AJLex19

Was looking at a listing and saw a Luxury '13 GS with a mesh grille. Anyone replace their grille with a mesh grille similar to the ones pictured below? I recall seeing a forum member painted his f sport grilles glossy black on a nebular grey f sport which created a similar, unique look..

Any experience with cost, difficulty to install? Any thoughts/opinions on this look also welcome. Thanks...

Sevn86

I like the black mesh grille on the ES. Do they have a black one for the GS f sport?

AJLex19

Yup - they do have a black mesh version for all versions of the '13-'15 GS models...

SC300Es

There was one in the picture thread way back

Sevn86

I may consider it when I do my F sport front bumper swap. If the mesh grilles are cheaper then OEM then I might get them in black for my car.

AJLex19

After getting a great deal on AutoAnything.com, I purchased the Mesh Grille and installed it myself this weekend. It was a bit of a pain requiring cutting, drilling, and lots of steps but I'm very, very pleased with the result. Considred the f-sport inserts but decided that I wanted a unique front-end look with the grille.

Below are some pics but it looks better in person for sure. Questions and comments welcome as always!

MEAHT

iTrader: (1)

Way too much chrome for me. Looks like the car is trying to show you how nice its teeth are...

Glad you like them though, thats all that matters.

AJLex19

Haha...I can see that! I remember a time when chrome was very much in (there was even reflective/chrome tint that was very popular for a bit). Now the trend is in toward the "black-out" look...saw my neighbor's kid spraying the wheels on his older ford explorer with black spray paint (it looked awful IMO).

This grille has the chrome surround but with the mesh grille in a glossy black - so I was going for the balance between chrome/black.

Thanks for commenting - I appreciate the feedback!

mquiogue

I like the mesh pattern but a bit too much chrome for me as well. maybe you can black out the chrome on the lower grill.

Sevn86

Looks great! Is there a spot for the emblem to go or do we have to attach it to the mesh? I wish the chrome around the grill came in black and not chrome.

AJLex19

mquiogue: I did buy some "Black-Out" tape from Pep Boys over the weekend as well so a future project may be to black that portion out. I'd just use the black-out tape to get an idea of the look. They are even selling carbon fiber "black-out" trims/cover tape which is new to me.

Sevn86: Thank you! Yes, when you remove the emblem from the old grille insert, there are three laser cut, very precise holes in the mesh to accommodate the 3 points highlighted in the emblem pic below. It does require you to remove the center portion of the back of the emblem that sticks out if you want to silicon it for further peace of mind:

jcifuentes

This comment was describing what I was thinking when I first looked at the pics.

Personally, I never have been a fan on chrome on a car unless its a Rolls or a Bentley. But on a GS model, I dont think so. I dipped mine and since, I have noticed people looking at my car more than before.