Thread: Aftermarket grille

Quick Draw Brand in the good ole USA has a cast aluminium one on offer. (or alloominim if you speak 'merican)

Make sure you're sitting comfortably and have your nurse at your elbow when you see the price.

Aluminum Grill - Land Rover Defender Double Take

Don.

Originally Posted by Don 130

Quick Draw Brand in the good ole USA has a cast aluminium one on offer. (or alloominim if you speak 'merican)

Make sure you're sitting comfortably and have your nurse at your elbow when you see the price.

Aluminum Grill - Land Rover Defender Double Take

Don.

Yes a bit pricey and they say it will need painting as well. A genuine one from LR Classic Parts is GBP170, so currently about $330 plus shipping. The dodgy one I bought was $52 so I guess no surprise it was not fabulous, just didn't expect it to look as crap as it did.

You could paint/spray the new grill a mat black or black undercoat.

Originally Posted by spudfan

You could paint/spray the new grill a mat black or black undercoat.

Yes I could do that with the old one as well, if I go that way I'll do the wheel arch flares and the headlamp surrounds. I was hoping there might be some way to rejuvenate the surface without having to paint. Probably wishful thinking.

I know quality wheel arch flares are hard to get. Cheapies are available but not recommended.

I had a look at the grille KLR sell and it looks shiny from the website pix. See Radiator Grille, Defender - KLR Automotive and look at the second image (from end one). (The pattern you can see across it is the KLR watermarking. Some other retailers were using KLR's pix.)

Been a while but I thought I'd update this thread as I had a really good result with this stuff:
Mr Black - black plastic trim restorer
A coat of this stuff and then Armor-All protectant. The grille came up a treat, so I did the wheel arch flares as well, very pleasing result. Also did the big Codan antenna base which was very faded and it looks like new. Will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Originally Posted by POD

I bought new headlight surrounds and a grille for the 130 as I have been overhauling much of the vehicle and these were looking pretty poor. The aftermarket grille I bought does not have the textured finish of the original, it is shiny like an icecream container and looks awful- I have contacted the supplier for a refund. Has anyone had success rejuvenating the original grille? After a clean with prepwash and a good dose of armour-all, it still looks like it has been forging a path for 300,000km. The wheel arch flares look pretty poor too.

the aftermarket grills do look terrible and will distort over time.

*As your Defender is a TDCi (2007 - 2016) but a 130 the original colour is black.
*You could paint the grill and headlight surrounds like a Defender TDCi 110 or 90 in the metallic grey colour, the colour in called Brunel.
*hammer tone in gun metal grey in a pressure pack is very close and looks good.

*wheel arch eyebrows, genuine come as a primer finish, before that only in gloss.
*the aftermarket ones are hard, not flexible and are rubbish.