[mobilejo]

My car came with the illuminated grilles in all silver. I hated the colour so nwhen I first got the car I swapped the surrounds for those from a shadowline grille, but then I ended up with a black surround and silver slats, which I still wasn't happy with. Eventually I gave up and just swapped the whole illuminated grilled for basic shadowline and haven't thought it about it for 18 months.

Today I come across my illuminated grilles in my garage, just sitting there, mocking me, having been unused since the car was pretty much new. So I decided to experiment with them and see if I could create a full black illuminated grille by mixing and matching my shadowline grille with the illuminated one. I know BMW now do illuminated grilles in shadowline but I see that the sides of the slats are grey and not black and that isn't what I wanted. Its illustrated well in this post: https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...45&postcount=8

I figured I could create a full black illuminated grille by using some of the parts from my shadowline grille, and painting the main part of the illuminated grille that actually contains the lights. Below is a DIY guide for anyone else that wants to do a mix'n'match with a black grille and an illuminated one:

To start I broke the grilles down into their constituent parts.

There are 3 "layers" to grille - the surround, the 'slats unit', and the 'slat covers'.

This is the complete grille (I've mixed my black & silver parts here to make it easy to distinguish the parts - silver is the surround and slat covers, black is the slats unit):



Take the full grille, turn it over and you'll see clips all around the back edge which hold the surround to the slats unit.



Undo all of those clips and separate the slats unit from surround. The slats unit (which has the slat covers still attached to it at this point) looks like the picture below. The silver is the slat covers, the black part is the slats unit.



To separate the slat covers from the slats unit, turn the unit over and you'll see a load of clips (pic below) which need to be released. Once all of the clips are out, the covers prise off the units. Its a long process and you have to keep unclipping clips that you've already unclipped before, as you work your way around the unit. Go slowly and keep gently pulling the covers away from the unit as you release the clips over and over.



Once the covers are off the units, you'll have the following:



You need to completely dismantle both grilles - you want the surround and slat covers from the shadowline grille, and the slats unit from the illuminated grille as that is where the lighting is.

You can then mask off the lighting strips in the illuminated grille slats unit, and paint that part black. I used plasti-dip as I had a can in the garage. I don't have any pictures of the illuminated slats unit but when looking at them, its very obvious where the lighting strips are and they are easy to tape over for painting due to their location.

Once the units are dry, re-assemble by fitting the shadowline slat covers to your newly painted black illuminated slats units, and then insert into the shadowline surround.

The result:

Illuminated:


Turned off:

[Flying Ace]

This is cool. Wasn't even aware this was an option, at least here in the US. I have mixed feelings about illumination, but you did a good job modifying it.

[nhammo1]

Im finding it extremely difficult to remove the outer 1-piece chrome trim from the unit.

Any tips

[mobilejo]

Originally Posted by nhammo1

Im finding it extremely difficult to remove the outer 1-piece chrome trim from the unit.

Any tips

Try warming the tabs slightly with a heatgun on low, or a hair dryer, and use a small flat head screwdriver to prise them tabs up.

Its a fiddly job and took me ages the first time I did it, but it is doable.

[nhammo1]

Originally Posted by mobilejo

Try warming the tabs slightly with a heatgun on low, or a hair dryer, and use a small flat head screwdriver to prise them tabs up.

Its a fiddly job and took me ages the first time I did it, but it is doable.

Thank you I appreciate the response! I'll give it a try right now.

[mobilejo]

Originally Posted by nhammo1

Thank you I appreciate the response! I'll give it a try right now.

No probs, good luck!