Removing chrome on grill

[NM07]

Hi all

I've never been too keen on the standard s-line dark gray the grille is painted in. It doesn't match the black fog light surrounds, and I think it looks out of place:

On the special editions with the black optic pack, the grille has a gloss black surround, but more importantly to me all the plastics inside are painted black rather than the standard s-line dark gray, so it matches the fog light surrounds nicely:

What I would like to achieve is to purchase a special edition grille, but to swap over my chrome surround onto it, as I don't want to lose the chrome, I just want the centre of the grille to be black rather than grey as I think it will sharpen the front end up a lot.

My question is, how much work is it to remove the chrome surround from my grille, so I can swap it over? I know I will need to do bumper off etc which is not a problem. I'm hoping the chrome frame is just held to the grille with clips rather than adhesive or something more trying to remove.

Any help and information would be much appreciated!

 

[Charlie Farley]

Officially Audi will tell you the surround is part of the grille assembly and not removable, but, it is.
The Black optics grill was fitted to the Mk2 special editions , mk1 had the normal colour s-line grille.
The Rings can be removed as can the s-line badge , the number plate holder comes of too .
The surround can be removed with great care and patience, i've done it many times, you just need to take your time not to damage or break off the fixing lugs, it wasn't designed to be removed as such so the tabs tend to snap off if you rush at it, matches are handy to keep them pressed in to release the surround, there are a lot of those tabs to release as well.

Whether you get another black grille or paint yours black is up to you, either way, what you are looking to do is possible .

 

[NM07]

That's great to know, thanks Rob I really appreciate it I will definitely be going with a genuine black optics grille, I trust Audi's painting much more than I do my own

Would you be able to go into any further detail about how best to approach removing the surround? i.e. the location of the lugs and if I need to pry it in a special 'Audi' way to remove it Knowing my luck I'll end up breaking the grille trying to remove the surround so any knowledge I can get before I tackle it will be great!

 

[Charlie Farley]

The Satin silver surround on the rs4 grilles is really nice , having had gloss black, matt black chrome and satin silver , silver is by far the nicest .

 

[NM07]

I'd love the satin silver surround, but that means also finding a genuine RS4 grille which will be even more expensive than the special edition grill

 

[Charlie Farley]

That's great to know, thanks Rob I really appreciate it I will definitely be going with a genuine black optics grille, I trust Audi's painting much more than I do my own

Would you be able to go into any further detail about how best to approach removing the surround? i.e. the location of the lugs and if I need to pry it in a special 'Audi' way to remove it Knowing my luck I'll end up breaking the grille trying to remove the surround so any knowledge I can get before I tackle it will be great!

To be honest i think you will stuggle a bit to find a really good used black grille , most taken from breakers etc tend to be less than ideal.
New will be quite costly aswell, but at least you have a nice new surround to work with and the tabs will not be brittle as they become on used 15 year old grilles.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I'd love the satin silver surround, but that means also finding a genuine RS4 grille which will be even more expensive than the special edition grill

You're probably looking at around the £300-400 for a new black optic grille, not far off rs4 grilles, well on the scale of things that is.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Even the S4 B7 had an option of a black grille if you wanted similar but without going rs4 honeycombe, it has double vertical struts instead of single on the s-line grilles.

 

[Charlie Farley]

That's great to know, thanks Rob I really appreciate it I will definitely be going with a genuine black optics grille, I trust Audi's painting much more than I do my own

Would you be able to go into any further detail about how best to approach removing the surround? i.e. the location of the lugs and if I need to pry it in a special 'Audi' way to remove it Knowing my luck I'll end up breaking the grille trying to remove the surround so any knowledge I can get before I tackle it will be great!

there is no special way, just which way works for you really.
From memory, the lugs go around the the whole surround so start point is personal preference, i found it easier to strart in the top middle and work around clockwise carefully prying the tab back and pushing the surround outwards a little, too much force and they will just snap.

 

[Charlie Farley]

After several goes it becomes easier.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I have some close up pics somewhere of it but not on my current PC.
here is one from the interwebby that shows the tabs on the grille itself , there are more on the surround too.

ignor the red circles, not sure what they are for, maybe to higlight broken bits.

 

[Charlie Farley]

if you do go black you'll need the black plate carrier too with PDC if you have it fitted.

 

[Charlie Farley]

what about this.
need a surround colour change still.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Still would be a massive improvement on your s-line even with the gloss black surround, kinda like it myself.

 

[Charlie Farley]

That black s4 version grille with a satin silver surround would look brilliant.