So the grille has arrived and is as describes, looks good, no issues with fitment, but it needs painting.

It has the black surround and although my FF is a very dark blue it needs to be done, and here's where I need opinions.

The center mesh is darker that I expected, probably pretty close to the original grille color but looks darker due to the black surround, so here are the choices.

1) Paint the surround blue to match the car.

2) Paint the surround grey to match the center mesh.

3) Paint the surround and mesh a lighter silver to make it stand out a bit, I might also do this with the side vents and bonnet vent, and the door handles need doing too.

4) Paint the whole car black to match the grille surround.

And one more job to do, change the bonnet struts to it doesn't come down on my iphone which was resting on the slam panel again. It didn't crack the screen, it's still working but now it has a lovely curve to it that sits nicely around my ass cheek when it's in my back pocket.

Any opinions?

We need photos and then you can photoshop your different combinations

Added.......

I'd go with 1

The grille mesh does look darker - it may well be 'Dark Atlas' and not the regular 'Atlas'

However, I think if you colour code the surround to match the car, then it will be fine.

I'm not sure if they could spray the entire grille, as it might be a pain to prep, but another option would be to have that done Atlas, then the surround done blue.

oops

Alistair wrote:

oops

What happened?

Did you step on my new grille?...... ........

Ah, you mean the phone, thankfully insured.

Another option would be to paint the surround grey and the mesh silver.

Paint the surround blue to match the car.  All my spelling errorz are belong to me!

2023 FFRR L460
2021 AM new Vantage

That was the original plan, but now I'm thinking the mesh is a little darker that I thought, and I think the dark surround isn't helping it, it just doesn't, as the Americans would say "pop".

I was hoping for a brighter look to the front when I was considering fitting one.

I like the first one and if it was me i would be poppin those headlights n the oven and painting the insides black as well, but that is just me ....
You can paint the mesh if you can give it good going over with some grey or red scotchbrite but i think it looks ok as is

Thanks Andy, but I think I'm looking for a brighter look on this one but I think you're looks really good, especially with those lights....

Latest idea, paint the whole thing silver, see how it looks and then decide if the surround needs to be either painted blue to match the car or gray to match the side vents.

If I leave it all silver I might paint the side and bonnet vents silver to match, and the door handles need doing in either the original grey or a brighter silver to match the grille.

That will look good also and the silver will blend in nicely with the headlight, mainly did it to mine because being the older style it is very square looking but your facelift has the nice curved grille that follows the contour of the headlight and also dips into the bumper.
There is a grille that overlaps the headlights for mine and the headlight wipers sit at an angle and they are just pants !

Silver will highlight the face lift very nicely

This is mine before i painted it, designed using nothing but a pencil and ruler

Morning all.

So last night I sprayed the entire grille with some silver paint I had in the shed, happy with the colour for the mesh in the centre but I think overall it's too bright, so now I think I either need to paint the surround Blue to match the car or grey like the colour of the original.

Any thoughts?

Cheers.

The mesh looks much better but think the surround the same coulour as the body would look best and more like the later cars in style!

Someone might be able to do a photo shop mock up for you to give you an idea of the end product if they have some skills using that!

I think the outer surround would look better matching the colour of the bumper and bonnet, and i wish i could use photoshop.
Paint it and see, a quick scotchbrite and paint wont take long with a bit of masking

Paint the surround the same colour as the body

Here's a couple of my old ones - the one on the left was dark blue