Hi ganag,

My WP/B MCS, black stripes is on order. I was finally able to get a front image (thanks T.L.) of what the car will look like. There is one feature I think I would like to change.

The main bonnet grille is painted the same WP as the car body. Does someone make a replacement to switch them to black? I know the colored grille is a feature in the higher priced MCS. Any opinion on changing this? Would it "cheapen" the car?

I am not very handy. A replacement would have to be a fairly easy DIY job for me to do it.

Thanks for the advice
Nando

 

I got mine from the dealer. Upper and lower in black. don't remember the price but could get you the part numbers.

I you want to PM me with you e-mail address I could send you before and after photos. I just don't know how to do it here.

A friend came over and we installed them in a couple of hours. Top was easy, bottom took a SAW but he had done his before we did mine.

Earl

 

there is another grade called MINI ONE outside of the US Market. This grade comes with flat black grill regardless of the body color. You might want to check it out at the Mini UK site. You just have to find someone to ship it across the pond!

 

Get the aero grill. You can order all of the grill pieces separately and do the install your self

Top Front Bumper Grille black - 51 11 0 140 255 - $37.25
Bonnet Grill black - 51 13 0 140 259 - $51.25

Here is a link for instructions on how to do the install

http://www.bridger.us/mini/howto/MIN...ll_install.pdf

 

The aero kit grill is black, and can be ordered separately. The top is an easy swap, but I hear the bottom is a PITA. We put in the factory chrome grill kit, and had it done at the dealer.

 

Hi Nando - - -

I recommend painting the existing grill bars. The Aero Kit grill is a honeycomb mesh and must be modified to fit into a non-aero kit bumper, and I think that the bars give a better appearance. The part numbers posted by SCMCS are for the Aero Kit grill parts. The standard MCS grill part numbers and prices are:
- Bonnet Grill - 51 11 1 400 063 - $39.00
- Top Front Bumper Grill - 51 13 7 025 991 - $32.75
These pieces are unpainted cream colored plastic. You can either remove yours, paint them, and reinstall - - or you can buy new pieces and keep your white ones as a fall-back. You can do the painting yourself or have a paint shop do it. I paid $100 at the dealership, but could have had it done for about half that if I’d wanted to shop around for an auto body shop that had time to mess with a small job.

The grills are pretty easy to replace yourself. I’m all thumbs and I did it with little trouble. There are a few obvious screws, nuts, and bolts - - but, for the most part the grill assembly snaps together like a cheap toy. I’d guess that the dealer would charge about 1.5 hours labor to do it for you.

Here is the front and back of my original grill bars:




And here is the end result.

 

Nick - that looks great! I've already decided I want to do this on my DS car. So can you replace the lower louver without removing the bumper?

 

Nick T - that looks great. If I ever get another MINI I'd probably go with red, and will probably end up pirating your idea.

 

XAlfa - our posts are eerily similar.

 

>>XAlfa - our posts are eerily similar.

That's freaking me out, man. I better get off line now.

 

XAlfa wrote:
>>So can you replace the lower louver without removing the bumper?

Others have recommended just prying the lower bar off of the backing plate without removing the bumper, but after playing with that method for a few minutes I opted for bumper removal. It was very easy to remove and replace - about ten minutes in each direction.

In addition to the many how-to posts for both upper and lower grill replacement, I suggest that you have a hot glue gun handy to secure the nuts on the upper grill and the tabs on the lower grill.

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You and early_apex are candidates to be interviewed on the Art Bell show!

 

Hi All,

Thanks for the answers. Sounds to me like the best thing would be to take the car to a paint and body shop and ansk them to paint the existing grilles black. This way I won't have to part the additional parts. I will assume the shop will know how to install the things back on after painting.

Thanks again,
Nando

 

I used blackout tape available here in the south at Advance or Auto Zone. $2.00 for 1.5" wide roll of tape long enough to do 5 cars. It took about 30 minutes to do all 4 slats and smooth out the air bubbles.

Good luck. I really like the black stock grill.