Aftermarket A3 black grill

lafa3ro

lafa3ro

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Your original chrome surround was bubbling up? It's plastic coated with chrome paint so nothing for water ingress to damage - never heard of this before


Also just wrap it with Vinyl had it for 2+ years
 
Yeah thats weird I know, not the traditional paint on metal rust bubble, more like a stone chip related damage:

UfyXEjih.jpg


But vinyl wrap is one avenue I had not considered. I read that the grill surround is not removable on facelift 8ps, must be quite tricky to wrap it while on the grill no?
 
lafa3ro said:
Yeah thats weird I know, not the traditional paint on metal rust bubble, more like a stone chip related damage:

UfyXEjih.jpg


But vinyl wrap is one avenue I had not considered. I read that the grill surround is not removable on facelift 8ps, must be quite tricky to wrap it while on the grill no?
Click to expand...

On my MY61 S3 the surround is removable. With the grille off the car, there is about 30 clips to unlatch and then the surround will detach.

I have the Black Edition S3, I swapped the gloss black surround onto a genuine RS3 grille.
 
Yeah you can get the chrome strip off but the whole frontend has to come off to do this :).
 
Ok so its just that the grill surround is not being sold as its own I suppose. Thanks for the info guys. Very tempting but I dont know if I have the required skills to get a good results myself, might look into have done professionally.

Unless the aftermarket grill is of amazing quality, might just go with the wrap route.

Oh, does the bottom grey part of the s-line bumper (middle lip) come off "easily" too?
 
lafa3ro said:
Ok so its just that the grill surround is not being sold as its own I suppose. Thanks for the info guys. Very tempting but I dont know if I have the required skills to get a good results myself, might look into have done professionally.

Unless the aftermarket grill is of amazing quality, might just go with the wrap route.

Oh, does the bottom grey part of the s-line bumper (middle lip) come off "easily" too?
Click to expand...
What do you mean with the bottom grey part?

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This:


I can see 5 fasterners underneath, no idea how its fixed other than that. Probably overkill anyway, looks not that bad. The bumper paint condition though...
 
Does anyone know if aftermarket grilles clip designs are 100% the same as OEM? I'm asking cause I just saw a good deal on a RS3 type aftermarket grill with the black surrounding and front plate delete.

The grille surround and front plate delete should go onto the OEM grill just fine no? This is the grille:

 
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lafa3ro said:
This:


I can see 5 fasterners underneath, no idea how its fixed other than that. Probably overkill anyway, looks not that bad. The bumper paint condition though...
Click to expand...

Ah, that is part of your frontbumper mate.
Look at the pic I made when drilling PDC holes in my frontbumper.

f210fb44749b405ce041d162ecfd6706.jpg
 
lafa3ro said:
Does anyone know if aftermarket grilles clip designs are 100% the same as OEM? I'm asking cause I just saw a good deal on a RS3 type aftermarket grill with the black surrounding and front plate delete.

The grille surround and front plate delete should go onto the OEM grill just fine no? This is the grille:

Click to expand...

Yes they are. I also bought a aftermarket RS3 grille like this. Pay attention to what MY it applies. Pre-facelift has different screwpoints then facelift.
The pic above is for the facelife 2008 - 2012.

cfd27a48e79f143c0c5eb158ae0457a2.jpg
 
Awesome thanks for the tip henkkeumus, yeah mines a facelift too so the grille is good to go. I'll probably swap the surround and place holder from the fake RS3 grille onto my OEM s-line grille and voila, even cleaner solution than the wrap and still cheaper than a new aftermarket grille.

If I can bother you again, was this ring holder included in your RS like grill? Looks good, much better than what I usually see.
 
lafa3ro said:
Awesome thanks for the tip henkkeumus, yeah mines a facelift too so the grille is good to go. I'll probably swap the surround and place holder from the fake RS3 grille onto my OEM s-line grille and voila, even cleaner solution than the wrap and still cheaper than a new aftermarket grille.

If I can bother you again, was this ring holder included in your RS like grill? Looks good, much better than what I usually see.
Click to expand...

why not just fit the complete RS3 grille?
 
lafa3ro said:
Awesome thanks for the tip henkkeumus, yeah mines a facelift too so the grille is good to go. I'll probably swap the surround and place holder from the fake RS3 grille onto my OEM s-line grille and voila, even cleaner solution than the wrap and still cheaper than a new aftermarket grille.

If I can bother you again, was this ring holder included in your RS like grill? Looks good, much better than what I usually see.
Click to expand...

Yeah mate, I got the ring holder with it.

You can get them separately in Holland though (www.carfantasy.nl)


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I bought the one with plateholder in it because I knew I wanted to retrofit front PDC aswell. I think the one without plateholder looks a bit better mate. I would go for that one.
 
samuelh_888 said:
why not just fit the complete RS3 grille?
Click to expand...
I just prefer the look of the OEM one over the RS like grille. The way it fits with the fog lights, the way the rings are incorporated, I dont know I like it more. My ideal would be an OEM S3 black edition but they are not easy to find over this side of the pond.
 
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henkkeumus said:
I bought the one with plateholder in it because I knew I wanted to retrofit front PDC aswell. I think the one without plateholder looks a bit better mate. I would go for that one.
Click to expand...
Yeah the picture I linked above is the exact grille I found a cracking deal on, 50$ for basically a new grille that was never mounted since the guy sold the car before he could mount it.

I might end up fit the whole thing in end, my mind is not set 100% still but thats too good of a deal to pass on!
 
lafa3ro said:
Yeah the picture I linked above is the exact grille I found a cracking deal on, 50$ for basically a new grille that was never mounted since the guy sold the car before he could mount it.

I might end up fit the whole thing in end, my mind is not set 100% still but thats too good of a deal to pass on!
Click to expand...

Thats cheap bud. Just mount it and see if you’d like it. Its only 50 quid so otherwise resell it
 


Bought the grille, its one plastic piece so it will definitely go as is. Previous owner said that he planned on clear coating it before install, thoughts?

I think the clear coat might help match the gloss black of the fog lights cover so it aesthetically makes sense.

Any major drawbacks to clear coating a plastic grille?
 
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