Thanks for the opinions guys, I was leaning towards painting the surround in the body colour myself so it was good to get others opinions.

I think the mesh looks better in the brighter silver and I think the blue surround will balance it.

In the above pictures all silver makes the front smile, all darker makes it look angry, I'm happy to get somewhere in the middle, I've seen enough anger this year, I can't see too many smile happening in early 2017 so I'll be happy to get somewhere in the middle.

Thanks again for the input and happy new year to all........

A quick job done on the surround, not the finished product, I'll have to reprint the surround as there was some reaction after I put on the second clear coat, might have been the paint, might have been to cold when I was doing it or might have put too much on.

Anyway, it gives a bit of an idea what it would be like with the blue surround.

Ignoring the paint quality, I'm actually still not sure I'm happy with it and still considering the original grey colour of original grille for the surround.

Never been so indecisive about such a small job....

Any thoughts?

Looks good to me

If you're going to re-paint it again - then maybe try to get a tin to match the lights & lettering - not sure what colour it is on yours - I think it was Brunel Grey.

I think it looks great now! I'm in exactly the same predicament..decided to get rid of the original one and ordered one from a certain company..it arrived and it didn't even have the clip on the back for the temp sensor and you could only fix it with 1 bolt instead of the 3 like the original..i then ordered this 1 from Hawke..brilliant quality and fit but I'm starting to miss the original 1 ..

Click image to enlarge

Ya, If I'm not going to leave the blue I'll definitely do the surround in the original grille/letters/side vents grey.

I think I've tried every other combination at this stage..........

I think this is finally it, I'm not painting this thing again....


I think I've been thought every possible combination at this stage.

Surround is done in the original Brunel grey and just a generic silver for the mesh.


No clear coat yet, gloss, satin or matt?

Any opinions?

satin. I think they look cheap whilst in the gloss finish and look under coated in the Matt..just my 2 pence

When I first got the car I had the original grey one (top) and went about for weeks thinking of maybe a black and chrome, silver and black etc - eventually an original supercharged chrome grille came up on ebay cheap enough and I took a chance, knowing it was "weathered" (ie not shiny) and I would maybe paint the mesh black. Put it on (bottom) and promptly left it alone

alistairh wrote:

satin. I think they look cheap whilst in the gloss finish and look under coated in the Matt..just my 2 pence

hamlet wrote:

I think this is finally it, I'm not painting this thing again....

I'd have done the mesh in Brunel & the surround in blue

Brian wrote:

When I first got the car I had the original grey one (top) and went about for weeks thinking of maybe a black and chrome, silver and black etc - eventually an original supercharged chrome grille came up on ebay cheap enough and I took a chance, knowing it was "weathered" (ie not shiny) and I would maybe paint the mesh black. Put it on (bottom) and promptly left it alone

Ha, I should have been so lucky. I never seem to just be able to get a bolt on accessory or part, everything I do seems to need a bit of "adjustment"........

Alistair wrote:

hamlet wrote:

I think this is finally it, I'm not painting this thing again....

I'd have done the mesh in Brunel & the surround in blue

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