MK5 Golf GTI

All Things Mk5 => Mk5 General Area => Topic started by: Joe Hryszko on May 14, 2015, 11:14:28 am

Title: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Joe Hryszko on May 14, 2015, 11:14:28 am
Hi chaps,

Recently very new to the forums, posted a little thread saying hello the other day! After driving the car for over 2/3 weeks and loving it, im now looking at touching it up and making it perfect for me!

I have already ordered some US Spec open fog light grills, but my front honeycomb grill top and bottom is quite a faded grey colour... can anyone recommend the best way to fix this. Do i buy new ones for about £70? (eBay have both, £40 for the top and £20-30 for the bottom) Or are they easy enough to take off and respray?

Cheers guys,
Joe
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Georrge on May 14, 2015, 06:49:42 pm
Heating plastic up with a heat gun is a really good way of bringing them back to life. I used this method on my lower grill and it worked really well, took me maybe 20 minutes. But you have to be careful as the plastic can melt very easily!

Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: andybon on May 14, 2015, 08:20:54 pm
Forgot about the heat gun trick!
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Joe Hryszko on May 14, 2015, 11:47:44 pm
Heating plastic up with a heat gun is a really good way of bringing them back to life. I used this method on my lower grill and it worked really well, took me maybe 20 minutes. But you have to be careful as the plastic can melt very easily!

This actually works?! :o

Never would I have ever thought about that, so just heating the plastic up makes it look a more black colour?
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: GTi-Andy on May 15, 2015, 07:41:38 am
Time to drag out the missus hairdryer. Lol
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: SiofChester on May 15, 2015, 08:33:51 am
I sprayed mine (and the grill) with plastidip, came out perfect!
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Shoduchi on May 15, 2015, 09:58:54 am
I think there are good detail products that can renew plastics well. No need for the heat gun trick. :wink:
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Rampage on May 15, 2015, 10:04:04 am
GTechniq C4 worked a treat for me. Still looks as good as new 2 years later  :happy2:
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: MPS on May 15, 2015, 05:20:52 pm
C4 came out rubbish for me.
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Georrge on May 15, 2015, 05:46:17 pm
Heating plastic up with a heat gun is a really good way of bringing them back to life. I used this method on my lower grill and it worked really well, took me maybe 20 minutes. But you have to be careful as the plastic can melt very easily!

This actually works?! :o

Never would I have ever thought about that, so just heating the plastic up makes it look a more black colour?
Yeah! If you google it you will find an explanation as to why it works and it will make perfect sense!
Title: Re: Front Honeycomb grills, buy new ones or refurb?
Post by: Jesta on May 15, 2015, 10:27:49 pm
I know its cheap but I tried some spray back to black from halfords as I wanted to get a thin even coverage.

It worked really well, but it hasn't lasted at all and there's a part of me that wonders if it's even more grey now than before I applied the back to black!

may give the g techniq stuff a try next.