads that you can buy from Home Depot's paint department to lightly brush the chrome edges of the vertical slats. You don't need much pressure to do this....just a few strokes on each individual slat does remove the chrome gloss and gives you the matte brushed metal look. Be careful not to brush too long or apply too much pressure as you will go through the plating.

The chrome frames were harder to do. I was pretty impressed at how hard the chrome plating was on the frames. They are still plastic and not metal, but the chrome layer on them is harder and thicker than on the slats. The Scotch Brite did not work too well at first, so I used several grits of sand paper starting from coarse grit and going gradually to finer grits. then at the end I used the Scotch Brite to smooth things out.

Be careful about the tabs that hold the kidney frames to the inner grill they are very thin and fragile an do brake easily when you are holding the frames in your hand and brushing them. Also, make sure you are brushing or sanding both the slats and the frames "lengthwise" or longitudinally (if that makes any sense) so that there won't be any cross grains running the wrong way (or sideways).

E60BEEMER

Is that a X5 grill totally, or just an E60 grill with some X5 Parts or mods,

look at mine, i beleive its chrome all round, inc kidneys

Does the X5 fit straight onto the E60

Mach_666

here are few more pics....



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best regards!

rodybmw

The X5 grill will not fit the E60, you have to modify the existing E60 grill by painting it Titan/Silver to make it "look like" an X5's, or brush it like I did to just lose the chrome look. Either way you have to use your own E60 grill, not the X5 one.

E60BEEMER

that looks trim, yes i understand now,

i will look to do that to mine also,

brushing you said, does that mean i have to get a slightly abbrassive brush and rub it sown until the chrome comes off? or has it got be spray painted/ lacquer?

You grills stand out and look much better then original, im quite inspired by it