Grille black or "silver" plastic??
 

Just curious as to why some grilles have black painted plastic behind the metal works and some are unpainted.

A past owner painted its?

The grille was originally a dark gray color. It seems the sunlight quickly bleached it to the light gray color we always see now.

-Jason

Really? Maybe. But I sure see a lot of them painted black then. Even a google image search brings up a good number on what would appear to be unmodified cars. I figured with the frequency it was a factory option or a model specific thing.

I don't think they were ever painted from the factory. It seemed to be a popular thing for styling garages to do though.

-J

Yes, grille inserts (door handles, plastic trims, etc.) do fade from dark gray to light gray with time due to the sun.

You can get grille inserts online for 20$+shipping & 44$ from MB dealer for my model.
But my MB parts guy told me if mine was still good (no cracks/damage), I should just paint mine. Cause inserts from even the dealer is very poor quality.

So I painted mine back to original MB dark gray color.

Didn't know there was an OEM grille paint. How much was the rattle can?

-J

i have painted ours flat black

I purchased a new grill insert from a local MB dealer for our 1991 300CE a few years back because a mild deer hit had broken it. The new grill insert was dark gray and high quality, as is any part I've ever purchased from a MB dealer. MB has rigid specifications for all parts that vendors manufacture for them ... the same specification as the original part ... so no reason for a replacement part to be inferior to the original.

Would the process using a heat gun as in the link below work on the grill plastic ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emlrb38YHgI

I'd be scared of melting/warping the plastic with a heat gun. I tried that process on my old MK2 Volkswagen Jetta, and while it amazingly restored the original dark grey/black colour to the parts just like in the video, anything that was smooth instead of textured (like the door handles) warped VERY easily (less structural integrity without texturing, perhaps?). I would be interested to see the results if anyone tried, though.

I just painted my W124 grille insert satin black. Very simple, quick, and effective - just remember to do the secondary hood release pull too.

Every car and truck,I've owned I painted the grilles black.
It just makes them stand out better.

Well maybe that is what I am seeing then, new grilles. Did not know they were that dark. Thats really a change from new to old!

I painted mine satin black and pulled out the cross bars.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...D/DSCN5868.jpg

I painted mine dark gray. The heat gun trick does not work on the grille plastic.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1290269047

It looks darker in that photo then it does in person. If I were doing it again I would choose one shade lighter of gray. I painted the trim pieces inside the headlights the same color.

-Jason

I'd use the SEM paint or the spray paints for plastics