W213 E63 front Grills

daveenty

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I went to Zunsport today to get the car fitted out with a decent set of front grills.

For anyone who's familiar with these cars you'll know that the frontal area, particularly the lower grill, is extremely vulnerable to damage from stones etc. due to the amount of radiators which are secreted away in there.

I arranged this trip a couple of weeks ago after speaking with Peter Langston who's the owner as nobody is doing an after market grill for these cars. He was supposed to be getting one in for test purposes a while ago but the owner never showed up, so I grabbed the chance to get mine in as a demo for them.

It was a long day (nearly 6 hours of boredom and lots of free coffee) but, after several hours of measuring and working the shapes out, including loads of test fits, they are now developing the prototypes which should be ready for fitting next month and, if all goes OK, they will then go into production shortly after.

The lower opening seemed to create the most problems, probably due to the cheap and nasty Mercedes push on splitter flexing a bit, so this has hopefully been taken into account and will fit all the W213s.

These grills will fit over the original ones with a series of clips and will come in either polished silver, like a chrome effect, or gloss black which mine will be. I did ask about fitting them behind the intake but it would involve the removal of all the front of the car which, given that these are supposed to be a DIY project, would not be practical. they'll hopefully be subtle enough to be barely noticeable yet strong enough to withstand a hit and protect the cooling system.

I'll update when I go back for the test fitting meanwhile, have a couple of pictures which I've managed to grab: -

This is how they come from Mercedes: -

Side Open.jpg

And this is during the first test fit: -

First Fit.jpg

The masking tape is obviously for paint protection, and if you zoom in on the second picture you should be able to see some of the coolers through the lower grill.
 

peterws1957

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Good bit of foresight there Dave. I presume that by choosing black they will look a bit less "grilley"?
 

LostKiwi

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Nice one Dave. You definitely don't want stone and sticks damaging those coolers.
 
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daveenty

daveenty

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Good bit of foresight there Dave. I presume that by choosing black they will look a bit less "grilley"?

I'm hoping they'll just blend in Peter, hence the black. Seemed logical as the car has the night package so a bit more black shouldn't make much difference...

Nice one Dave. You definitely don't want stone and sticks damaging those coolers.

A couple of guys in the US have already had issues apparently Alastair. $000s to repair with no help from MB...
 

peterws1957

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I'm hoping they'll just blend in Peter, hence the black. Seemed logical as the car has the night package so a bit more black shouldn't make much difference...



A couple of guys in the US have already had issues apparently Alastair. $000s to repair with no help from MB...
Just noticed that Mr Burton (schmee) has had just this problem on his GTr with a holed cooler. The GTr does not have any grille protection at all, which seems a strange omission really.
 

John Laidlaw

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I'm hoping they'll just blend in Peter, hence the black. Seemed logical as the car has the night package so a bit more black shouldn't make much difference...



A couple of guys in the US have already had issues apparently Alastair. $000s to repair with no help from MB...
When do these get fitted Dave?
 

John Laidlaw

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Interestingly whilst at Affalterbach there were 2xF1 safety cars which had extremely similar grilles fitted- apparently they were prone to tyre marbles shooting into the radiators
 
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daveenty

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Got a phone call yesterday from Peter at Zunsport telling me that my grills are ready and would I call down for a final fit and to have some photos taken for their catalogue/publicity. I can't do today so suggested Monday which is fine for them.

I've now realised that I can't do Monday either so it's going to be Tuesday or Wednesday before I can make it. :(

I'll get them eventually...
 

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