Finally got around to fitting my grille.... Front end, err, Wednesday

[Timmyboy]

And here is the result!

 

In summary: colour coded surround, new style badge, super skoda honeycombe grille (the old school one without the bonnet release cutout) and black wrapped whatever white bits were showing through the new grille as it looked odd

[CookieMonster87]

Very nice!

 

How do you get to the bonnet release catch now?

 

Thinking of doing this to my Blackline, or at least colour code the surround with a new badge and add the green and red vertical strips.

[Timmyboy]

Ta. 

The 2 options are either to cut the release lever to a shorter length, or simply bend it out of the way; the arm of the lever is very thin metal so easy just to do by hand. This also means you can return completely to standard come sale time etc. 

You don't actually need the lever though. Now mine is bent, you can't get enough movement to release the catch - but the  catch itself is easily reachable under the grille so you can just pull it forward manually, even with great clumsy hands like mine

[CookieMonster87]

@Timmyboy

 

Can I ask which badge you used and if you replaced the surround or stripped it back and had the original resprayed?

[Rjg]

Love this! Would love to get my VRS looking like this. 

[Timmyboy]

1 hour ago, CookieMonster87 said:

@Timmyboy

 

Can I ask which badge you used and if you replaced the surround or stripped it back and had the original resprayed?

 

I actually bought the surround and grille off here already colour coded, so I'm not sure what was done - it was a bodyshop job though. If member 'Whoosh' notices this post then he might be able to give more info. 

When I colour coded the surround on my last VRS (which was black) my body shop owning mate keyed it and used etch primer prior to painting - it did stone chip pretty badly though.

 

Badge is this one: had 2 off this seller so far, and the boot badge they also have. 

 

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-OEM-Front-SKODA-Emblem-Badge-SKODA-For-RAPID-OCTAVIA-FABIA-SUPERB-YETI-90mm-/251921891092?hash=item3aa7b6ff14%3Ag%3AkVgAAOSwPhdVQMJH&_trkparms=pageci%3A3c8a494b-56be-11e7-b3b6-74dbd180812c%7Cparentrq%3Acc4ac72215c0ab1c9663c942fff9b8cb%7Ciid%3A1

 

 

[CookieMonster87]

@Timmyboy

 

I'm picking up a Black vRS this week, will most likely leave it chromed as it's not the first comment I've read about the stone chips.

 

I may get a spare surround and see how it goes, at least I'd be able to switch them out easy enough. I've seen this one on Super Skoda that'd suit a black car though;

 

http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/OCTAVIA-II/Octavia-II-Facelift-09-13-grille-frame-painted-in-BLACK-MAGIC-RED-grille-frame-DEVIL-edition-V2

 

How easy was the badge to fit to the original grille?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've only seen a full honeycomb assembly on Super Skoda that doesn't have the badge.

Edited 21 June, 2017 by CookieMonster87

[Rjg]

I was wondering the same...superskoda seem to only show a debadged grill with the mesh? (though it needs priming and painting, which wouldn't really be an issue for colour coding) 

[dilksie]

I have read that the quality of the debadged grill from superskoda was shocking. In fact there was a thread on here about it.

[dilksie]

Found it

 

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/431134-superskoda-mk2-fl-badgeless-grill

Edited 22 June, 2017 by dilksie

[Timmyboy]

11 hours ago, CookieMonster87 said:

it's not the first comment I've read about the stone chips.

How easy was the badge to fit to the original grille?

 

Difficult to know on the stone chips - I suspect it is directly related to the quality of the paint job. The black one I had done was badly chipped - my current white VRS also came to me with a colour coded surround that was chipped so bad I swapped it out for a new chrome one. In both cases, the surrounds were badly chipped but the bonnet paint literally 1cm away was fine - so probably a big difference in number of coats or the fact that 1 surface is metal and one is not etc etc.

 

Having said that, the surround I have now was previously fitted to Whoosh's car and only has 1 minor stone chip which is hardly noticeable - will be interesting to see how it holds up.

 

Quality wise, the plastic of the grille seems 'ok' - I have read other members getting a marbled effect but there is no sign of that. The general design of the grille is pretty poor though, it's hard do demonstrate without a close up photo. For example, the OEM grille has little tabs which slot into the round bit of the surround where the Skoda badge is, the 2 surfaces making a neatly joined seam. The Superskoda grille doesn't slot it, instead it meets the tabs head on without slotting in behind and hence leaves a small gap (you can see in my pic if you look closely). Not a show stopped and you'd only really notice if 1) very close to the car and 2) looking up, from the road - but for the original new price I'd expect more really.

 

The VRS bad is easy to attach to the grille by a number of methods: hot glue gun / melt the grille and stick it / for non-OEM badges like mine use the 2 mounting poles it comes with which stick through the mesh etc etc.

[Timmyboy]

[NOSDylan]

Have used the same grille & color theme on my car, with the lever removed. But I was told several times by different technicans that it's not safe. I'm curious about how to cut the lever so it can stretch out through the honeycomb.

 

BTW the badge was cut from the original grille and glued on the grille.

[Timmyboy]

@NOSDylan

 

Looks great

 

Interested to know why it's not safe? 

 

Cutting the lever doesn't let it stretch through the honeycombe, it just makes the lever shorter in length so it stops just before the honeycombe grille starts - so you can reach under the grille and use it, a bit less fiddly than reaching for the actual release lever.

[NOSDylan]

12 hours ago, Timmyboy said:

@NOSDylan

 

Looks great

 

Interested to know why it's not safe? 

 

Cutting the lever doesn't let it stretch through the honeycombe, it just makes the lever shorter in length so it stops just before the honeycombe grille starts - so you can reach under the grille and use it, a bit less fiddly than reaching for the actual release lever.

 

Thanks mate.

Local technicans said that the lever prevents the hood from accidently popping up, as Chinese-spec cars don't have hood lock sensors.

This happened to me once as I was thinking about checking the oil level, pulled the switch, then I got a phone call and competely forgot to check the oil, and drove off with the hood unlocked. It wasn't blown up by wind though, but I thought it could be if the speed was fast enough.

[Timmyboy]

Interesting, thanks. Yes could act like a sail and get blown upwards - happened on a Peugeot my parents used to own and smashed the windscreen.

[NOSDylan]

On 2017/6/25 at 06:00, Timmyboy said:

Interesting, thanks. Yes could act like a sail and get blown upwards - happened on a Peugeot my parents used to own and smashed the windscreen.

 

Good thing is that our grille is fitted in the hood, not in the bumper, I think with this design there's less chance to be blown upwards.