I was checking out some pic of currently new 2020 GS inventory and spotted a 2020 GS Black Line in Ultra White. I guess I didn't notice before but the Black Line has gloss black trim pieces around the grille as opposed to the chrome on my 2016 F Sport. Sometime around Christmas I'm having my car's front bumper removed and repainted because I'm a maniac about even the smallest rock chips and wanted a perfectly fresh bumper before my detailer does PPF on it and paint corrects/ceramic coats the rest of the car. My chrome grille trim has some road rash on one side so I priced out just replacing the pieces with the new OEM pieces - it's about $300 or so for both sides online, but what about ordering the Black Line pieces that are gloss black? I think it lessens the "overbite" look of the grille and fits in well with the otherwise black grille on my Ultra White car. Here is a pic I grabbed from that dealership's car.....what do you folks think?

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants things perfect First time I hand washed the car and noticed a couple little rock nicks in the lower piece on the grill I wanted to figure out a way to fix it. Maybe one day I will....but I figured as soon as I fixed it there would just be another nick... so for now I've talked myself out of being that much of a perfectionist.

I'll preface this by saying this is just my opinion and thoughts and that I haven't seen a Black Line Edition in person....

From a design/color/lighting standpoint the black is going to give you a harsher (harsh not necessarily being a negative) or more distinct edge where it meets the white paint. The gloss may reflect a little of the white but not to the extent the chrome will.

The chrome is going to pick up the a bit of the color next to it in its reflection; you'll have a bit of white in the reflection closest to the white and black where the chrome is toward the black. As you move the reflections will change based on the angle.

This is assuming overall diffuse ambient lighting conditions where the angle of the sun isn't directly hitting the area. It could still be very bright out - just not like hard mid day sun.

The "color" of the chrome also provides a break in the contrast between the two colors so you don't have as hard of an "edge" condition between two high contrast colors (we're skipping the fact that black and white are either all colors or the lack of color depending on whether we're talking additive or subtractive color theory)

In more direct sunlight the chrome is certainly going to brightly reflect the light making it stand out a bit but, given the main body of the car is white the chrome is not going to stand out as much as if the whole car was black.

By creating such a harsh contrast between the white and black if there is any imperfection in how that trim fits it's going to stand out more than it would with the chrome. I'm assuming that the trim would lay on and snap down perfectly hopefully so not an issue? That same contrast is also probably going to make the pointy parts mid way up (yellow marks in photo) seem a little pointier.

Below is a photo to help show what I'm talking about in the next few paragraphs (I apologize for defacing our beautiful vehicles but I wasn't sure how to explain better). I tried to find a photo that was closer to the same angle but they all seemed off more than the one I'm using. I think it still shows what I'm talking about.

I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding what you mean by "overbite" - I think you're talking about the part that personally reminds me of 1940s vacuum or aardvark. You don't see it from all angles and all lighting conditions and certain photos of the GS will make it look better or worse. From what I can tell - its not the chrome trim on the edge of the grille doing that, its actually the shape of the lower faux vent areas and that back edge (blue lines). My proof for thinking this is the GS Fs bumper....

I think the main issue is how the different lines of that area all interact to reinforce that overbite look from some angles. The primary culprit is the blue line. Visually the area between it and the grille is very wide and that point that pulls back has the visual affect of making the front look like it protrudes more. The second culprit is the red line. Those black pieces break the lower line of the bumper making that piece between the vent and the grille "float" and that little hook at the lower part of the grille trim stand out a bit more. I think this could be a place that someone could "fix" the look to an extent by painting/wrapping that lower half of the "vent" to match the body color. (Bottom Image Mockup). It wont look that clean because there will still be a hard edge that I didn't get in the mockup but it would help I think.

The magenta line reinforces that sort of front hook. In the GS it creates another point. On the GS F it curves and flows toward the back. You see this more from the side.

The green line does two things affecting the "overbite" look. Primarily it significantly changes the proportion of the bumper that's toward the grille under the headlights. It also gives the vent a much more vertical look further emphazsizing the blue line. My guess is that the designers did that line to reinforce the pinch point at the center of the "spindle" grille which is evident in how they pulled the edge from the running light to create that point to give the look of over lapping pieces - something the GS F also doesn't have. Keep in mind, this was pretty early in the spindle grille's introduction/evolution so it's natural it needed a little work.

So.....if you really like that stark black/white contrast look than the black trim would fit the bill. I don't think it will fix the "overbite" (assuming I understood that correctly). It might emphasize that hook edge at the bottom corner of the grille a little but I dont think by a lot.

I know, I know....I've probably spent WAY to much time thinking about that little piece of the cars design but honestly - it was what I hated the most in the '16 refresh and I had figured out initially that it was from some of the early publicity photos. I was like - who took those and thought that angle looked good. Even when I was looking at and test driving cars I would get a hint of it and wonder if I was making the right decision on which car I wanted...I've come to terms with it, I'm glad I did the '16+ but there are still things in the '13-'15 front that I like.

I'll apologize now for the final photo. I've been wanting to post something like that and this time it actually seemed relatively appropriate. Once you look it'll be stuck in your brain so here's your warning to not scroll down all the way.......



Warning.......keep scrolling at your own risk......

 

The “overbite” part to me is this....


Is a GSF bumper conversion feasible/realistic? I think it’s the best looking implementation followed by the base/lux models.

 

Ah....what I call the fangs.....but I can see that as overbite too....

That I do think the black trim would help with - that wide area of chrome, how it's shaped, turns, and comes to a point is likely emphasized by the contrast between the chrome and the black.

Totally agree about the GS F bumper being the best. I think the base/lux also have that different look is because of the continuation of that bottom line in the bumper without that gray plastic piece.

I believe I've seen talk of folks swapping out a GS F bumper BUT I don't remember if it was an actual GS F bumper or an aftermarket one made to look very similar to a GS F.

 

cammyfive

So I was procrastinating on some work - and someone posted a great photo in the Atomic Silver thread of a GS F and so I did the dangerous things of googling the conversion...

Here's a thread I found - I didn't read through the whole thing - just the first couple posts....I should proabably get back to work Good news is - someone's tried it. Bad news - it's not a simple swap.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/bui...onversion.html

 

Had a chance to read this tonight....sadly the OP just dropped off. In the convo there was a link to someone taking a 2013 GSh and adding a 2017 GS F bumper/fenders

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/bui...onversion.html

 

I read that thread, as well. I was more interested in a thread link embedded in that thread where someone in Russia did a GSF bumper conversion successfully AND triple beam LEDs. The parts list was daunting and the person who did it has a million times more know-how than I do so at this point I think I'll just leave my GS, "as it sits". Maybe a true GSF is in my future in 2-3 years. Who knows....

 

Actually the Black Line editions don't have glossy black instead of the chrome on the trim, it is actually chrome but it's that dark chrome or smoke chrome, not sure how it's really called... I don't think it's black chrome either, since it does have a hint of like bronze or something, it is the same color as the trim in the RCF and I believe GSF as well. I compared my black line with my RCF and they look the same but I can tell you it's not glossy black for sure. Having the darker color absolutely makes a world of difference. Like you said, it lessens the overbite as you call it and makes it look much better. You most likely can just get these instead of the regular silver chrome ones but you would probably have to specifically tell the dealership to get the ones for the black line edition and make sure you absolutely make them know that they are a different color since a lot of people at the dealerships don't know most of these little details and just order whatever comes up on the computer for your vin.