grfxp

So I ordered one of the "newer" style grills that are made by JC Sportline, the matte silver frame with gloss black mesh. This grill has the smaller mesh inside the Audi ring holder, so it looks more OEM than the other Chinese grills. The ring holder is also molded in to the mesh instead of it being tacked on. I'll say this, the quality of the grill is pretty damn decent... a few rough edges, but overall, looks pretty nice for the price (I paid around $340 shipped).

The look i'm going for is OEM Audi RS5 with the alu-optic package, since my S4 doesn't have the BO kit I "think" the gunmetal/matte silver look would best. Nobody has been able to find out what the color of the Audi RS5 grill mesh is, at least that I have been able to tell. I've got a buddy that works in the body shop at a local Audi dealer who gave me the "audi paint code" of M0J. Of course, that doesn't translate to anything -- it's just an internal Audi code, so it's essentially useless. The guys at the local paint shop were kind enough to let me borrow their paint book, and matching up the different Audi / VW paint codes to the actual RS5 grill, the closest (and from what I could see) dead on match was (LM7W) Graphite Gray. I don't have the grill or paint in front of me right now, but i'm 99% sure that was the color -- will verify for you.

A lot of people seem to paint the mesh a matte color, that's not right... the OEM grill is metallic and glossy (see pics below). I've also heard other people say that only the front of the mesh is silver and the rest of the mesh is gloss black, nope -- not right either. See for yourself:

OEM 2014 RS5 grill:





Since the JC Sportline grill isn't made just like the OEM RS5 grill, my dilemma was do i keep the ring holder all gloss black, paint it gunmetal, or try to make it look a little more like the OEM RS5 grill (which has a gunmetal ring holder attached to the mesh -- seen in the picture above, then a gloss black piece on top of that). I decided to take a chance and tape off a portion of the ring holder which will stay gloss black. I'm not sure how it will come out, but here's hoping it will look decent. Worst case, i'll just paint it all gloss black if the two tone doesn't look right.

Here's the ring holder taped off:



In addition to the front grill being painted, i'm also going to have the fog light grills painted high-gloss black. The RS models have glossy fog grills and it looks great, so I figured I'd give that a shot.

Hoping to have the front grill back early next week and will post pics. More info to come with all of the details for those looking to try something similar.

grfxp

Update #1 - Fog Light Grills

I had bought a beat old fog light grill off of a member here, it was cracked, plastidipped and glued together, but hell, for $30 bucks I could use it as a test grill. Sorry about the crappy pics, it was in a dark garage.

Here's that grill, painted in high-gloss black, which even as awful condition as the grill was, still looks pretty sweet!



And a quick shot of them installed:





and compared to OEM:



I'm really happy with the way they look, so i'm having my good set of grills painted now...

grfxp

front grill, out of paint, hopefully will have time tomorrow night to install it!











Money in the bag! This, paired with the glossy fog grills should really do the trick to the front end.... the paint is nearly a spot on match, the taped off grill holder came out nice and I think really makes it look more OEM.

What does everyone think?

CHAUCH

Looks great, I also have a jcsportline grille on order. How long did yours take to arrive?

grfxp

~ 2 weeks

grfxp

Update 3: grill installed.

color me impressed... more pics to come tomorrow when the fog light grills are installed to complete the look.

S3_jacko

Great results there mate..

Can you confirm that the paintcode you provided is the actual paint code you used for the grill mesh?

I'm in the opposite situation from you in where my mesh is Oem but my surround is in Black.. I have another surround that I wanted painted in the oem style?

Thanks in advance..

AForePlayin'03

Yes, nice job. Also, can you explain how you remove the fog light grilles?

Thanks.